Lay of The Land

Our conversation today is with Baiju Shah, who is the president and CEO of Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP).GCP is the region’s leading economic development organization with over 12,000 members — the largest metropolitan chamber of commerce in the nation. Guided by a board of corporate and entrepreneurial CEOs, the organization focuses on accelerating growth and prosperity for Cleveland through strategic initiatives, business services, real estate development, and advocacy — which we will unpack more in our conversation today.Prior to GCP, Baiju served as the Senior Fellow for Innovation at The Cleveland Foundation, and previously served as CEO and Board Member of BioMotiv, co-lead The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development, a $380 million US and UK drug development initiative which he helped launch, and also formerly served as CEO board member, and co-founder of BioEnterprise, a business formation, recruitment, and acceleration initiative that assisted companies in securing resources and funding to support their growth — During his tenure, BioE assisted more than 110 companies that together attracted $1.3 billion in new private funding.Beyond this, Baiju has a plethora more of experience, has been named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and has been recognized as one of Cleveland’s most influential leaders. Please enjoy my conversation with Baiju Shah--Connect with Baiju Shah on LinkedinFollow Baiju Shah on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Baiju_R_ShahFollow Greater Cleveland Partnership on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GCPartnershipLearn more about Greater Cleveland Partnership--Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedInFollow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefeFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Our conversation today is with David Sylvan, president of UH Ventures — the innovation and commercialization division of University Hospitals — a Cleveland-based health system with two dozen hospitals, more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices located throughout 16 counties.UH Ventures comprises a diverse array of professionals with deep domain expertise ranging from venture investing and company formation, to human-centered and experience design, as well as physicians, clinicians, and researchers who collectively seek to bring innovation to life in service to University Hospitals’ mission. Leading the organization, David gets a real breadth of exposure to intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship through a lens of the future of healthcare.Through my own company, Axuall, I’ve had the privilege to see how David approaches this fascinating world of healthcare innovation as he’s invested in, advised, coached, and helped Axuall mature as a company over the last three years.David comes to UH Ventures with more than 30 years of diverse corporate experience, most recently following a successful 15-year career in capital markets and investment banking, where he led a derivatives trading and public finance investment banking platform. Prior to this, David spent 8 years in a variety of responsibilities at the sports marketing giant, IMG. He started his career in public accounting with Deloitte in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an adjunct professor locally at Case Western Reserve University’s (CWRU) Weatherhead School of Business in their department of Design & Innovation.I really enjoyed pulling back the curtain here on the inner workings of hospital venture groups and the work David is focused on here at University Hospitals — Please enjoy my conversation with David Sylvan.--Connect with David Sylvan on LinkedInFollow David Sylvan on Twitter @davidsylvanFollow UH Ventures on Twitter @uh_venturesLearn more about University Hospital Ventures--Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedInFollow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefeFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Our conversation today is with Dr. Colleen M. Lorber — Founder & CEO of Wraparound Experts.Colleen Lorber has her Ph.D. in School Psychology and founded Wraparound Experts from over 15 years in the field, combining her knowledge of the environments and professionals that she has worked with to provide a model of services that “wrap around” a child and the environments and people that influence the success of the child every day.Colleen knew she wanted to be a child psychologist in the 6th grade and that goal and determination drove her to complete her doctorate at the age of 27. During her undergraduate and graduate school years, Colleen worked at residential treatment facilities for at-risk youth where she helped children with autism through behavioral therapy and mobile therapy services.When Colleen was completing her doctorate, she began working at a privately owned company as a psychology intern and after 15 years, she departed from the company as its Chief Operating Officer where she was managing over 1,000 employees spanning psychologists, speech therapists, special education teachers, Title 1 teachers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, RNs, LPNs, Medical Assistants, and School Health Aides.Unfortunately, the research coming out examining the current state of our society’s mental health is dismal. The pandemic has clearly had an effect on how we are operating our everyday lives. Colleen and Wraparound Experts believe that the way to begin to work on our mental health, starting with children in Ohio, is to bring it back to concentrate on our basic human needs which include not only our physical/biological needs but also our feelings of safety/security, love and belonging, and esteem — this is the exact nature of the work Colleen is pushing forward with Wraparound Experts and what we spend our conversation exploring today — Please enjoy my conversation with Colleen Lorber.--Connect with Dr. Colleen Lorber on LinkedInLearn more about Wrap Around ExpertsFollow Wraparound Experts on Twitter @wraparoundexpe1--Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedInFollow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefeFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Our conversation today is with David Davis II — Founder & CEO of FBA Flip.David is a native Clevelander where he currently resides. After high school, David directly immersed himself into the tech-startup world. He’s been an entrepreneur his whole life — since the age of 13, he’s been involved in various direct-to-consumer eCommerce projects generating over 7-figures before he turned 21.Gathering years of experience in online retail, David founded FBA Flip, a marketplace to service the emerging world of eCommerce M&A transactions in the Amazon ecosystem.David is an orator with an endless mental well of intellectual and well-thought-through ideas — it’s always a pleasure getting to hear his perspective on entrepreneurship, the changing dynamics of the modern internet-first world we find ourselves in, and the challenges, opportunities, and prospects for the city of Cleveland — Please enjoy my conversation with David Davis.--Connect with David Davis II on LinkedInLearn more about FBA FlipFollow David Davis on Twitter--Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedInFollow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefeFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Our conversation today is with William J. Littlefield II — President and CTO of Wizest!At Wizest, Billy is on a mission to build a next-generation investment trading platform that democratizes access to financial expertise. Wizest recently closed on $1.7mm in financing and was featured in Forbes as a better solution to the problems posed by Robinhood.Billy has an eclectic background — spending more than a decade training with various Olympic coaches and athletes in the sport of ice skating, qualifying and competing at the US Figure Skating Championships as a singles skater. Prior to Wizest, Billy spent a lot of time outside of the world of software development, academically working to reconcile 21st century technology, politics, and economics with longstanding concepts in philosophy where his recent research has been divided between applied ethics, social theory, and artificial intelligence. Specifically, he has explored the ethics of technological progress and its impact on climate justice and geopolitics.Billy earned a graduate degree in world literature and philosophy from Case Western Reserve University, where he also received a degree in natural sciences with a concentration in chemistry.Really enjoyed this conversation spanning everything from how Wizest is working to democratize access to financial expertise to Billy’s path to Cleveland, to digital nomadacy, to philosophy, and more — hope you all enjoy it as well!--Connect with William J. Littlefield II on LinkedInLearn more about WizestFollow Billy on Twitter @wjlittlefield2--Connect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedInFollow Jeffrey Stern on Twitter @sternJefeFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/

