AWH is a development agency based in Columbus, Ohio and focused on enterprise, web, mobile, internet of things, and augmented reality. Ryan Frederick is the Principal at AWH and has had the privilege of being part of several startups and growth companies. He has helped companies grow from inception,…
As a brand, design and strategy expert, Troy Allen knows how to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Throughout his career, Troy has successfully led transformative creative campaigns in a variety of industries for clients – McDonald’s, Coca Cola, VISIT FLORIDA, Harley Davidson, Cooper Tire, Mac Tools, Adena Health and Pier Foods. His love and excitement for brand development can also be seen on such brands as Bounty, Oil of Olay and Pringles. Troy founded ELEVATE thinking in early 2009, a Brand Strategy firm focused on creating a deeper consumer engagement for its clients. After several successful years the company evolved to focus on developing and building its own brands. Now called Rise Brands, the organization has a focused mission to create and bring brands to market. 16-Bit Bar+Arcade, it’s first brand is currently in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati with two more markets in development. The second brand, Pins Mechanical Co. launched in downtown Columbus mid 2016 with Dublin and Cincinnati locations scheduled for 2017. The 16-Bit and Pins experiences are a testament to Troy’s extensive brand strategy background, dedication to business development and passion for creating new segments in the market. Rise Brands is focused on creating unique social experiences and entertainment destinations with an aggressive plan for rapid market expansion. This is the audio recording from the live event on 1/14/2019. risebrands.com startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net
Ilya Bodner, Founder & CEO, Bold Penguin Ilya didn’t get into the insurance business because he found it particularly sexy, or exciting...or even because he loved It. (After all, it’s insurance) He got into it because he wanted to fundamentally change how it works from the inside out. And little by little, he and the “penguins” are making it happen. The focus of their startup is to significantly reduce the friction in the commercial insurance experience—a mission that, unsurprisingly, no one seems to argue with. This is the audio recording from the live event on 12/10/2018. boldpenguin.com startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net
For nearly 30 years, David has been creating original programming, concerts and events that unite participants and audiences to give back to their communities. He has an established reputation for creating collaborative, groundbreaking events that positively impact organizations and communities. Since 2009, David has grown the Harmony Project into a national model redefining diversity and inclusion through performances, programming, and unique community service experiences. This is the audio recording from the live event on 10/9/2018. harmonyproject.com startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net
Tara Marling Abraham, Chairman and Co-CEO of Accel, Inc., is one of the nation’s leading experts in contract packaging. A strategist and experienced entrepreneur, Ms. Abraham advances innovation throughout the businesses she has established and grown, as well as professional and industry groups to which she dedicates time. Her combined expertise in finance, marketing, relationship management, supplier diversity, and mergers & acquisitions has made her a leader within the retail and consumer packaged goods industries. Ms. Abraham creates solutions, following personal experience with inferior packaged goods produced outside of the U.S., she established Accel in 1995 to provide quality controlled, domestic contract packaging services to the health, beauty, food, fashion, and technology industries. Accel a $25M company producing $480M wholesale value of goods with 1,100 associates at its 517,000 sq. ft. facility, has become known for its diversity and supplier best practices. Selected clients include Abbott Nutrition, Bath & Body Works, Beechnut, Express, Honeywell, NetJets (a Berkshire Hathaway company), Tween Brands and Victoria’s Secret, among others. Prior to Accel, she was a Brand Manager for Biolage Haircare at Bristol Myers Squibb and earlier a Brand Manager and Assistant Buyer of Fine and Home Fragrances for Bath & Body Works a division of Limited Brands. This is the audio recording from the live event on 9/10/2018. accel-inc.com startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net
Andrew feels that bios written in the third person by the author are strange. I (Andrew) co-founded and successfully exited TeamDynamix after surviving many of the entrepreneurial mistakes you are about to make. My experiences may help you avoid some of them. We drove TeamDynamix to overnight success (15+ years to grow and exit). The path to success was easy often allowing 4 hours of sleep per night. Through it all I have remained a youthful 63 years old as calculated by health.com’s real age calculator (I’m 42). Even with constant computer use I have better than 20/20 vision when wearing bifocals. In all seriousness I believe that success comes through very hard work paired with closely aligning the needs of customers, team members, the market, and the company. I also place extreme value in hiring the most intelligent and well-adjusted team members, not necessarily the most experienced. It’s amazing what happens when you are surrounded by brilliant minds. When you look around your business and you’re the dumbest one in the room you’re doing something right. When I’m not swinging a pick in the TeamDynamix mine as Chief Product Strategist I enjoy spending time with my spouse, irony, our dog, making fun of friends, being made fun of by friends, laughing, cheese, exercise, sleep, mountain biking, learning, boating, traveling, charity, foreign languages, life experiences and I LOVE snow skiing. I started my career at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting after graduating from Ohio University with a degree in Management Information Systems. This is the audio recording from the live event on 8/6/2018. startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net rev1ventures.com
