Entrepreneurship : Featured Stories

Some entrepreneurs are born with the right stuff; others are born into the right families. Celeste Massullo, the president of Lena Fiore Inc., was blessed with both, and born to win.

The Alleviating Poverty Through Entrepreneurship Summit at the Ohio State University is an event designed to engage the public in conversations about market-based solutions to global and local poverty. Here's a short video that describes the summit, scheduled for April 15th in Columbus.

Give people sandwiches, and you'll feed them for a day. Give people jobs making, selling and delivering delicious, savory sandwiches, and you'll soon have more-employable Ohioans. In Joe DeLoss's case, that compassionate business strategy has led to recognition as one of America's best young entrepreneurs.

When Joe Pantuso was a boy, he learned all the usual things in school -- spelling, math, history. His lessons, however, did not include the word that would come to define him most: entrepreneur.

A year ago tomorrow, hiVelocity hit the webstand. In this issue, we take a look back -- why we ventured forth, what our goals were and what our readers have found most appealing.

Elizabeth Edwards is a former venture investor who believes there is no lack of innovation or entrepreneurial spirit in the greater Cincinnati region. What's needed, she says, are more ways to connect great ideas with resources. That's why Edwards left Neyer Holdings to form her own company, Metro Innovation -- and why she initiated programs like InOneWeekend three years ago and the Cincinnati Innovates contest, now it its second year. hiVelocity spoke to Edwards about Cincinnati's entrepreneurial climate.

There are good ideas and then there are good ideas with a plan. The former often die on the vine, having nowhere to go. The latter create companies. More and more Ohio entrepreneurs with good ideas are now developing their business acumen through university business plan competitions. They are turning heads. And creating the kinds of enterprises that lead to jobs.

Melvin Gravely II sits at the intersection of race and business -- an important place to be as the nation's minority populations rise within a rapidly changing economy. Founder of an engineering firm, author of seven books and a sought-after keynote speaker, Gravely is managing director of the Cincinnati-based Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking, which works to bridge the gaps in reasoning that hinder minority entrepreneurship and community access to talent. hiVelocity asked Gravely about his work.