Lay of The Land

Our conversation this week is with Steve Potash  — Founder, President, and CEO of OverDrive.Steve founded OverDrive here in Cleveland back in 1986. Over the last 3 decades Steve has led OverDrive to become the leading digital reading platform for ebooks, audiobooks and other digital media for libraries, schools, government agencies, corporate learning centers and colleges and universities worldwide. OverDrive now manages the largest global network of digital book lending libraries — over 40,000 libraries and schools worldwide in over 72 countries, with over a billion checkouts of eBooks.As CEO, Steve focuses on OverDrive’s vision to create a world enlightened by reading. A pioneer in the digital content and distribution industry, Steve was among the first to develop useful applications for digital books in the 1980s. He began his career offering innovative floppy diskette, CD-ROM and print-to-digital conversion services, and introduced early versions of digital books to the law, accounting and healthcare industries, which we cover in our conversation!Really enjoyed Steve's perspective on the importance of libraries in our society and technology's implications for reading and literacy. Hope you all heed Steve's advice to visit your local library and enjoy my conversation with Steve Potash.————Learn more about OverDriveLearn more about OverDrive’s Libby appFollow Steve on Twitter @OverDriveSteveConnect with Steve on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey Stern @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey Stern on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter and on LinkedIn

 Our conversation this week is with India Johnson — Founder of UAVistas.With a background in biology and computer science, India Johnson is an unmanned aerial systems pilot, entrepreneur, public servant, and geospatial developer. India is responsible for flying, processing data from, and maintaining the Cleveland Metroparks drone fleet flying. Applications of her work include natural resource management, planning and engineering projects, as well as marketing videos and stills. In her role as a geospatial developer for the Metroparks, she wears many hats from securing and maintaining servers, developing web apps, and writing code to solve problems.Outside of her work with the Metroparks, she’s founded her own business, UAVistas, where she incubates different drone applications. Really enjoyed learning about drones and India’s passion for them —  please enjoy my conversation with India Johnson!————Learn more about UAVistasConnect with India on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey Stern @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey Stern on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter and on LinkedIn

Our conversation this week is with Jake Bailosky  — CTO & Founder of OnStation — on revolutionizing how road workers locate and communicate in the field.Jake spent 10 years as a construction project engineer with the Ohio Department of Transportation after studying and becoming a Civil Engineer. Through his time working on transportation projects in the field, he experienced firsthand the challenges that would later inspire PROJiTech (parent company) & OnStation. Jake taught himself how to code and spent 5 years developing the initial product and validating OnStation in the market. Earlier in 2021, Jake secured $1.4mm in funding from Jumpstart and pre-seed investment Glide — OnStation is now being used on over 200 transportation projects and has 1500 users including major contractors, consultants, and a handful of state Departments of Transportation.Please enjoy my conversation with Jake Bailosky!————Learn more about OnStationConnect with Jake on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey Stern @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey Stern on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter and on LinkedIn

Our conversation this week is with James Barnes Jr. — Founder & President of Immaculate Cleaning — on building Northeast Ohio’s fastest-growing janitorial services company.James launched his first successful business endeavor as a high school student. From this experience he learned the basic principles of running a profitable business enterprise which he then leveraged to build Immaculate Cleaning. He’s since been able to expand from janitorial services to a broader conglomerate model rolling up and starting up service providers across other industries like lawn services.To James, Immaculate cleaning is more than a business — it's a means to his passion for community engagement and economic empowerment — working toward social impact in the areas where he grew up in Cleveland. As of 2021, Immaculate Cleaning Company has become the proud Cleaning Partner of The Cleveland Monsters hockey team to amplify their impact in Greater Cleveland communities.Loved learning about Jame's story and preparedness for every opportunity that comes his way. Hope you all enjoy my conversation with James Barnes.————Learn more about James BarnesConnect with Charlie on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey Stern @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey Stern on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter and on LinkedIn

Our conversation this week is with Charlie Lougheed — Co-founder & CEO of Axuall, a Cleveland-based company which recently closed on $10.4mm in financing.Axuall is a bot-enabled, real-time HR data network that empowers healthcare providers to manage and share their verified career data and credentials with healthcare organizations and plans. This enables these organizations to build better networks, eliminate deployment delays, meet patient demand, and improve their bottom line. Prior to Axuall, Charlie co-founded and co-funded Explorys, now IBM Watson, in 2009 as a spin-off from the Cleveland Clinic. In six years, the company became the leader in healthcare big data and value-based-care analytics, spanning 26 healthcare networks, 60 hospitals, and 60 million patients across the US.Prior to Explorys, Charlie co-founded Everstream in 1999 which later became the market leader in broadband and content analytics before being acquired by Concurrent, a public company in 2005. There he served as CTO and later as President of the company enabling its clients to leverage their data to exponentially scale their networks and broker better deals with their content providers.Charlie is also an active leader in the local community serving as the Chairman of The Lougheed Initiative Foundation, Vice Chairman of Friends of Breakthrough Schools, and Chairman of the Galen Foundation and PeopleBeatingCancer[dot]org.Incredibly exciting to finally have Charlie on the podcast to share his story and the work we're doing together at Axuall — I’ve personally learned an immeasurably great deal from Charlie over the last two years and I hope through this conversation you all can enjoy and glean some insights as well. Please enjoy my conversation with Charlie Lougheed.————Learn more about AxuallConnect with Charlie on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey Stern @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey Stern on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter and on LinkedIn