Amelia is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Nationwide’s ventures team. Previously, she was a member of two corporate innovations teams within GE where she contributed to product development efforts ranging from novel home appliances to industrial inspection technologies. She also managed an evergreen startup seed fund in Louisville, Kentucky. She is former professional ballerina and actively serves on various boards in support of dance and visual art in the region. Amelia earned a Finance Certificate from Cornell University and BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering. This is the audio recording from the live event on 7/9/2018. startupgrind.com/columbus awh.net rev1ventures.com
Ruth Milligan is an executive communication coach and trainer. She works primarily with leaders delivering consequential communications and trains in content framing, storytelling, public speaking and executive presence. She is also one of the longest running TEDx organizers in the world with Nancy Kramer, having organized and curated TEDxColumbus since 2009. Along with her team at Articulation, her current practice, they have coached over 400 TEDx and TED-style talks. They are known for their work in science, research and data fields, helping researchers, scientists and analysts making their insights accessible to lay audiences. As for startups: In college she began a campus wide service network connecting residence halls, the greek system and student organizations toward a coordinated approach to deliver community service. That carried over into her first job out of college in the Governor’s Office where she was assigned the job of starting up Americorps, the national service program, for Ohio, before she became the press secretary and speechwriter for Janet Voinovich, Ohio’s First Lady. In 2000 she joined a growing marketing firm to start up a Public Relations division which closed abruptly after the dot-com bubble burst, at which time she chose to start her own business, Milligan Communications. After 7 years of running the traditional PR and Marketing solo practice she started TEDxColumbus (which is now in its 10 year) which also prompted her to narrow her focus on her practice only on executive communication coaching and training which is the business she also founded now runs, Articulation. She is a graduate of Miami University, a native of Columbus and a resident of Clintonville with her husband and two very active teenagers. This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/11/2018. https://www.articulationinc.com/ https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus/ http://awh.net/
As the Chief Operating Officer at Wiretap, Greg Moran has a unique talent for asking the people around him to go beyond the limits they see for themselves – a standard he also adheres to, as he turned down multiple enterprise CIO jobs to join Jeff Schumann at this venture-backed software start-up. Greg leverages his extensive background in technology, strategy and digital transformation to scale the company, with a focus on sales and operations. A far cry from the jungle of Zambia where he grew up, Greg launched his career as an IT consultant in Columbus, Ohio, advising clients on strategy and process. It was after joining Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase), though, that Greg really started leaving his mark. As Enterprise Chief Technology Officer, Greg designed and implemented the integration strategy to convert the bank to a single, unified application platform – a platform that still runs JP Morgan Chase today. When he transitioned to Ford Motor Company, Greg’s path to success really took off. He led Ford’s efforts to build high-scale application delivery capability in every major market – across the Americas, the European Union and the Asia Pacific – overseeing a team of 5,000. Later, Greg worked closely with the Ford family to lead corporate strategy at a pivotal time in Ford’s history, leaving behind a corporate legacy well-documented in Bryce Hoffman’s book American Icon. Greg was then recruited by the CEO of Nationwide Mutual Insurance to create the Business Transformation function – a key role to propel Nationwide’s transition from a house of brands to a branded house approach. He later took over as SVP and CIO for IT infrastructure and operations, overseeing a team of 2,000 and the buildout and commissioning of one of the few Tier 4 data centers in the U.S. While working at Nationwide, Greg met Jeff Schumann, kicking off the great relationship that the pair now uses to build and run Wiretap. At Wiretap, and throughout his career, Greg creates an environment that inspires great leaders to emerge and thrive. A natural mentor, he believes in transparency and a gentle candor. This is also evidenced by Greg’s commitment to Junior Achievement, where he is a current board member and past chair. Greg is also an executive fellow on the Ohio University College of Business faculty and sits on the board and advisory board of Koios Medical and MyAgData, respectively. Greg is a graduate of Cedarville University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and MIS. A proud Pelotonia advocate, and member of the inaugural team, Greg enjoys cycling, as well as adventure, travel, motorcycling and fishing. He and his wife, Sharon, have three children (2 of whom will be Buckeyes this fall). This is the audio recording from the live event on 4/9/2018. https://wiretap.