Episodes

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 empowers international newcomers to join the local workforce. Tanya is a people-centric problem solver with a unique background that blends private sector, government, and non-profit experience. She started her career building global youth programs, crafting international ev...

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 to solve the problems she was experiencing in her own physical therapy practice. Lindsay had spent years working with children and was frustrated with the inefficiency of treating kids once a week, with no way to help them exercise on a daily basis for faster progress. A...

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 for zinc and other aqueous batteries — on the potential for zinc-based batteries, the history of energy production, storage, and use, and how the work Octet Scientific is doing will facilitate our transition to carbon-neutral sustainable power! Dr. Bolton is a 14-year vet...

Anees Pretorius and Cono Onorato — co-founders of Bean ($1.7mm in funding) — on the pursuit of their vision to reimagine the global accounting industry and elevate the profession into the digital age. Anees Pretorius, a former Big 4 Accountant, is the CEO of Bean, a market network for specialized accounting services. Originally from South Africa, Anees previously held positions at Deloitte in Cape Town and San Francisco, and later at EY in Cleveland. During his time as a consultant, he worked...

Julia Solooki & Lior Shafir — the co-founders of Smart Soda, headquartered here in Cleveland — on revolutionizing the beverage industry! The revolution is taking the water and soft drink industry by storm where for many consecutive years, carbonated soft drink sales have been in decline as an increasingly health-conscious society is demanding healthier alternatives in face of the $250 billion US soft drinks market. Smart Soda is meeting that demand with a proprietary and functional bever...

Adrian Bota — co-founder and CEO of ORIGIN Milk — on creating the superlative, regenerative A2 heritage milk company! Adrian’s roots in farming go back to his father working on a farm in Romania. Adrian’s parents and four siblings escaped from Romania right before the fall of Communism, immigrating to the U.S. and arriving in Cleveland in 1991. While Adrian’s father imagined his children would seek careers in medicine or law, Adrian ultimately drew on his background in business and health to ...

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...

Matt Crowley and Bill Wichert, the co-founders of TonDone, have recently secured $1.5 million in funding and facilitated over $30 million in work orders through their platform. Their mission is to solve the challenges faced by building and facility services. Matt and Bill first crossed paths at Case Western Reserve University and decided to work together going forward. In an eclectic joint career experience, they served as Chief Information Officers at Philadelphia International Airport and C...

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...

Lay of The Land's conversation today is with Brian Folmer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Brian has boomeranged back to Cleveland after 6 years in NYC and starting his own company. Brian is the founder of FirstLook.vc and Distrobox.co; he’s a mentor at Techstars and a16z, Managing Partner of the FirstLook Syndicate, and a proud Ohio State Alum. He previously led BD & Strategic Partnerships at XRC Labs, International Operations at Victoria's Secret, and took his first startup through a techn...

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...

Adam Fleischer — President of Cleveland’s Entrepreneurs' Organization and founder & co-owner of The Wine Spot here in Cleveland Heights. A proud product of Cleveland, Adam joined the United States Air Force just after graduating from Cleveland Heights High School and spent four years on active duty as a medic. After relocating back to Cleveland to attend Cleveland State University, Adam got a job at a local hospital’s inpatient pharmacy, where he began implementation of one of the first clin...

Michael Murphy, on a mission to bring professional soccer to Cleveland as the Co-founder and CEO of the Cleveland Soccer Group. Previously, Michael served as President of Gravitas Ventures — whose story we featured back on Lay of The Land’s 68th episode with Gravitas’ CEO (linked here), Nolan Gallagher, Michael’s current co-founder at Cleveland Soccer Group! At Gravitas, Michael was instrumental in growing the company’s distribution footprint, managing their library of more than 3,000 titl...

Aleksandra Brankov and Cole Worley — the co-founders of Cafilia, a Cleveland startup and network of curated local coffee shops where people can purchase monthly memberships and enjoy a sustainable and community-driven coffee experience. Aleksandra is a proud product of Serbian immigrant parents — Born in Cleveland, she moved to Europe to continue her professional career in strategy implementation consulting for Global Fortune 500s after receiving her Master’s in International Management in Ma...

Jeremy Umansky, the renowned chef and owner of Larder! Larder Delicatessen and Bakery — as it’s known in full — is a staple and favorite of many here in Cleveland, housed in the historic Ohio City Firehouse, where the from-scratch Eastern European deli embodies Jeremy’s philosophy with a focus on the use and promotion of sourcing and foraging local and wild food, cooking as seasonally as possible, with minimal to no ecological impact on the environment, all without sacrificing on intensity an...

Lay of The Land's conversation today is with Artur Grabowski — co-founder of Extendify. Artur emigrated from Poland to the Cleveland area at the age of 8 — where he later attended Case Western and got exposure working both with a hardware measurement instruments company and a Silicon Valley software startup that later became a unicorn. Artur then transitioned to the business world working with KeyBank's investment banking team in Cleveland and with the startup ecosystem while at Silicon Valle...

Chuck Snider, Jamey Snider, and Jeff Snider — the family behind Snider Recreation — on building & growing a recreational and commercial playground company, tying success to providing a fun safe environment for children to play, innovation in recreatio

Dr. Elad Granot — Dean of John Carroll University’s Boler College of Business, co-founder and managing member of an early-stage technology Venture Capital fund, and advisor to a $450mm VC fund — on what Cleveland can learn from Startup Nation and Elad’s time in Israel, the role of academia in fostering an entrepreneurial mindset, the tolerance for risk in North East Ohio, technology transfer out of academic institutions, and a lot more!

Jan Jenson — Ph.D., CEO/CSO/Founder of Trailhead Biosystems — on the basics of cell differentiation and development biology, and the vast implications that unlocking industrialized manufacturing of specialized human cells can have for regenerative medicine

Aaron George — Founder/CEO of SupplyNow — on building the on-demand wholesale grocery delivery market for foodservice and his journey as an immigrant founder working as Global Entrepreneur in Residence with Global Cleveland

Jeffrey Stern — host of the Lay of The Land Podcast and co-founder at Axuall — reflecting on the 99 conversations prior, what draws people to entrepreneurship in the first place, where do company ideas come from, and the real importance of culture!

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!

Raji Sankar — co-founder of Wholesome International & co-CEO of Choolaah — on building best-in-class restaurants, culture, and customer experiences after more than a decade in the restaurant industry.