Lay of The Land

Our fourteenth conversation is with Matt Buder Shapiro — co-founder and chief marketing officer of MedPilot which was recently acquired by Vytalize Health in a big win for Cleveland startups!Matt is a Cleveland native and champion of the ecosystem here (he also has just been genuinely kind and giving of his time, supporting all of Lay of The Land’s progress so far). He has been responsible for developing MedPilot's brand and patient engagement strategy — to date, MedPilot’s helped over 1,000,000 patients and boasts a 97% patient satisfaction score.Matt also sits on the advisory board for Blue Star Families, the nation's largest chapter-based military family organization, and the Catamount Innovation Fund. Prior to MedPilot, Matt led the New York media team at Bully Pulpit Interactive, a political strategy firm created by the digital marketers of Barack Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. BPI's experience with leveraging data to target communication helped provide the foundation for MedPilot's engagement engine. Matt is also a political strategist and advisor for Dr. Tom Lee, the founder of One Medical, ePocrates, and Galileo. Most recently, Matt serves as a Technology Policy Advisor for Justin Bibb’s mayoral campaign.Please enjoy our conversation!Connect with Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattbudershapiroFollow Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mbudershapiroConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Lay of the Land is about telling the stories of what people are building in Cleveland, and today we’re taking that literally! We’re talking about building buildings.Our (lucky) thirteenth conversation is with Dan Whalen — Harbor Bay’s vice president of design and development — and we’re covering INTRO: Cleveland’s first and America’s tallest mass timber project located at Market Square in the heart of Ohio City in the shadow of the historic West Side Market.Living in Ohio City, this was one of my favorite conversations so far. There is an incredible amount of innovation that has gone into INTRO and Dan’s vision for this building and community is inspiring. Please enjoy!Learn more about INTRO: https://introcleveland.com/Follow Dan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dwhalen5Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Our twelfth conversation is with Bob Sopko. Bob is the director of Case Western’s LaunchNet focused on helping students and alumni build startups and supporting their entrepreneurial efforts. Bob is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Youngstown Business Incubator where he mentors early-stage technology companies. Through this conversation, we map a whole breadth of the Cleveland entrepreneurial space and cover the impact of institutions like Case Western. Please enjoy!Learn more about LaunchNet: https://case.edu/launchnet/Connect with Bob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertsopko/Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Our eleventh conversation is with Nicole Paolozzi  — founder & CEO of OndeCare based here in Cleveland!We cover the challenges of in-home healthcare for loved ones of all ages and needs — infant, childcare, special needs care, and eldercare — and how OndeCare meets this need by connecting credentialed care, safety, and education professionals with busy families that are juggling demanding jobs and care of loved ones. We also cover the challenges of being a first-time founder, iterating on business models, raising a seed round, and more.I really enjoyed this conversation with Nicole and I hope you all do too!Learn more about OndeCare: https://ondecare.com/Follow OndeCare on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ondecareConnect with Nicole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-paolozzi/Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Our tenth episode is a conversation with  Taher Hassonjee — director of business development at RVshare (based on Akron, Ohio)  — exploring the world of recreational vehicles and why RVshare has been able to capitalize on it raising more than $100 million in capital and growing bookings over 650% in late 2020.As continentally confined Americans look for domestic vacation options that won’t expose them to too much risk of infection from the pandemic that’s still rampant across the country, the RV rental company RVshare has positioned itself as a market leader to meet the booming demand for RVs as we hit the road in unprecedented numbers.Taher is a wealth of knowledge and it’s no wonder RVshare has become one of the most well-capitalized companies and fast-growing companies in the MidWest.Please enjoy the conversation with Taher!Learn more about RVshare: https://rvshare.com/Follow Taher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thassonjeeConnect with Taher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taherhassonjee/Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Our ninth episode is a conversation with  Steve Muszynski — founder & CEO of Splash Financial — exploring the student loan crisis and how Splash is helping people save on their student loan debtI met Steve back when Splash Financial was known as GradSchoolLoans and their growth and impact since then has been extraordinary. Splash has been recognized as the 8th fastest growing company in Ohio having raised $17 million in venture capital, and was named one of the top 250 private Fintech companies in the world by CB Insights. Even during the pandemic this last year, they’ve experienced tremendous growth on both the revenue and headcount side - employing over 70 people - and show no signs of slowing down. I'm excited to share the story of Steve and Splash because I think they've flown relatively under the radar for how much they've been able to accomplish in the past few years here in Cleveland. Please enjoy our conversation!Learn more about Splash Financial: https://www.splashfinancial.com/Follow Splash Financial on Twitter: https://twitter.com/splashfinancialConnect with Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-muszynski-16341b2b/Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