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Zach Weprin is the Co-founder and CEO of FUSIAN, a fresh-casual sushi rolls and bowls concept that operates 10 restaurants in Ohio. In 2008, after graduating with a finance degree from THE Ohio State University, he moved to Aspen, Colorado to become a bellman (aka ski bum), and it was there he learned the value of a healthy lifestyle and authentic hospitality. In 2009 the business plan for Soho Sushi was written as a customer-centric sushi experience which later became the origin of FUSIAN. In 2010 he moved to Cincinnati, partnered with his brother Josh & childhood friend Stephan Harman, and together they opened their first restaurant at the age of 24. This is the audio recording from the live event on 3/12/2018. http://fusian.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Bill Diffenderffer has been an attorney who has lead billion dollar financial transactions, a Partner in IBM’s Business Consulting Services Group where he was a leader of its global travel and transportation practice and the CEO of two travel technology companies, one of which was then the world’s third largest provider of computer reservation systems for the travel industry. In 1998 he started up Xtra OnLine, a provider of web-based travel technology products. Xtra OnLine product and services are still provided today. In 2005, as CEO, he started up the ultra low cost Skybus Airlines. Then in 2011 he started up Silvercar, the very cool car rental company now growing across the US. He also is the author of The Samurai Leader: Winning Business Battles with the Wisdom, Honor and Courage of the Samurai Code. He now teaches entrepreneurship at Ohio State University. His goal is to become the wise old man sitting under a palm tree at a beach offering advice on the meaning of life to anyone who’ll pay him a dollar. This is the audio recording from the live event on 2/19/2018. www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
For more than 10 years, Lindsay has served as Partner and the Chief Legal Counsel to NCT Ventures, a VC firm based in Columbus, OH that manages nearly $100MM in assets. Presently, NCT has 37 investments between its two funds, and Lindsay oversaw the investment (or on occasion, multiple investments) in all of them. At NCT, she focuses on deal structuring for each and every investment that walks through the door for funding, vetting of investments in due diligence on the legal side, and overseeing all M&A and corporate structuring for the firm. Additionally, she also runs her own boutique law firm, Lindsay Karas Stencel Law LLC, which focuses on working with small businesses in Ohio, Michigan and New York to properly set up their corporate documentation and structure, strategically design their funding paths, and serves as their outside general counsel on various matters. Since 2008, Lindsay has assisted clients in closing nearly 1,000 investment deals and contacts. Between NCT and LKS Law, Lindsay is incredibly passionate about investments in their seed and early stages, where she excels at vetting ideas, assisting with customer discovery and assisting companies to always think three steps ahead, functioning as a true partner to try to increase each startup's likelihood of success. Lindsay also spends significant time understanding what the then-current market standards are, both nationally and in the Midwest, specifically. Lindsay is a respected and sought after guest lecturer for the Ohio State Bar Association for startup formation, organization and financing, and a guest presenter at various OSU law school business courses. Lindsay attended The Ohio State University where she earned her JD and MBA through their dual degree program. There she served as Student Body President to the Fisher Graduate Student Association. Prior to OSU, Lindsay attended Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, where she also served as Student Body President and two-time captain and two-time Defensive Player of the Year of the Division I Women's Lacrosse Team. In her limited spare time, Lindsay enjoys spending time with her husband, Chris, and dogs, Ogie, Pearl, Matti and Molly and exercising at one of the two CrossFit gyms of which she is a founder and co-owner, CrossFit Westerville (Ohio) and Rust Belt CrossFit (Buffalo, NY). This is the audio recording from the live event on 1/8/2018. https://nctventures.