As more field service employees rely on their mobile devices for scheduling and to check in with the office, TOA Technologies is keeping up with increased demand. The provider of field service management software experienced record growth in 2013 thanks to the launch of its ETA direct software, landing global telecom company Telefonica as a new customer, and securing a partnership and $66 million investment from Technology Crossover Ventures.

“It’s just a refl... Read more >

Bialosky and Partners Architects, a design firm in Shaker Square known for its design, historic rehab and new construction projects, recently promoted five of its younger employees to senior level positions.

“This particularly young set, all under 40, join the senior leadership at Bialosky and Partners with a high energy, high motivation approach to how we design and how we do business,” says Jack Bialosky, Jr. “We take pride in growing our own. By empow... Read more >

With the loss of the United Airlines hub in Cleveland, LeanDog Software owner Jon Stahl say's he's discovered a way perhaps to cut down on the size of his team while traveling to visit clients. It's a robot named Gilligan -- made by Double Robotics – that roams about the LeanDog boat, checking in with team members on a project.
 
The investment might be one solution to reduce air travel for businesses that go to customers or bring... Read more >

Matt Strayer and his business partner, Aj Mihalic, had a vision: To be able to streamline all of their social network accounts into one place. The two were running a website and graphic design firm while in college, but they were burnt out and looking for something different.

During a bike ride through the Metroparks in 2012, that vision started to come into focus. “I said, ‘Why do I have to have to go to all these different sites to see my posts,’&rdquo... Read more >

Whiskey aficionados sat up and took notice when Cleveland Whiskey hit the market last March. Founder Tom Lix’s “radically different” approach to making whiskey -- pressure aging the whiskey for a superior quality in a short period of time -- has been met with enthusiasm and praise.

“I think, if anything, we just had an incredible reception,” says Lix. “The support has been phenomenal, especially when we are doing things untraditionally.... Read more >

Thanks to a partnership between the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA), Sherwin-Williams, the Cleveland Foundation and Towards Employment, CMHA residents are getting hands-on training in commercial painting skills.

Sherwin-Williams instructors come in and teach participants about brush technique, taping and masking baseboards, cutting in and mixing paint. Students get one week of classroom instruction, followed by a week of hands-on training.
 
&... Read more >

2004 was a rough year for Deb Papes-Stanzak and her family. First her brother, Ron Papes, was on dialysis for renal failure. Her mother, Mary Papes, was undergoing blood transfusions for congestive heart failure. And her husband, Gary Stanzak, was getting chemotherapy treatments for a rare form of cancer. And Papes-Stanzak was taking care of all of them.
 
One day her brother complained that he was always cold during dialysis and asked his sister to bring some blanket... Read more >

OnShift, which provides online staff scheduling and labor solutions in healthcare, recently closed $7 million in Series C investment financing. The investors include HLM Venture Partners and five previous investors in OnShift.
 
OnShift CEO Mark Woodka said the money will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing, product development and customer service departments. “We doubled our customer base last year, and we’re getting out of the gate... Read more >

Cleveland tech companies attracted venture and angel investments in 2013 amounting to pre-recession levels, according to JumpStart and a report released by the Venture Capital Advisory Task Force. One hundred and eighteen companies spanning IT, healthcare, clean tech, and business and consumer products received $259 million in equity investments last year, a 15-percent increase over the previous year.

“$259 million puts us up where we were pre-recession,” says... Read more >

In Cleveland, you might recognize the work of Think Media Studios from the Cavs intro videos that they produce. The award-winning Mayfield Heights company also has produced videos for Ohio State University sports teams and companies like Nestle, Progressive Insurance and Parker-Hannifin.
 
But Think Media owner Brian Glazen recently achieved his ultimate goal of establishing a reputation as a filmmaker. His film Fishing Without Nets, a feature about Somali pirate... Read more >

Team NEO, the entity charged with marketing Northeast Ohio to the rest of the country and the world, brought a record 16 new businesses to the region in 2013, seven of which are in Cuyahoga County. The new companies add to the region almost 1,400 new jobs and more than $85 million in new annual payroll. The average salary in these companies is $62,000, which also is a record high. The majority of the companies are in manufacturing, healthcare and biomedical.  
 
... Read more >

Cleveland continues to gain momentum in leading the country and the Midwest in biomedical investments, according to BioEnterprise’s 2013 Midwest Healthcare Venture Investment Report. The report, released last month, shows that while overall investing is down nationwide, biomedical investments in health IT and medical devices in Northeast Ohio continue to be on the rise.

Ohio ranked number-one in healthcare venture investments. Cleveland earned the number-two regiona... Read more >

A team of researchers at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute have developed a risk calculator for colorectal cancer, helping patients and physicians make better, more personalized decisions on whether or not to screen for the disease.

The tool, known as CRC-PRO, or Colorectal Cancer Predicted Risk Online, uses multiple factors to determine an individual person’s risk of developing cancer, instead of simply basing risk on general factors like age a... Read more >

When Jeff Battershell and his wife lived in Ouray, Colorado, for six years, he fell in love with the numerous small town craft breweries in the area. A Cleveland native, Battershell moved back home a year and a half ago with the initial thought of starting a brewery.
 
“It was always kind of our plan to go out there and experience something different and move back,” Battershell explains. “But I felt like I was missing out on Cleveland’s renaiss... Read more >

When they’re not working their day jobs, Josh Womack and Cameron Amigo are stand-up comedians. While his talents can leave them rolling in the aisles during an open mic night, Amigo was finding that friends were coming to him for help writing those dreaded best man speeches. In demand was advice on how to give that perfect wedding speech that is at once humorous and light, but sentimental and genuine.

After attending eight weddings in three months in spring of 2012,... Read more >

In college, Glenn Harbold followed family tradition and pursued a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering. While he was interested in the manufacturing process, Harbold quickly realized that he possessed an entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to be a part of bringing new products to market.
 
That curiosity and spirit led Harbold to buy into Zounds Hearing as a franchisee. He is opening his first of six stores in the area on February 10th, in Brooklyn.
 ... Read more >

Tonight, January 23, FlashStarts will be hosting Global Pitcher Night at the January TechPint event at Mahall’s 20 Lanes in Lakewood. Don't come expecting free pitchers of beer; the night is about providing budding entrepreneurs with the opportunity to get up and pitch their business ideas for a chance to take home $5,000.

“We call it a karaoke-for-entrepreneurs concept,” says FlashStarts co-founder Charles Stack. “It’s an ... Read more >

On Monday, January 20, the Cleveland Museum of Art released to much anticipation an iPhone version of its award-winning iPad app, ArtLens.
 
“We’re really excited because lots of people have been waiting for the smartphone version,” says museum CIO Jane Alexander. “ArtLens for iPad got great reviews, but we found people really like using their own devices.”

ArtLens for the iPhone has some added features, such as a search function... Read more >