Entrepreneurial Programs : Featured Stories

Northwest Ohio's startup scene is ready for your radar. The region is home to numerous ventures, including InnerApps, which is marketing its identity access platform in the rapidly emerging market for Cloud services.

Wind farm? Check. Biogas facilities that turn waste into fuel? Check. Thanks to state legislation requiring renewables, alt energy projects are popping up across Ohio, creating jobs and powering our economy.

From bio-based milk cartons to asphalt, the Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center at the Ohio State University has helped companies across the state to develop products from bio-based materials. Now the Center is playing a role in its biggest project yet, a $300M biorefinery that could power over 30,000 homes.

In today's world of widely distributed knowledge, companies can no longer afford to rely entirely on their own research. Many large companies are now using open innovation, or the adoption of external ideas and processes, to help solve business problems. Now, with the aid of a new program, help is available to assist middle market companies in adopting open innovation practices, as well.

Match passionate locals, creative entreprenuers and a petite force of nature known as Cat Amaro and you get The Bird Haus, a migratory classroom where learning is fun, fascinating and, yes, cheap.

Whether they are helping hospitals to manage access to private health information or creating a game that helps kids to zap away their health care fears, health care startups are growing in Cincinnati. Innov8forhealth, an accelerator now in its second year, is helping budding entrepreneurs to rapidly vet and commercialize their ideas.

The growing field of health care information technology promises to improve the efficiency, accuracy and quality of care in the industry. From big data startups to innovative mobile apps, Ohio companies are quickly becoming big players in this game-changing field.