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Fred Brothers' experience is a unique combination of serial entrepreneur, innovator, investor, company builder, board member, developer of leaders, driver of social change, and senior corporate executive. He has participated in $27 billion of capital markets transactions, worked with dozens of growth-stage companies, and been part of multiple exits - including an IPO and a unicorn. A student of banking, payments, technology and human behaviors, Fred is widely respected as a thought leader and speaker. He divides his time between growth-stage financial technology companies and social enterprises that improve lives. This is the audio recording from the live event on 12/18/2017. www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Spencer will share his views on product from a corporate innovation perspective through his role at VSP Global and through his experiences as an entrepreneur. Spencer has firsthand experience both in making products that suck and those that don't. His flavored professional career includes multiple startups, magnetic memory device radiation research, sales (including door-to-door), and currently Program Manager (he dubs “Lead Innovator”) at the innovation arm of VSP Global (“The Shop”). Spencer also sits on the Technology Development Fund Board at NCH and is on the Investment Committee for the SocialVentures group. A few of his personal company products include Scriber (sign-on tool), Spot Light (concussions protocol), and Perchmount (cellphone holder). At “The Shop” he is leading a vision analytics project, low vision recommendation engine, and is a part of the smart glasses team (Level). Spencer is interested in talking about new and emerging tech, ridiculous ideas, family, space, energy, and sports. This is the audio recording from the live event on 11/16/2017. www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Columbus https://vspglobal.com www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Nick Davis is the Vice President, Corporate Innovation at Singularity University where he is directing the strategy, development and delivery of the corporate innovation products and solutions. For the past 15 years Nick has worked in a combination of Executive Education, Corporate Innovation, and building and leading multiple high growth Startups. Nick is a recognized thought leader in corporate innovation management and strategy, civic and social innovation, as well as entrepreneurship. Focus areas include: identifying exponential trends that deliver new customer value through new and existing technology platforms, futuring to stave off market disruptors, concept and prototype development, and how to build and manage corporate innovation labs and incubators on-site or within established startup ecosystems anywhere in the world. Previously, Nick was Director of Corporation Innovation at RocketSpace, External Innovation Leader for PricewaterhouseCoopers in the US, and Co-Founder of Scalefunder, Inc., which was acquired by Ruffalo Cody in 2014. Nick attended The Ohio State University where he majored in Political Science with a minor in Theatre. He is also an alum of the UCLA Anderson School of Management, as well as The Esade Business School’s program in Open Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is also a veteran of the US Navy where he worked in Military Intelligence. This is the audio recording from the live event on 11/13/2017. https://su.org www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Justin discusses how OrisIntel approaches product and his career journey into product. This is the audio recording from the live event on 10/26/2017 at the Columbus Idea Foundry. www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Columbus www.orisintel.com www.awh.net https://ideafoundry.com
Diane Chime is the senior Manager for Early Stage Investments at the Ohio Development Services Agency (DSA). In her role, she directs a $37 MM venture debt portfolio and serves as the fund of Funds manager for the $247 MM Ohio Third Frontier seed and seed+ portfolios that co-invest with angel and venture funds around the state. She is DSA’s staff designee to the Ohio Venture Capital Authority, a $150 MM commitment by Ohio General Assembly to expand access to capital to startup companies. Her direct investment experience not only includes financial, business and technical due diligence, but also underwriting and structuring transactions from pre-revenue to growth and expansion stage firms. Her primary specialization includes MedTech and SaaS/ IT based platforms, but her personal interests presently are Etherium-focused. Within a three-year period, she has reviewed over 350 early stage companies and secured $50 MM of loan approvals at an average deal size of $1.2 MM. And which, to date, 99% percent of closed transactions remain active. Prior to managing DSA’s early stage initiatives, Diane managed the state of Ohio’s $1.1 billon (480+ investments) economic development loan and bond portfolios. As Operations Manager at the Ohio Treasury, she coordinated activities among operational departments that annually collect and process revenue exceeding $50 MM and invest more than $11 billion. While serving as a financial analyst at a Midwest-based investment bank, she structured notes, bonds and various other debt vehicles for sale to the public and private markets and credits her non-traditional funding models to the experience gained from the position. She has held multiple marketing and communications positions and is noted for her ability to translate difficult financial concepts into digestible media opportunities. Formally, she earned and previously held the General Representative Securities License 7 issued by the National Association of Securities Dealers, now FINRA, and is recognized by the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) as