Our conversation this week is with Charu Ramanathan, PhD  — Co-Founder and CEO at vitalxchange, based here in Cleveland having raised over $2mm in capital.vitalxchange and Lokyata are the latest iterations of Charu’s entrepreneurial career, which began transitioning her Case Western Reserve University PhD thesis into a medical device company — CardioInsight — which she grew and sold to Medtronic in 2015 for nearly $100 million. Charu spent the following two years shepherding the technology's integration, before co-founding Lokyata, a fintech company promoting financial inclusion and providing digital self-learning software solutions & services in emerging economies, and vitalxchange, whose mission is to enable participatory healthcare by empowering healthcare consumers. We spend most of the conversation focused on her current work at vitalxchange, but cover the breadth of her experience and impact as well.  Charu is a force, a wealth of knowledge, and genuinely passionate about her work to elevate human life — really enjoyed and learned a lot from this conversation!————Learn more about vitalxchange: https://vitalxchange.com/about-usConnect with Charu: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charu-ramanathan-phd/Follow Charu: https://twitter.com/charuramanathan?lang=enFollow vitalxchange: https://twitter.com/vitalxchange————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with David Edelman  — CEO & Founder of Thrivable, based here in Cleveland. David is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker who developed the vision for Thrivable through his work building Diabetes Daily, a leading online community helping those with diabetes thrive. A firm believer that every key decision health care companies make should have patient input, he created the Thrivable rapid-research platform to make it easy for companies to connect with the patients that matter most to make better products and services. Thrivable recently closed on $1.7mm in seed funding.We cover everything from how to foster and build community, to market research, to fundraising, to the challenges of company building and many of David’s entrepreneurial stories along the way! Enjoy.————Learn more about Thrivable: https://thrivable.app/Connect with David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidedelman/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Terence McCarron — CEO & Founder of OpinionRoute LLC, a Cleveland, OH-based Market Research Data Collection Services and Sample Technology firm. Terence’s career spans 20+ years including leadership positions for firms like Greenfield Online (sold to Microsoft in 2008), Kantar Health (now a Cerner subsidiary), and Cint AB (STO: CINT). A native of New Jersey, Terence moved with his wife and 4 kids to Cleveland in 2013 in order to start OpinionRoute, which is in the business of helping market researchers produce accurate results through both their technology and services.We’re lucky to have Terence here in the Cleveland startup scene as both a mentor and entrepreneur — OpinionRoute has flown under the radar for a bootstrapped business generating over 8-figures in revenue and growing rapidly! Excited to amplify Terence and OpinionRoute’s story here! Enjoy.————Learn more about OpinionRoute: https://www.opinionroute.com/Follow OpinionRoute: https://twitter.com/OpinionRouteConnect with Terence: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-mccarron-mr/Follow Terence: https://twitter.com/tmccarron————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Lindsay Watson, CEO & Founder of Augment Therapy.Augment Therapy was founded in 2017 when Lindsay — who is a pediatric physical therapist from Chagrin Falls, Ohio — was searching for a way to solve the problems she was experiencing in her own physical therapy practice. Lindsay had spent years working with children and was frustrated with the inefficiency of treating kids once a week, with no way to help them exercise on a daily basis for faster progress. And with that, Lindsay set out to find a way to encourage and motivate them to exercise and Augment Therapy was born.Augment Therapy is an interactive software that uses the medium of augmented reality to engage kids to exercise. Using depth-sensing camera technology, Augment Therapy functions as a motivational tool, exercise prompt, and progress tracker for children needing therapeutic exercise – with no headsets or other wearables required. It can be used in the hospital and clinical setting or in the home environment – any place where added motivation is needed.Augment Therapy looks like a game to the child, but solves real problems of exercise adherence – its portability and anywhere/anytime access make the completion of daily therapeutic exercise simple, convenient, and fun!This was one of my favorite conversations to date! Lindsay’s passion for her work is infectious and I learned a lot from her story — hope you enjoy it too.————Learn more about Augment Therapy: https://augmenttherapy.com/Follow Augment Therapy: https://twitter.com/augment_therapyConnect with Lindsay: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsay-watson-pt-mpt-68103a134/Follow Lindsay: https://www.twitter.com/@lindsaywatson26————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Jarred & Brandon Smith — co-founders of NOOMA.The NOOMA journey began for Jarred & Brandon as hockey-playing brothers who couldn’t stand the sugar-packed, artificial sports drinks we've all been given our whole lives, all the way up to their time as professional athletes. The whole thing made no sense to them; they were competing at the highest level, yet given products based on big corporate partnerships, not what’s actually good for you. So they forged their own path using only organic, plant-based, and real ingredients - and no added sugar - to make products that taste great and actually work. The other part of their mission is to go beyond making drinks and build a company that makes an impact on society.NOOMA is a Cleveland staple and increasingly a national one! Really enjoyed this conversation!