Our conversation this week is with Aaron Grossman — Founder & CEO of TalentLaunch.TalentLaunch, which Aaron founded back in 2016 after over a decade working in the staffing industry, is a network of independently operated staffing and recruitment companies that share back-office support, now generating hundreds of millions in sales and employing over 200 employees.TalentLaunch was established to help solve a problem that is prevalent throughout the staffing industry. There are over 20,000 staffing firms in the United States, with 97% of all staffing firms having less than $25 million in annual revenues. 82% of the 20,000 staffing firms have less than $5 million in annual revenues. While this fragmentation in the industry could suggest that local communities enjoy working with local community based staffing firms, the average Net Promoter Score which gauges the customer experience is an abysmal 4 out of a possible 100. Many small and mid sized staffing firms do not have the tools and resources available to them to drive a better experience. By design, Talentlaunch infuses big company resources and tools into the member companies that operate within the network to help them reach new heights.This was one of my favorite conversations so far hearing about how Aaron thinks about culture and the intentionality he brings to it, in service of helping others realize their potential. Hope you all enjoy my conversation with Aaron Grossman. ————Learn more about TalentLaunchConnect with Aaron on LinkedIn————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 Brian Zimmerman — CEO of The Cleveland Metroparks. As CEO of the Metroparks, Brian is responsible for the management of over 24,000 acres of green space in Northeast Ohio including 18 park reservations, eight golf courses, and the nationally-acclaimed Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, roughly 1000 employees, hundreds of miles of parkways and trails serving roughly 40 million visitors annually. Brian has helped lead the Park District’s highest rate of land acquisition under any Cleveland Metroparks leader in the park’s 104-year history aside from the Metroparks' founder, William Stinchcomb. Under Brian's leadership, Cleveland Metroparks has been recognized nationally through several agency awards including the 2016 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Park Management by National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the highest national honor in parks and recreation.It is quite awesome to learn about the history and diversity of all the work that goes into maintaining and preserving what so many of us here in Cleveland value and treasure in the nature afforded by the Metroparks. Please enjoy my conversation with Brian Zimmerman.————Learn more about The Cleveland MetroparksConnect with Brian on LinkedIn————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 Aaron Christopher (A.C.) Evans — co-founder & CEO of Drips.com recently ranked one of the 20 fastest-growing companies in North America.Drips is the first conversational texting company of its kind, founding a new market category and leading the way for some of the biggest brands in the world to use automated, humanized conversations at scale. On a daily basis, Drips engages in tens of millions of completely humanized conversations with zero client-side human resources or operators.Starting at the early age of 16, A.C. has been passionate about ‘scaling the unscalable’ in all of his business ventures and Drips is no exception. Really enjoyed covering AC's vast experience in performance marketing, experimentation, consumer conversion and retention, and entrepreneurship, all while building and scaling Drips to a company with a multi-billion trajectory. Please enjoy my conversation with AC evans!————Learn more about DripsConnect with AC Evans on LinkedIn————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 Dan Collins — Founder & CEO of Wastebits (based in Akron) — on building a software waste-management company and bringing technology to the trash industry.Dan is a veteran of the waste industry bringing more than 30 years of experience to the space which he leveraged to found Wastebits back in 2014. Since then, Wastebits now provides a full-service waste platform that connects the disparate parties in the space, from waste generators to waste facilities to service providers. Wastebits now supports clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small and medium independent service providers across North America and beyond with a focus on reducing the pain of waste categorization by helping these organizations understand and take immediate action on their waste streams to improve operational performance and reduce costs.Loved peeling back the curtain on such an enormous industry that affects everyone so deeply but that we all collectively think so little about — fascinating to hear about the inner workings of waste management and how technology can drive change there. Please enjoy my conversation with Dan Collins!————Learn more about WastebitsFollow Dan on TwitterConnect with Dan on LinkedIn————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 Brent Zimmerman — Co-Founder & CEO of Saucy Brew Works, a Cleveland-based production brewery and brewpub with roots based in the Steelman building off 29th and Detroit Avenue.Over the last year, Brent has grown Saucy to become the fourth fastest growing brand in the state of Ohio and one of the top grossing craft breweries in Cleveland winning Beer and Brewpub awards across the board from cleveland.com's best brewery to Ohio City's business of the year.Brent is an entrepreneur, beer fanatic, and has steered Saucy Brew Works from inception to where it stands today, valued at over $100mm dollars, across capital raising, branding, construction, distribution, community building, culture, product and geographic expansion.I loved hearing about Brent's story starting up what is now a true staple in Ohio City and beyond — I hope you enjoy my conversation with Brent Zimmerman.————Learn more about Saucy Brew WorksFollow Saucy Brew Works on TwitterFollow Brent on TwitterConnect with Brent on LinkedIn————Learn more about Jeffrey @ https://jeffreys.pageConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin or on TwitterFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter