Entrepreneurship : Buzz

Ohio could add as many as 67,000 new entrepreneurs as a result of the federal government subsidies made available to aspiring business owners through the Affordable Care Act, according to a new report from the Urban Institute.

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Bright ideas are taking shape across Greater Cincinnati as the region embraces the value of supporting innovation that will create business and jobs for the future. The goal: to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that supports the brightest startups with investment capital, physical space to grow and mentorship from top corporate, business and university experts in the region.


Read about all of Josh Pichler's 10 top startups to watch in 2013 here.

On Thursday, June 20, the first TechPint event will be held in Cleveland at the Market Garden Brewery. This new event series will then be held every three months in drinking establishments across the city. TechPint will feature speakers that will shake things up for you and give you a chance to see how fellow innovators are progressing with new ventures. Pints will be flowing freely, and undoubtedly new ideas and connections, too. Cost: $12.

Get all the detail and registration info here.

The Dayton Business Journal has named four new members of its 40 Under 40 Hall of Fame.

2011 marked the addition of the Hall of Fame to the 40 Under 40 awards program and was designed as a way to further honor those past winners who have continued to grow within their careers and have a positive impact on the local community.

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A $350,000 grant will kick off renovation of the new Franklinton headquarters for the Columbus Idea Foundry, a community workshop seen as a key to redeveloping the neighborhood by investing in the creative economy.

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IBM announced it has acquired UrbanCode Inc. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, UrbanCode automates the delivery of software, helping businesses quickly release and update mobile, social, big data, cloud applications.

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HealthSpot Inc., the Dublin company seeking to bust open the telemedicine market with its big blue booths, has raised another $10.4 million in a private investment round that included Cardinal Health Inc. and has secured a $1.5 million state loan.

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GE Aviation said Friday it is investing $200 million over the next three years in its Ohio operations, including Evendale, Peebles and the Dayton area.

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ATHENS, Ohio (April 11, 2013)—Six Ohio University students shared the $10,000 grand prize of the inaugural Scripps Innovation Challenge on April 11 after presenting their idea for a mobile alarm clock app designed to encourage young people to consume news.

Broadcast journalism seniors Devin Bartolotta, Matt Digby, Glenn Janos, Leah Petrovich, Sarah Tranelli and management information systems junior Ryan Vibbert collaborated to design an app that would allow users to receive targeted news on their mobile devices at their desired time of day. Their challenge – to Craft a Strategy to Get More Young People to Consume News – was submitted by Ogden Newspapers.

“It started out as a class project and, as the idea developed, we realized it could be so much more,” said Tranelli. “We felt really confident about our idea and hoped we could come in here and get the judges to believe in it. Our professor, Mary Rogus, was behind us every step of the way, and we thank her.”

The Scripps Innovation Challenge, a campus-wide contest sponsored by the Scripps College of Communication, provided the opportunity for students to innovate creative solutions to actual challenges from the media industry.

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NineSigma, Inc., of Cleveland, the leading innovation partner to organizations worldwide, today announced several new clients they will work with under the Ohio Third Frontier Open Innovation Incentive (OII) Program. As part of the program, NineSigma received a grant from the State of Ohio to help middle market companies, with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion, leverage Open Innovation strategies.

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Consider Columbus, Ohio, one of this nation’s “legacy cities” in the industrial heartland. In a review of the city’s accomplishments toward earning the Most Intelligent title, Robert Bell, founder of the Intelligent Community Forum, cites assets including Ohio State University, the Columbus Metropolitan Library and the innovation incubator TechColumbus as significant advances in smart technology application and education. The city is further lauded for its multi-sector partnerships, inclusion of citizens in visioning and transparency of process in decision making.

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Johnathan M. Holifield, NorTech’s Vice President of Inclusive Competitiveness affirmed, “This potential game-changer for Ohio is an economic competitiveness imperative.  Ohio must cultivate a larger, more diverse and inclusive STEM pipeline to produce more job-creating entrepreneurs.  This program will accelerate those efforts.”

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Today's emerging high-tech hubs are not where you think they are, according to techie.com, a destination site for disruptive technology and emerging trends. The online publication today released its "Ten Most Unexpected Cities for High Tech Innovation" list, highlighting ten unexpected locales that are expected to replace Silicon Valley.

"Silicon Valley has rendered itself obsolete," says techie.com editor-in-chief Dan Blacharski. "With the emergence of cheap, reliable, and available cloud-based infrastructure and services, the tech industry is moving towards the industrial Midwest."

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About two years ago, a tiny Finnish startup landed in Akron, hoping to tap the U.S. market.

Now, the wireless technology venture 7signal has eight employees, a growing customer base and recently received money from the new Akron BioInvestment Funds, designed to boost the city’s tech industry.

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