an active Certified Treasury Professional (CTP). Fundamental to the CTP designation is a foundation that resides upon the financial and regulatory knowledgebase necessary to manage a corporation’s cash operations, including daily cash flow and forecasting, and its debt and investing activities. Diane holds undergraduate degrees in Liberal Arts and Economics and a Master’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati, The Ohio State University, and Ohio Dominican University, respectively. This is the audio recording from the live event on 10/9/2017. https://development.ohio.gov www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Joe will discuss his experiences and perspectives leading product and innovation at companies like Worthington Industries. This is the audio recording from the live event on 9/21/2017 at Rev1 Ventures. www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Columbus http://worthingtonindustries.com www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Bill Forquer has made a career of launching products inside big companies, as spin-outs, and in start-ups. Today, Bill is an angel investor, strategy advisor and board-member. Bill also consults for Priiva, a boutique firm that specializes in applying game theory to simulate competitive response and optimize acquisition and exit scenarios. Most recently, Bill was CEO at start-up RealWeld Systems which was acquired after 2.5 years in business. Previously, Bill also led a variety of strategic initiatives at Open Text Corp as the company grew from $60M to $1B in revenue during his tenure. Bill began his career at Battelle/Information Dimensions. Bill received a B.S. degree in Math Education and a M.S. degree in Computer & Information Science, both from The Ohio State University. You can follow Bill through his blog There is No Someday or on Twitter: https://twitter.com/billforquer This is the audio recording from the live event on 9/11/2017. https://billforquer.com www.priiva.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Cheryl Turnbull is the Sr. Director of Venture Capital & New Ventures at The Ohio State University. She is responsible for the financial affairs and strategic leadership of the equity holdings in university technology companies and management of the university’s Venture Capital Pool investments. Prior to joining The Ohio State University, she was founder of Capital Transactions, LLC, a business consulting firm providing mergers, acquisitions, and capital financing advisory services. Previously, Ms. Turnbull worked with various private investment funds, focused on companies with a proprietary competitive advantage. Ms. Turnbull received an MM from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BS from Miami University. This is the audio recording from the live event on 8/14/2017. www.osu.edu www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Kevin Pohmer is the former CEO and Chairman of Financial Guard, one of the leading fintech companies in America and pioneers of the Roboadvisor industry, which transformed how individuals receive and transact investment advice. Kevin successfully led the team that built, brought to market, and scaled Financial Guard’s technology and completed the successful sale of the company to Legg Mason (NYSE: LM) in August, 2016. During Kevin’s tenure, Financial Guard was selected as Best of the Online Investment Advisors in America by Kiplinger magazine and written about in Barrons, Forbes, NY Times, WSJ, Finovate, CUTimes, CUToday, Employee Benefit News and many other media outlets since its launch in 2013. Today, Kevin continues to be engaged in the fintech community as an investor, advisor, and entrepreneur. He currently sits on the Board and is the acting COO for IXN, the leading mobile solution for term life insurance in the growing insurtech segment, as well as one of the founding members of Fintech71 which is a public/private initiative within the State of Ohio focused on creating a fintech innovation hub and accelerator in Columbus, Ohio. Kevin has a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy, Politics, and Law from Binghamton University and a Masters in Business Administration from The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. This is the audio recording from the live event on 7/17/2017. https://fintech71.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Rehgan Avon will discuss implementing a product management discipline inside of a fast growing and scaling company. Rehgan is a Product Manager at Clarivoy with a background in systems engineering. Focusing her career on analytical technology, she has migrated from data engineer and developer to product strategy. Rehgan has held many positions in operations and product development including a junior product manager role for StepOne, an early stage start up in Austin, TX and as a systems engineer at United Airlines. She also teaches Introduction to Data Science and Web Development courses to MBA programs nationally through a young start up, Cognitir. This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/15/2017 at Rev1 Ventures. www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Columbus www.clarivoy.com www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Victor Thorne will discuss his experiences as an entrepreneur and investor. Vic's firm, Broadline Capital, has had particular success investing in China, which he will discuss the how and why of. Vic brings a background of both investment and operating management experience, spanning Fortune 500 corporations to entrepreneurial ventures. He is Co-Founder of Broadline Capital, a global investment management firm. In 2008, Broadline Capital received the industry award for Asia Venture Deal of the Year, named by Private Equity International (PEI) for the firm’s investment in China Risk Finance, mainland China’s largest online consumer lending marketplace based on number of loans issued, serving online users and China’s emerging middle class, mobile active consumers. This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/12/2017. www.broadlinecapital.