Our conversation today is with Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer — founder & CEO of RooSense // SweatID.Chelsea founded SweatID back in December 2017 in order to make personalized health sensors available for everyone after an ultramarathoner suggested the technology could help athletes better monitor their hydration status. She began working with health sensors in 2010 while developing a fabric-based temperature sensor for use in prosthetic sockets.With her research focused on bio-electrochemical interfaces — Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer received her Ph.D. in 2009 from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and is currently an associate professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Cleveland State University.I really enjoyed covering the breadth of Chelsea’s research in bio-electrochemical interfaces, the commercial implications and applications of it through SweatID (which just closed on its pre-seed funding), bridging the academic-entrepreneurial gap, and the future of wearables — please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Chelsea Monty-Bromer!--Connect with Chelsea Monty-Bromer on LinkedInLearn more about SweatIDFollow SweatID on Twitter @YourSweatIDFollow Chelsea Monty-Bromer on Twitter @drchelseamonty

Our conversation today is with Mark D’Agostino — founder and president of ConnectedHR.Under his leadership, ConnectedHR has become one of the fastest-growing Human Resources consulting companies in NE Ohio. Before ConnectedHR, Mark began his entrepreneurial career in 2001 by starting Trifecta Business Products, Inc. As its CEO, it grew to two locations and over 40 employees. In 2011 he sold it to an independently owned Ohio corporation and the year after, co-founded a staffing and recruitment start-up and served as its president for two years.Mark has worked hard to bolster the business community in NE Ohio having served on the board of Northeast Ohio’s leading economic development organization, the Middle-Market Committee of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, as well as the Greater Akron Chamber Task Force. Mark previously had the privilege to serve as President of the Cleveland chapter of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).I really enjoyed hearing Mark’s perspective on the changing macro-dynamics of employment, how the nature of work is changing, the business of fractional Human Resources, and the journey Mark has been on building ConnectedHR — please enjoy my conversation with Mark D’Agostino.--Connect with Mark D’Agostino on LinkedIn Follow Mark D'Agostino on Twitter @mjpdagostinoFollow ConnectedHR on Twitter @connectedhr4Learn more about ConntectedHR