Our eighth episode is a conversation with Joe DeLoss — founder of Hot Chicken Takeover — about service, entrepreneurship, chicken, and change for good.He’s spent the last decade building business creating employment opportunities for those who have experienced significant adversity in their lives. From incarceration to addiction to homelessness, Joe believes everyone deserves a fair chance to build a new story for themselves. Hot Chicken Takeover is a fast-casual restaurant chain taking over the Midwest. Joe’s dedication to fair-chance hiring and social entrepreneurship has allowed him to positively impact the lives of thousands of people and I’m incredibly excited to have him on the podcast to amplify his message encouraging change on an exponentially larger scale. I came away from this conversation truly inspired by Joe and craving some Hot Chicken Takeover. Hope you all enjoy it!Follow Hot Chicken Takeover on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChickenTakeoverLearn more about Hot Chicken Takeover: https://hotchickentakeover.com/Connect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

On our seventh episode, we’re speaking with Lee ZapisLee Zapis is the former president of Zapis Communications which owned and operated WZAK along with other radio stations in Cleveland, Akron and Youngstown. Zapis Communications' stations received numerous national broadcast awards and were nominated eight times for the Marconi Award, the highest honor of the National Association of Broadcasters. After the sale of Zapis Communications' radio stations in 1999, at which point WZAK had become Cleveland’s #1 radio station, Lee continued his entrepreneurial journey founding a multitude of other successful Cleveland-based companies and in parallel, formed Zapis Capital Group in 2003, investing in the technology, healthcare, real estate and media industries across NorthEast Ohio.We cover a lot of ground in this interview and I hope you will enjoy it!Connect with Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leezapis/Follow Lee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/leezapisConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

On our sixth episode, we’re speaking with Gerald Hetrick, CEO of Able. Gerald has a decorated past here in the Cleveland entrepreneurial space as a technology leader at MCPC, co-founder, CTO and COO at Vox mobile, and more recently, CEO of Able (formerly known as Employstream) which just closed on a $7mm Series B and has experienced tremendous growth over the last year. Gerald is a mentor of mine who I have learned a great deal from, a boon to the Cleveland startup scene, and I hope you all enjoy our conversation!Learn more about Able: https://www.ableteams.com/Connect with Gerald on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldhetrick/Follow Gerald on Twitter: https://twitter.com/geraldhetrickConnect with Jeffrey on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand

On our fifth episode, we’re speaking with Mansfield Frazier, founder of Château Hough - the country’s first inner-city vineyard located in the historic district of Hough, where he resides. Our conversation spans growing grapes and selling wine in Midtown Cleveland, triple-bottom line businesses, conscious capitalism, institutionalized racism, combating recidivism, and lots more.Mansfield is a native Clevelander and a product of the Cleveland public school system. He left Cleveland in 1969, and for the next 30 years lived all over the United States, pursuing activities that can best be described as checkered at best, an experience he feels greatly shapes his perspectives as a writer and journalist, primarily focused on social justice issues.Self-taught as a writer, he returned to Cleveland in 1995 and began his career as the associate editor of an urban news magazine, The Downtown Tab. He served briefly as the editor of the minority-focused weekly, The Call & Post before moving on to edit CityNews, a startup urban weekly. His writing is currently featured nationally on Newsweek/The Daily Beast, and locally on both CoolCleveland.com and The Cleveland Leader.He currently serves as the executive director of Neighborhood Solutions, Inc. a non-profit that publishes Reentry Advocate, a national magazine that goes into various prisons, libraries, county jails, halfway houses and prison ministries around the United States.Learn more about Chateau Hough: https://www.chateauhough.com/Follow Fiveable on Neighborhood Solutions: http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com/Connect with Mansfield on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mansfieldfrazier/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLand