Entrepreneurial journey lands Georgia native in Northeast Ohio
Tagan Horton caught the entrepreneurial bug while studying international development at Spelman College. The Decatur, Ga., native had explored many career paths, including politics and the nonprofit world, and had interned at UNICEF, studied international policy for a summer at Princeton and traveled to Ghana with an NGO to build compost toilets. It’s a journey
Founder Of Black-Owned Smart-Vending Startup Makes History, Raises $2.3 Million Through Crowdfunding
PopCom, a leading automated retail technology company specializing in smart vending and kiosk solutions successfully completed their second equity crowdfunding campaign on Start Engine. The goal was to grow its operations, build its sales team, reach more customers, and meet the demand for more automated retail machines in the wake of COVID-19, with their proprietary
Cuyahoga County awards $3 million to small businesses affected by COVID-19
The Cuyahoga County Small Business Stabilization Fund selected 951 small businesses, from nearly 5,000 applications, to receive grants to help with COVID-19-related losses and costs. The county conducted two rounds of grant funding in April and May, when small businesses were invited to apply for grants of $2,500 or $5,000. About half of the grants
JumpStart and KeyBank seed Covid-19 relief grants for small businesses
Contributions by JumpStart and KeyBank are seeding more than $10 million in Covid-19 relief grants for business owners and entrepreneurs in Ohio and New York. Powered by JumpStart and funded by a grant from the KeyBank Foundation, the KeyBank Business Boost and Build program is designed to stimulate economic growth — with a focus on
New Executive Announced to Manage Vizzle National Partnerships
Vizzle, a division of the Monarch Teaching Technologies company based out of Cleveland, OH, has hired Michael Soria as their Vice President of Educational Partnerships. Beginning in the classroom, Michael has over 30 years of experience in the education and educational publishing industry. Most recently, Michael served as the Executive Director of Education at TouchMath.
Northeast Ohio’s FishMySpot Wants to be the AirBnB of Fishing Holes
Fishing is a sport associated with relaxation. It’s about having a day to be at ease alone — or with friends and family — without the worries of the world. So why isn’t there an easy, 21st century solution to finding a great fishing hole? From avoiding private property to ensuring you’re allowed to cast
Biotechnology company just feet away from the shoreway helping doctors diagnose and treat cancer
Anyone who has driven on the shoreway near downtown has come just a few feet away from a series of brick buildings that, in some cases, are just feet away from the road. What many people don’t know is that just a few feet from all those passing cars is a company helping doctors fight
Ron Stubblefield Hired to Lead Multi-Organizational Initiative to Advance Equity in Regional Tech Entrepreneurship
Leaders from the Economic Community Development Institute (ECDI), the Hispanic Business Center, The Presidents’ Council, The Urban League of Greater Cleveland, and JumpStart selected Ron Stubblefield to fill a newly created Shared Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) position. Based out of JumpStart’s Cleveland headquarters, Stubblefield will act as a collaborative resource between the four organizations. The State of
Payment Startup Mezu Aims To Be The Zoom Of Digital Payments
Video conferencing and streaming shows aren’t the only things getting a boost because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Turns out so are digital payments. At least at Mezu, the privacy-focused payment app that launched in 2017. Since millions of people have been sheltering at home, the app has seen a 60% uptick in downloads and is
Microgrants from Business Growth Collaborative Enable Pivots for Vulnerable Entrepreneurs
The Business Growth Collaborative, an organization comprised of 11 organizations supporting entrepreneurs of color, disbursed $100,000 in grants to 20 minority-owned small businesses in Northeast Ohio in response to the COVID-19 crisis. These contributions, called the Boost Fund, were released this month and were supported by a grant from the KeyBank Business Boost and Build
$1.5 million in grants going to 300 Summit County small businesses
More than 300 small businesses in Summit County will receive a total of more than $1.5 million in funding through a program created to provide emergency relief during the coronavirus pandemic. Summit County and the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce announced Wednesday that 311 small businesses in the county will receive funding from the COVID-19
Online lending platform SoLo Funds opens spigot on interest-free peer-to-peer microloans for cash-strapped Americans
Sometimes it takes the worst of times to bring out the best in people. That’s what serial entrepreneur Rodney Williams is counting on. The co-founder of the peer-to-peer lending platform SoLo Funds is on a mission to help the millions of Americans that live paycheck to paycheck and can’t survive the money crunch caused by