Our conversation today is with Chris Wentz, Founder & CEO of Everykey. Chris has long been interested in entrepreneurship having founded an advertising network in middle school that grew into one of the largest video game advertising networks. He then started a consumer electronics resale business in college where he bought products that were only available in the US and sold them to customers in other countries. He also modified the Roomba Robotic Vacuum Cleaner to make it a better product and sold the improved Roombas to consumers — the improvements were so popular that Roomba implemented the features into their next product line. While finishing his BS in Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University, Chris invested the money he made from his previous business ventures into Everykey, which is what we spend most of our conversation on.Everykey designs and builds a patented universal smart key that can unlock devices and logs into online accounts on those devices — it replaces your passwords and keys. Launched on Kickstarter in October 2014 — within 48 hours, the campaign had reached trending status and raised over $25,000 in pre-orders. Since then Everykey has grown substantially achieving scale as an organization and expanding its capabilities and offerings to the enterprise security spaceI really enjoyed hearing the story of how Chris took Everykey from an idea at his case western entrepreneurship class to a leading cybersecurity company providing products and services to consumers, enterprises, and governments alike with a deep commitment to brand — please enjoy my conversation with Chris Wentz!---Learn more about EverykeyFollow Everykey on Twitter @everykeyConnect with Chris Wentz on LinkedIn

(Full / Long Edit)Our conversation today is with Dennis Althar, founder of Althar Audio. Dennis has an incredible story — from mastering electronics at a very young to joining the United States Air Force at Keslers Air Force Base with the highest scores they ever had. After demonstrating his expertise in the field of electronics, he returned from the Philippines and ultimately started a field service company repainting medical electronics, ultrasound, heart stress testing equipment, and very high-tech computer-assisted graphic systems. In 1989, he started All-Tronics medical systems manufacturing high-resolution video recorders for cardiac catheterization labs (the majority of labs in the US used their equipment) and ultimately manufacturing teleradiology systems for 95% of Ohio, used for radiologists to read ultrasound MRI or CT scans remotely.Most recently, Dennis started Althar Audio manufacturing professional speakers for churches, football fields, gyms, live music theaters, and any other space requiring audio systems where he's installed about 400 systems via word-of-mouth since inception.Dennis not only has a deep passion for unlocking the highest levels of audible literacy — but there’s a real commitment to the craft itself and questioning — across the board — why we’ve always done things the way we’ve done things and digging into and solutioning where the justification for the way things are today is that this has always been the way we’ve done it. This curiosity Dennis carries with him has exposed him to a breadth of experience — from prodigal expertise in electronics to the US Airforce to medical technology to audio — and in this conversation, we cover everything from Dennis’s early life to hard physics to philosophy itself. This really was a special conversation and I hope you all enjoy it as well!--Connect with Dennis Althar on LinkedInLearn more about Althar Audio @ altharaudio.com 

(Compressed / Short Edit)Our conversation today is with Dennis Althar, founder of Althar Audio. Dennis has an incredible story — from mastering electronics at a very young to joining the United States Air Force at Keslers Air Force Base with the highest scores they ever had. After demonstrating his expertise in the field of electronics, he returned from the Philippines and ultimately started a field service company repainting medical electronics, ultrasound, heart stress testing equipment, and very high-tech computer-assisted graphic systems. In 1989, he started All-Tronics medical systems manufacturing high-resolution video recorders for cardiac catheterization labs (the majority of labs in the US used their equipment) and ultimately manufacturing teleradiology systems for 95% of Ohio, used for radiologists to read ultrasound MRI or CT scans remotely.Most recently, Dennis started Althar Audio manufacturing professional speakers for churches, football fields, gyms, live music theaters, and any other space requiring audio systems where he's installed about 400 systems via word-of-mouth since inception.Dennis not only has a deep passion for unlocking the highest levels of audible literacy — but there’s a real commitment to the craft itself and questioning — across the board — why we’ve always done things the way we’ve done things and digging into and solutioning where the justification for the way things are today is that this has always been the way we’ve done it. This curiosity Dennis carries with him has exposed him to a breadth of experience — from prodigal expertise in electronics to the US Airforce to medical technology to audio — and in this conversation, we cover everything from Dennis’s early life to hard physics to philosophy itself. This really was a special conversation and I hope you all enjoy it as well!--Connect with Dennis Althar on LinkedInLearn more about Althar Audio @ altharaudio.com