————Learn more about Nooma: https://www.drinknooma.com/Follow Nooma: https://www.instagram.com/drinknooma/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Todd Federman — managing director of North Coast Ventures.North Coast includes six funds and has closed $65M+ of capital in 60 early-stage companies since 2007. Prior to joining North Coast, Todd launched a consumer packaged goods company, One With Nature, and worked for technology consulting company, DiamondCluster. We cover a lot in this conversation from what makes for a good early-stage funding ecosystem to what’s working in Cleveland and what could we be doing better. We deep dive into angel networks, founder mentality, valuation, risk aversion, startup quantity, geographic competition, and much more!Todd’s perspective is critical in understanding the lay of the land — Enjoy!————Connect with Todd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfederman/Learn more about North Coast Ventures: https://northcoast.vc/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Brett Lindsey — CEO of Everstream & Founder of Snip Internet here in Cleveland!We cover the infrastructure of the internet, the future of telecom, and how he’s realizing that future by growing Everstream to over 25,000 route miles of fiber and multiple $100 millions in contract value while simultaneously building Snip Internet as a residential internet provider.Previously as Chief Operations Officer of OneCommunity, Brett oversaw the $100 million expansion of the network that became Everstream. Brett brings more than 25 years of experience in successful operations management and business development efforts for venture-backed organizations to the Fortune 500. He has extensive experience in the telecom industry, having served as President of Elantic Telecom and Chief Operations Officer of Vox Mobile. Brett also held management positions with City Signal Communications, Qwest Communications, XO Communications, and Williams Communication Systems.Brett is an absolute force and it’s amazing to see what he’s been able to build. Listen and Learn!————Connect with Brett: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettrlindsey/Learn more about Everstream: https://everstream.net/Learn more about Snip Internet: https://www.snipinternet.com/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Gordon Daily!Gordon is the founder & CEO of BoxCast which offers an end-to-end live streaming platform and is one of Cleveland’s fastest growing companies off the bat of a $20 million series A and series of strategic acquisitions. BoxCast simplifies the whole process of streaming and video capture which historically has been complicated, risky, and expensive for organizations wishing to connect with their constituents. We cover a lot in this conversation from building hardware, Cleveland entrepreneurship, the future of BoxCast, and the wildest streamed content Gordon has come across! It’s been awesome to see BoxCast’s prolific growth over the last few years and hear the story of how they’ve made it happen. Take a listen and learn!————Connect with Gordon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordon-daily-b47b8Learn more about BoxCast: https://www.boxcast.com/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter 

Our conversation this week is with Laura Steinbrink!Laura is the CEO and founder of Brilliency and managing partner at Emerald Built Environments where she's spent the last decade driving environmental change and ecological and  sustainability initiatives spanning heavy industry to retail housing, commercial, education, medical facilities and roads and bridges. We cover everything from the macro-level infrastructure work she's doing through Emerald Built Environments to the micro-level behavioral changes spurred on by Brilliency, bridging the gap between utility companies and consumers by giving people access to their own energy consumption data. Sustainability and energy consumption are some of those topics that truly affect everyone and our qualities of life — awesome to learn more about the important work Laura is doing here in Cleveland!————Connect with Laura: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-e-steinbrink-089340a4/Learn more about Brilliency: https://www.brilliency.com/brilliant-efficiencyLearn more about Emerald Built Environments: https://www.emeraldbe.com/ebe-home

Our conversation this week is with Ryan Cleary — co-founder & COO of FloatMe — on how they’ve helped save their users over $30mm in fees and boost savings via alternatives to the $46 billion overdraft and payday lending industries.Ryan grew up here in Cleveland in Lakewood, OH and graduated from Case Western Reserve University before getting his masters from Harvard. He ultimately ended up moving to San Antonio, TX where he co-built and managed a startup accelerator before pursuing his long-time passion for financial equity by starting FloatMe in late 2017 when he met his co-founder, Josh Sanchez, at a startup weekend event there.Today, FloatMe — co-located here in Cleveland and in San Antonio — has raised over $28mm in funding on its mission to make financial prosperity achievable for all Americans, focusing on the 78% of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck to help them cover cash gaps and improve their finances.————Connect with Ryan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-p-clearyLearn more about FloatMe: https://www.floatme.io/————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter