Venture Backed Episodes

July 14, 2022

#77: Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer (RooSense // SweatID)

Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer — founder & CEO of SweatID (aka RooSense) — on bridging the academic-entrepreneurial gap, the implications of bio-electrochemical interfaces, building a company capitalizing on them, and the future of wearables!

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June 9, 2022

#75: Chris Wentz (Everykey)

Chris Wentz — Founder and CEO of Everykey — on taking an idea at his Case Western entrepreneurship class to building a leading cybersecurity company, offering a patented universal smart key replacing passwords and keys, to consumers, enterprises, and governments alike with a deep commitment to bran…

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May 19, 2022

#73: John Wetzel, Alex Hilleary, Brooks Sime (Gather — Acquired by Ch…

John Wetzel, Alex Hilleary, Brooks Sime — Co-Founders of Gather — on building a company oriented around a future of work that puts people first and streamlines workflows for People Operations teams, and their journey from inception to acquisition by ChartHop

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May 5, 2022

#71: Patrick M. Howard and Ben Kanelos (RustBit Studios)

Patrick M. Howard and Ben Kanelos — founding team of RustBit Studios and creators of the Grip of Madness game — on video games, game design, bringing games to market, and building a gaming studio.

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April 28, 2022

#70: Eugene Malinskiy (Lazurite)

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!

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March 24, 2022

#66: Tony Pietrocola (AgileBlue)

Tony Pietrocola — Co-Founder & President of AgileBlue — on serial entrepreneurship, technology waves, and cybersecurity.

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Feb. 24, 2022

#62: Jamie Van Doren (NeverEnding)

Jamie Van Doren — Founder & CEO of NeverEnding — on gaming, entertainment, entrepreneurship, pseudonymity, the future of storytelling, and empowering a whole new generation of storytellers!

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Feb. 17, 2022

#61: Ryan Lambacher (Graffle)

Ryan Lambacher — Founder & CEO of Graffle — on unlocking the value of NFTs and solving the infrastructure layer for every project built on blockchains.

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Jan. 27, 2022

#58: Ryan Young (Fello)

Ryan Young — Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Fello (formerly FlashHouse) — on the real estate industry today, ins and outs of iBuying, empowering realtors, simplifying the buying and selling of homes, and differentiation in a truly competitive ma

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Jan. 13, 2022

#56: Dr. Daniel German (orthobrain)

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!

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Dec. 16, 2021

#53: David Boone Jr. (BlendED)

David Boone Jr. — co-founder and CEO of BlendED — on boomeranging back to Cleveland from Seattle to found and build BlendED, which has raised over $1mm in funding from leading education-technology investors in their mission to bring syllabus and course management into the future.

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Nov. 4, 2021

#48: Scott Colosimo (LAND Energy & Cleveland CycleWerks)

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

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Oct. 28, 2021

#47: Stan Garber & Alex Yakubovich (Scout RFP)

Stan Garber & Alex Yakubovich — Co-Founders of Scout RFP (now known as Workday Strategic Sourcing) — on serial entrepreneurship and Scout RFP’s journey to acquisition by Workday for $540mm in 2019, where both of them still work leading Workday’s strategy and growth in the source-to-pay space.

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Oct. 7, 2021

#44: Jake Bailosky (PROJiTECH — OnStation)

Jake Bailosky — CTO & Founder of OnStation (Cleveland-based & closed $1.4mm from Cleveland investors) — on revolutionizing how road workers locate and communicate in the field.

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Sept. 23, 2021

#42: Charlie Lougheed (Axuall)

Charlie Lougheed — Co-founder & CEO of Axuall (>$30 million raised) — on serial entrepreneurship, building in Cleveland, and his most recent endeavor, Axuall, an HR data network that empowers providers to manage and share their verified career data and credentials with healthcare organizations.

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Aug. 26, 2021

#38: Dan Collins (Wastebits)

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

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Aug. 12, 2021

#36: Shane Bigelow (CHAMPtitles)

Shane Bigelow — CEO at CHAMPtitles (Cleveland based with >$17.5 million raised) — on jettisoning antiquated paper-based processes and digitizing the process of vehicle titling.

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Aug. 5, 2021

#35: Kate Volzer (Wisr, Acquired by EAB)

Kate Volzer — Co-Founder and CEO at Wisr — on helping schools and students connect with each other, innovating with academic institutions, and Wisr’s acquisition to EAB, a key player in the education industry, in March 2021.

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July 29, 2021

#34: Jacob Sheridan (TPA Stream)

Jacob Sheridan — Co-Founder and CEO at TPA Stream — on simplifying healthcare administration challenges, the power of bringing people together, building TPA Stream from idea to business, and innovation in insurance and employee benefits.

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July 22, 2021

#33: Charu Ramanathan, PhD (vitalxchange)

Charu Ramanathan, PhD — Co-Founder and CEO at vitalxchange — on healthcare innovation, building & selling CardioInsight (her first startup) to Medtronic for nearly $100 million, serial entrepreneurship, and on the progress and vision for vitalxchange.

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July 15, 2021

#32: David Edelman (Thrivable)

David Edelman — CEO & Founder of Thrivable — on building the leading online community for those touched by diabetes (Diabetes Daily), company building, closing their $1.7mm seed round, helping healthcare companies capture the voice of the patient,

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July 1, 2021

#30: Lindsay Watson PT, MPT (Augment Therapy)

Lindsay Watson PT, MPT — CEO & Founder of Augment Therapy — on clinician-driven innovation and building Augment Therapy, which leverages augmented reality to engage kids to exercise, to solve the problems she encountered as a practicing pediatric physical therapist. Augment Therapy looks like a …

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June 3, 2021

#26: Gordon Daily (BoxCast)

Gordon Daily — founder & CEO of BoxCast — on Cleveland entrepreneurship and the future of live streaming off the bat of a $20 million series A and series of strategic acquisitions.

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May 20, 2021

#24: Ryan Cleary (FloatMe)

Ryan Cleary — co-founder & COO of FloatMe — on how they’ve helped save their users over $30mm in fees and boost savings via financial alternatives to the $46 billion overdraft and payday lending industries. Since its founding in 2017, FloatMe has raised over $28mm in funding on its mission to make …

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