Investors, entrepreneurs, and corporate and civic leaders are invited to see ten founders from JumpStart’s Trailblazer Software Accelerator pitch at the program’s Summer Showcase on Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 10:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., at the Warren E. Anderson MidTown Collaboration Center (1974 East 66th Street, Cleveland, Ohio). General registration opens at 1:30 p.m., following investor-only sessions earlier in the day. The event is sponsored by Burton D. Morgan Foundation and presented with additional support from Big Kitty Labs, partners in creating greater opportunity for Ohio founders.
These companies represent some of the most promising software startups coming up in Ohio, addressing costly, complex problems in industries ranging from behavioral health to senior care to high school athletics.
They’re the latest class to come through JumpStart’s Trailblazer Software Accelerator, which offers intensive support for pre-seed and seed-stage Ohio founders who are ready to grow. Participants work with JumpStart’s services team and seasoned founders to refine their products, validate their markets and prepare to scale. They also gain access to JumpStart’s Preferred Partner Program, an extensive, vetted network providing legal, engineering, marketing, finance and other valuable services. The program comes at no-cost to participants and requires no equity.
“A number of these founders are bringing AI to problems it hasn’t reached before, while others are tackling industries like construction, wholesale distribution and hospitality — sectors that generate enormous amounts of data but have never had good tools to act on it,” says Kaleigh Gallagher, Vice President, Tech Services and Network Management.
“Solving the problem that’s actually in front of you, not just the one that gets the most attention is a very Midwest instinct. Their success won’t just build great companies. It will create jobs and economic opportunity right here in Ohio.”
Presented with support from Burton D. Morgan Foundation and Big Kitty Labs, the afternoon will also feature a fireside chat, “Building the Next Billion-Dollar Company in Ohio,” with Bill Premier, former CEO of Hyland Software, and Kevin von Keyserling, CEO of ReadySet Surgical and co-founder of Keyfactor, moderated by Kris Beck, SVP Strategic Operations at Veroot, Startup Advisor and Investor.
Here are the 10 founders taking the stage:
CentSight | Gerald Hetrick
Most businesses in the $1M–$50M revenue range don’t have a CFO. They have spreadsheets and educated guesses. CentSight’s AI virtual CFO platform changes that by integrating bank, invoicing and payroll data into real-time cash flow forecasting, runway analysis and plain-language financial narratives, giving business owners the clarity to make confident decisions without a full-time finance hire.
Construction Risk AI | Jeremiah Woods
Construction projects are complex, data-rich and notoriously difficult to manage. Construction Risk AI ingests data from any construction tech stack and applies more than 100 proprietary KPIs to forecast operational outcomes and insurance risk for owners, contractors and carriers. The result is actionable intelligence that helps all parties see risk coming before it becomes costly.
Dwarpaal Inc. | Sudhanshu Patki and Nitin Karande
For economy and mid-market hotels, energy costs, outdated access systems and aging infrastructure add up. Dwarpaal’s smart-room platform combines edge-AI energy management, access control, and mobile and wallet keys with rebate-backed retrofits, giving hotel operators a path to modernization that pays for itself over time.
GreenLight Grocery | Matt Vann
Independent restaurants pay more for food than national chains, not because they buy less, but because they buy alone. Greenlight Grocery is a food purchasing operating system that aggregates demand from independent operators and channels it to aligned distributors, unlocking chain-equivalent pricing for the restaurants that need it most.
Kuddo Health | Wenyi Zhu
In behavioral health, ensuring that evidence-based therapies are actually being delivered the way they’re designed to be is a persistent and costly challenge. Kuddo’s AI fidelity measurement platform ingests clinical protocols and analyzes therapy sessions to give supervisors system-level quality oversight across their entire provider network, at a scale that human review alone can’t match.
LTCareNav | Lindsay Friedman and Shannon Lyons
Deciding how to care for an aging parent or loved one is one of the most consequential and confusing decisions a family can face. LTCareNav is a decision-intelligence platform that gives families the planning tools to navigate long-term care with confidence while connecting them to a curated network of senior living, home care and benefits providers best matched to their needs.
Motiv | Nida Aslam and Jaden Walton
High school athletic departments run on a tangle of spreadsheets, group texts and paper forms, all while navigating an increasingly complex landscape of student-data privacy requirements. Motiv is a compliance-first operating system that brings coaches, parents, students and athletic administrators together in one platform, reducing administrative burden and keeping programs running smoothly.
Ordermatic | Dan Mizener and David Boone Jr.
Across the $11.9 trillion U.S. wholesale distribution industry, a significant share of orders still arrives by email, fax or handwritten purchase order and gets processed manually, one line item at a time. Ordermatic’s AI platform extracts and validates those orders against ERP data in seconds rather than the 5–10 minutes it takes manually, giving distributors a straightforward path to faster, more accurate operations.
Velocity AI Partners | George Granchi
In fitness and wellness franchises, the difference between a lead that converts and one that goes cold often comes down to response time. Velocity AI Partners is an AI-native operating system for the sector that responds to new leads in 11–14 seconds, reactivates dormant prospects and surfaces retention analytics, helping franchise operators grow membership and reduce churn with less manual effort.
Velora | Jonathan Hooper and Colin Hooper
Velora is an AI-powered Bible app designed for people who want to go deeper during a church service. Using a device’s microphone, it follows live sermons in real time, automatically turning to referenced scripture, transcribing and summarizing the message, and surfacing related passages for personal study. It turns a listening experience into an active one.
To register for the Trailblazer Software Accelerator Showcase, visit jumpstartinc.org/event/trailblazer-summer-showcase-software. To learn more about JumpStart’s Trailblazer Accelerators or to apply for an upcoming cohort, visit jumpstartinc.org/startups.
About JumpStart
JumpStart Inc. is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to drive economic vitality by connecting entrepreneurs to the opportunities and resources they need to succeed because when our entrepreneurs thrive, our communities benefit.
For media inquiries, please contact Samantha Fryberger via email or by calling 216-363-3433.