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Jeff Harper, CEO and Co-Founder of Duet Health. Duet Health has created a next generation software platform delivering a powerful suite of tools for Patients, Members, & Health Consumers. Duet empowers health providers, plans, and educators with education, communication, and engagement for enterprise delivery to patient populations. The Platform has a robust Patient Intelligence Center that monitors every click, transaction, and data entry for a more meaningful relationship and learning about educational effectiveness. Duet tools are technology agnostic, and while they are recognized experts in mobile communication, the Duet team is experienced in every phase of the solution process. Duet has solutions on all the smartphone platforms (iPhone, iPad, Android phones and Tablets, and Windows Mobile phones and tablets) as well as through traditional web browsers, kiosks, and television applications. Duet has doubled in size every year and was awarded Computer World's 21st Century Award in 2012. Duet clients and strategic partners include: the CDC, the FDA, Wolters Kluwer, the Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cardinal Health, Brigham & Women's Hospital, OhioHealth, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, The Ohio State University, and the list just keeps growing. This is the audio recording from the live event on 5/9/2017. www.duethealth.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
ProductTank provides an opportunity for Product Managers in Columbus to exchange ideas and experiences about Product Design, Development and Management, Business Modelling, Metrics, User Experience and all the other things that get us excited. This month we have a discussion with Steven Sutters, Senior Product Manager for Aver, about how Aver approaches product and Steven's perspectives on product management. Aver is a Drive Capital funded startup in the healthcare space. Aver’s solutions help healthcare payers and providers design, implement, and administer value-based programs. Together, they are simplifying value-based healthcare. Steven found his way into the field the same way everyone does: by delivering ice cream, teaching GED classes, selling cloths, and testing software. This is the audio recording from the live event on 4/20/2017. www.meetup.com/ProductTank-Columbus/ www.mindtheproduct.com http://mtpcon.com www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Bill Balderaz, Entrepreneur, Advisor, and Investor, and founder of Futurety. Throughout his career he has had the opportunity to work in industries in their very earliest stages. In 1998 (the same year Google was founded) Bill was working in search engine optimization, online advertising and eCommerce. In 1999 he worked for one of the first companies developing HTML based on-line learning. In 2005, five years before the iPad was invented, he worked on a concept for a tablet-based electronic health records software. Bill also started working in social media and viral marketing in 2006 -the same year YouTube and Twitter were founded. As founder of Webbed Marketing and President of Fathom's Healthcare division, he had the chance to work in the early stages of social media advertising, mobile marketing, and big data. Bill has spoken at more than 150 conferences from New York to California on topics related to public relations, sales, innovation, marketing, healthcare, search engine optimization, data mining, social media and more. He has also been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine and NPR. This is the audio recording from the live event on 4/12/2017. www.futurety.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Joe Anstine, CEO and Co-Founder of PriorAuthNow. Working full time, he leads the team through each phase of execution, casting a vision for the company, capital raise, while laying out the steps to get to market. Previously Joe was the owner and Senior Managing Partner at B.I. Voyage, a Microsoft data warehouse and business intelligence services organization, where he led, directed and managed strategic and operational aspects of sales and marketing. Joe has always written his own pay check and cashes it in on a crew cut and v-neck tshirt. This is the audio recording from the live event on 3/13/2017. http://priorauthnow.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Dan Manges, CTO of Root. Root is an auto insurance startup that uses data science to identify and insure good drivers. Root was started in 2015 in Columbus, OH, and has raised $7M from Drive Capital. By not insuring bad drivers, Root is able to reduce insurance premiums for good drivers significantly. Prior to Root, Dan was the founding CTO of Braintree, an online payments company that was acquired by PayPal in 2013 for $800M. The company's focus on building exceptional tools for developers led to it processing payments for thousands of discerning and disruptive companies, such as Uber, Airbnb, and GitHub. Dan began his career in software development with JPMorgan Chase, building software to support SOX Compliance. He also spent time as a Senior Consultant for ThoughtWorks, providing software delivery for ambitious organizations. This is the audio recording from the live event on 2/13/2017. www.joinroot.