Episodes

Oct. 19, 2023

#139: Ethan Karp (MAGNET)

Ethan Karp — President and CEO of MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network which, founded in 1984, has been dedicated to fostering local manufacturing and supporting local manufacturing businesses across technolo...

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Oct. 12, 2023

#138: Mike Maczuzak (SmartShape Design + Walking Across the U.S. & Wo…

Mike Maczuzak — a product designer, early-stage investor, and founder of SmartShape Design — an innovative product development and industrial design firm he started here in Cleveland back in 1989. SmartShape's beginnings were...

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Oct. 5, 2023

#137: Adam Rakestraw (MediView)

Adam Rakestraw — co-founder, chairman, general counsel, and chief business development officer of MediView XR, based here in Cleveland Ohio! With approximately $29.5 million in capital raised from strategic partners like the ...

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Sept. 28, 2023

#136: Michael Sirpilla (Society Brands)

Michael Sirpilla, co-founder and CEO of Society Brands. Under Michael’s leadership as CEO, Society Brands has raised $205 million in capital to continue their rapid consolidation in the e-commerce sector with many completed a...

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Sept. 21, 2023

#135: Umberto P. Fedeli (The Fedeli Group)

Umberto Fedeli — Founder, President, and CEO of the Fedeli group — one of the largest risk management and insurance firms in the state of Ohio. This conversation is packed full of Umberto’s earned wisdom over his career and h...

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Sept. 14, 2023

#134: Andrew Wolfe (Bloomfilter)

Andrew Wolfe, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Bloomfilter. Andrew is a software engineer turned entrepreneur who is passionate about improving the ways people build software. Prior to Bloomfilter, he and his co-founder Chris Stoll c...

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Sept. 7, 2023

#133: Mike Schroeder (Roundstone Insurance)

Mike Schroeder, Founder & President of Roundstone. Mike founded Roundstone Insurance in 2003 — when they launched the first Group Medical Captive of its kind, and have since revolutionized the self-insurance industry. Roundst...

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Aug. 31, 2023

#132: David Levine (Wireless Environment & My Home Park)

David Levine — Co-Founder/CEO @ Wireless Environment (Acquired by Ring, Acquired by Amazon) & Co-Founder/CEO @ My Home Park Having made a career of invention and serial entrepreneurship, in 2005 David Co-Founded Wireless Envi...

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Aug. 24, 2023

#131: Stewart Kohl (The Riverside Company)

Stewart A. Kohl is Co-CEO of The Riverside Company — a $14 billion global private equity firm founded to invest in premier companies at the smaller end of the middle market, with headquarters in Terminal Tower in Tower City h...

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Aug. 17, 2023

#130: Bill Manby (Interstate Fusion Ventures)

Bill Manby, Founding & Managing Partner at Interstate Fusion Ventures. An entrepreneur at heart, Bill grew up in NEO and has always been passionate about working every day to make his home better through investments, philanth...

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Aug. 10, 2023

#129: John McKenna (PeachTree VA)

John McKenna, CEO of Peachtree VA, a virtual assistant staffing organization & President of The Emerald Group, a premier mortgage recruiting firm. Based here in Cleveland, John acquired Peachtree VA early in 2022 to grow thei...

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Aug. 3, 2023

#128: Mitch Kroll (Findaway — Acquired by Spotify)

Mitch Kroll, co-founder & CEO of Findaway (acquired by Spotify). Mitch started Findaway back in 2004, a time when audiobooks were available only on CD and cassette, in order to revolutionize this business of audiobooks, conne...

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July 27, 2023

#127: Michael Crawford (Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company)

Michael Crawford — Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of the Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment Company, which he joined in December of 2018. The Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment company is a publically traded orga...

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July 20, 2023

#126: Michael Goldberg (Case Western Reserve University & CWRU Alumn…

Michael Goldberg, Executive Director of the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship, as well as an Associate Professor of Design and Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management at CWRU where he teaches courses on entrepre...

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July 13, 2023

#125: Angie Dianetti (Radcom)

Angie Dianetti — President and driving force behind Radcom, a company specializing in performance improvement consulting, which she founded back in 1996. Under Angie's guidance, Radcom has earned the distinction of a Weatherh...

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July 6, 2023

#124: Andrew Spott (HR Signal & VividFront)

Andrew Spott — Founder & President of HR Signal, and the Founder & Chairman of the VividFront. Andrew founded VividFront back in 2009, growing it to become the acclaimed strategic Cleveland marketing agency it is today with r...

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June 29, 2023

[GREATEST HITS] #23: Justin McLoughlin (airCFO)

Justin McLoughlin — Founder & CEO of airCFO — on building a bootstrapped company, scaling a professional services organization, the future of work, the importance of taking care of your employees, and finance! Justin McLoughl...

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June 22, 2023

#123: Tory & Michael Waxman (Sundays)

Tory and Michael Waxman — the founders of Sundays (>$14 million raised, Cleveland-based) — on building Sundays for Dogs to become a leading dog food brand offering the first human-grade, air-dried dog food, made with 100% all...

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June 15, 2023

#122: Dom Raban (Xploro)

Dom Raban — Founder and CEO of Xploro® While originally founded in the UK, Xploro has recently established its headquarters here in Cleveland accompanying the closing on over $1.7mm in funding in a round led by local investor...

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June 8, 2023

#121: Michael Bruckman (Haima Therapeutics)

Mike Bruckman, CEO of Haima Therapeutics. With a PhD in organic chemistry and additional training in biomedical engineering and management, Mike joined the founding team at Haima as CEO in 2018 and has led their commercializa...

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June 1, 2023

#120: Brendan Anderson & Donnie Bedney (ScaleCo)

Brendan Anderson and Donnie Bedney on their work at ScaleCo — a Cleveland-based entrepreneurship-through-acquisition organization that has invested more than $165 million in over 20 regional companies. In our conversation tod...

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May 25, 2023

#119: Tanya Budler (Rise Together)

Tanya Budler, Founder of Rise Together, on building an impact consulting firm based here in Cleveland that partners with civic, public, private, and nonprofit organizations to create systems-level change that enables and empo...

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May 18, 2023

[GREATEST HITS] #30: Lindsay Watson PT, MPT (Augment Therapy)

Our conversation this week is with Lindsay Watson, CEO & Founder of Augment Therapy. Augment Therapy was founded in 2017 when Lindsay — who is a pediatric physical therapist from Chagrin Falls, Ohio — was searching for a way ...

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May 11, 2023

#118: Dr. Onas Bolton (Octet Scientific)

Dr. Onas Bolton — Founder and CEO of Octet Scientific, a specialty Cleveland-based chemical manufacturer unlocking the full power of safe, economical, and sustainable energy storage by providing better electrolyte chemistry f...

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