Scaling & Growth Episodes

Ed Largent — President, CEO, and Board Chair of Westfield, one of the most enduring companies in Ohio. Very few companies in the world can boast the longevity of Westfield, which is celebrating its 175th year of existence. Originally founded by a small group of Ohio farmers in 1848, Westfield is now one of the largest non-public companies in Ohio, the largest employer in Medina County, Ohio, and has grown to be one of the nation’s leading property and casualty insurance companies, with recent...

Dan Hampu and Daniel Isenberg on their collective work at the Burton D Morgan Foundation and Scalerator NEO — covering why it’s important to focus on companies at scale relative to startups when thinking about the overall prosperity of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, the state and trajectory of Northeast Ohio’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and the challenges that scaling companies experience, and how the Burton D. Morgan Foundation and Scalerator NEO can help. Dan Hampu joined The Burton D. Morga...

Afif Ghannoum, a biotech attorney by background and the CEO of BIOHM Health — which he co-founded with his father, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum, a leading microbiome researcher and recognized for naming the mycobiome (the body's fungal community). With over 30,000 citations and 500 published papers, Dr. Ghannoum is one of the top 0.5% of cited microbiologists and the top 2% of all scientists across all disciplines and has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1991, in...

Steve Santamaria — CEO of Folio Photonics — on innovating storage media and the future of storage technology, the opportunity ahead for Folio Photonics, Cleveland's entrepreneurial ecosystem, and reflections on leadership!

Kris Snyder — founder of Vox Mobile and Impact Architects & Head of Finance and Partnerships at Ninety.io — on working with entrepreneurial leaders to create impact and pursue a world where small and medium organizations and their employees can become more humane, productive and resilient in order to live their best lives!

Ed Weinfurtner — Executive Chairman of Great Day Improvements (one of NEO's largest companies employing over 2,000 people) & Co-Founder at Blue Olive Partners — on growing Great Day Improvements from $44M to $922M in sales in just 7 years to become a national leader in home remodeling and premium building products.

Pat Conway & Mark King — Co-founder & CEO respectively of Great Lakes Brewing Company — on building Ohio’s original craft brewery, celebrating 34 years of sustained success and continuous innovation, the history of beer production in Cleveland, br

Shawn Rech — Co-Founder/CEO/Director at Transition Studios, AGTV & TruBlu — on growing Cleveland's permanent media industry, the importance of factual programming and positively affecting history through truth-telling and documentary production!

Tom Tyrrell — founder and Chairman of Great Lakes Biomimicry & co-founder of Segmint — on the power of biomimicry and harnessing the intelligence found in nature’s 3.8 billion years of R&D (asking questions nature has already found the answers to)

David Davis II — Founder & CEO of FBA Flip — on entrepenuership, the changing dynamics of the modern internet-first world we find ourselves in, and the challenges, opportunities, and prospects for his home of Cleveland.

Eugene Malinskiy — Co-Founder and CEO of Lazurite — on the future of the operating rooms, the path to get there, and his first principles systematic approach to solving seemingly impossible healthcare problems!

Dave Kennedy — Founder of Binary Defense and TrustedSec — on his journey to becoming a cybersecurity authority, building two of the leading companies in the industry, hacking and social engineering, and how he's making the world a more secure place.

John Nottingham — Co-Founder & Co-President of Nottingham Spirk — on building the longest-standing design collaborative in the world (celebrating its 50th anniversary & based here in Cleveland), the creative process, vertical innovation, and creating some of the most ubiquitous global products!

Jack Grover — Founder & CEO of Grove Bags — on the ins and outs of the cannabis industry, on the history and challenges of marijuana's legalization and regulatory standing, and building a market-leading packaging company in the space.

Dr. Daniel German — founder & CEO of orthobrain — on transforming the delivery of orthodontics, solving the global orthodontic skills shortage with technology that puts a virtual orthodontist chairside with every dentist, and making smiles happen!

Bob Baskette — founder and CTO of Roundtable Learning (originally founded as Knowbase) — on immersive learning and the commercial applications of virtual reality.

Michael DeAloia — CEO at Evergreen Podcasts — on the business of podcasting, building a media company here in Cleveland, content creation, and Cleveland startups!

Scott Colosimo — Founder at Cleveland CycleWerks & LAND Energy — on Cleveland manufacturing, commitment to design, and the future of motorcycles, electric vehicles, and energy distribution!

Steve Potash — Founder, President, and CEO of OverDrive — on managing the largest global network of digital book lending libraries — over 40,000 libraries and schools worldwide in over 72 countries, with over a billion checkouts of ebooks.

Aaron Grossman — Founder & CEO of TalentLaunch — on building a growing network of independently operated staffing firms from scratch to >$100mm in sales en route to a $1 billion, and the importance of culture as the foundation for how they operate.

AC Evans — co-founder & CEO of Drips — on building the first conversational texting company of its kind, founding a new market category and leading the way for some of the biggest brands in the world to use automated, humanized conversations at scale.

Dan Collins — Founder & CEO of Wastebits — on building a software waste-management company and bringing technology to the trash industry.

Terence McCarron — CEO & Founder of OpinionRoute — on growing his bootstrapped market research and sample firm to 8 figures in revenue, industry dynamics, company culture, and doing it all here in Cleveland!

Brett Lindsey — CEO of Everstream & Founder of Snip Internet — on the infrastructure of the internet, the future of telecom, and how he’s realizing that future by growing Everstream to over 25,000 route miles of fiber and multiple $100 millions in contract value while simultaneously building Snip Internet as a residential internet provider.