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Erica Waite. Erica is CEO of Ikove Venture Partners, a technology-focused venture development firm in Columbus, OH. Erica oversees the convergence of pipeline, fundraising, operations, strategy, and business development efforts for Ikove and many of its affiliate companies. She works closely with technical teams, investors, advisors, and industry contacts to create successful startups. Erica previously served as the Director of Market Intelligence and Commercialization Strategy Services for the Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) Institute. She has worked on the funding, development, and commercialization of early stage technologies for over ten years. Erica holds a Master of Science degree in Pathology from Case Western Reserve University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from The Ohio State University. She also has an MBA from OSU’s Fisher College of Business with a specialization in Entrepreneurship and New Business Ventures. This is the audio recording from the live event on 1/9/2017. http://ikovecapital.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature James Moore, Founder & CEO of Small Business Owners of America. His company claimed the #11 spot on the Inc. 5000 for 2016. This is the audio recording from the live event on 12/12/2016. http://sbooa.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Derek Andersen, Founder & CEO of Startup Grind. Derek Andersen is the founder and CEO of Startup Grind, a community of over 200 Chapters in 80 countries designed to educate, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs. Startup Grind's values of giving, helping others, and making friends have spread across the world. Since 2012, Startup Grind has hosted 3,000 events for more than 150,000 entrepreneurs. In 2009 Derek founded Vaporware Labs, incubating many products including Startup Grind and professional social network Commonred, which was acquired by Income.com in 2012. His entrepreneurial career consists of mostly spectacular failures with occasional successes. Previously, he worked at Electronic Arts on games like Burnout Paradise, Mirror's Edge, Sims 3, and The Godfather. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife and three children. This is the audio recording from the live event on 11/14/2016. https://www.startupgrind.com https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Mark Shary, an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. Mark is a founder and investor in several high-growth, technology-based companies, including: Updox, a rapidly adopted practice communications and CRM SaaS platform for physician offices; InfoMotion Sports, a pioneer and market leader in creating virtual competitions and sophisticated skills analysis for ball sports; and hc1.com, the market-leading CRM/Business Intelligence SaaS platform for laboratories. Mark is also a director for several other technology companies, including MBA Focus, InnerApps, and Vantage Point Logistics. He is a Co-founder of SafeWhite, a natural teeth whitening product company. He also serves on the board of Huntington Mutual Funds and Huntington Strategy Shares. Mark was the founder of HUBLink, which became the global leader in hospital systems connectivity and is now the healthcare integration division of Infor. HUBLink and a competitor merged to form Healthcare.com, a NASDAQ-listed company, where he served as a director, CFO, and SVP of Product Planning, managing profitable growth to over $60 million prior to being acquired. This is the audio recording from the live event on 10/10/2016. https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus/ http://www.awh.net/ https://www.rev1ventures.com/
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Yasmine Lacaillade, Partner at Drive Capital. Yasmine (pronounced "Yaz-MEEN Lack-uh-Lade") helps Drive Capital's portfolio companies acquire their first or next customers and build out their corporate relationships. Prior to joining Drive, Yasmine was with TPG-Axon in London, where she was in charge of developing new and existing client relationships. Her experience includes marketing and investor relations work at multiple alternative investment firms. Born and raised in Belgium and France, she speaks four languages and makes a mean waffle. Yasmine graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Political Science. This is the audio recording from the live event on 9/12/2016. https://www.drivecapital.com https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
ProductCamp Columbus is a monthly event to discuss the challenges and approaches of building great products. We have product people from Columbus area companies discuss how they think about and approach product personally and at their companies. In this episode we feature Derrek Seif, Senior VP of Product Strategy at irth Solutions. irth Solutions is the leading provider of cloud-based software engineered to maximize business growth by optimizing the performance of people, the work they do and the assets and equipment they use. Their software dramatically increases revenue opportunities, decreases costs, and reduces risk. For decades, their solutions have helped hundreds of customers execute the work that is most important to their success. irth Solutions is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. This is the audio recording from the live event on 8/26/2016. http://www.irthsolutions.com http://www.productcampcolumbus.com http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Stuart Crane, entrepreneur/investor and co-founder of CPR+. In 1993, Stuart Crane co-founded Definitive Homecare Solutions (aka CPR+), growing it to become the leading software vendor to the Specialty Pharmacy market, a $100+ billion industry providing high-tech medications to patients in the home. DHS/CPR+ was acquired by Mediware Information Systems in July 2013. This is the audio recording from the live event on 8/8/2016. https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus/ http://www.awh.net/ https://www.rev1ventures.com/
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Jonny Price, Founder of Kiva U.S. Founded in 2005, Kiva has now funded over 2 million entrepreneurs around the world with $850 million of microloans. These loans have been crowdfunded by 1.5 million individual lenders, and paid back with a 97% repayment rate. After starting his career in the London office of Oliver Wyman, Jonny took a break from strategy consulting to volunteer at Kiva in 2009. After falling in love with Kiva's mission (and his wife Ali, who worked at Kiva at the time!), he returned to Kiva full-time in 2011, to co-found the Kiva Zip pilot program. The program focuses on supporting financially excluded entrepreneurs here in the United States with 0% interest loans and the social capital engendered by Kiva's crowdlending model. Jonny's vision for the Kiva U.S. program is to reimagine a financial system based on people, not profit. He studied History at the University of Cambridge. This is the audio recording from the live event on 7/21/2016. https://www.kiva.org http://us.kiva.org/columbus https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
ProductCamp Columbus is a monthly event to discuss the challenges and approaches of building great products. We have product people from Columbus area companies discuss how they think about and approach product personally and at their companies. In this episode we have the product team at Klarna. Rachel Ferst - Senior Product Manager Melissa Thobe - Product Manager Jeff Negrelli - Senior UX Designer Founded in Stockholm in 2005, Klarna is one of Europe's fastest growing companies, and offers safe and easy-to-use payment solutions to e-stores. At the core of Klarna's services is the concept of after delivery payment, which lets buyers receive ordered goods before any payment is due. At the same time, Klarna assumes the credit and fraud risk so that retailers can rest assured they will receive their money. Klarna Group has more than 1,400 employees and is active on 18 markets. They serve 45 million consumers and work with 65,000 merchants, attracting major international clients such as Spotify, Disney, Samsung, Wish and ASOS. Their goal is to become the world’s favorite way to buy. Klarna Inc. is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with offices in San Francisco and New York City. They have built an all-star international team hailing from the world's best companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, Zynga, Experian, Palantir, imo.im, PayPal and AmericanExpress. This is the audio recording from the live event on 7/7/2016. https://www.klarna.com/us http://www.productcampcolumbus.com http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
Startup Grind Columbus hosts monthly startup events to teach, inspire, and connect entrepreneurs, and meet new hires and investors in Columbus or our 200 other startup communities around the world. In this episode we feature Sean Ramsey of Updox. Sean has over 20 years of experience leading tech start-ups, software companies, and IT consultancies. He has expertise in business development, sales, product management, and landing enterprise deals to establish his companies as leaders in their industries. Sean is currently President of Updox, a fast growing healthcare technology company focused on patient engagement and physician connectivity solutions. Updox serves over 10,000 physicians caring for 40 million patients throughout the US. This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/13/2016. https://www.updox.com https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com
ProductCamp Columbus is a monthly event to discuss the challenges and approaches of building great products. We have product people from Columbus area companies discuss how they think about and approach product personally and at their companies. In this episode we feature Joel Crockett, VP of Development at CrossChx. In 2012, CrossChx created the first universal patient ID in healthcare. A unique and global way to accurately verify a person's identity in any hospital, clinic, or doctor's office. This was the first step towards building the internet of healthcare and creating a future where each person owns their information. Today, they have created more than 50 million unique patient IDs for healthcare and laid the foundation to bring modern technology and innovations to every care provider. This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/2/2016. http://crosschx.com http://www.productcampcolumbus.com http://www.awh.net https://www.rev1ventures.com