Lay of The Land

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

Today's episode is a special one as our guest is our very own co-host, Tagan.Over the next few episodes, Tagan will be waning off of Lay of The Land as a co-host and so we wanted to share her own Cleveland entrepreneurial journey as a guest on the show before her departure. Lay of The Land will continue to tell the stories of Cleveland entrepreneurship every Thursday, and Tagan and I will still collaborate on the show, but we both wanted to have a proper send-off in the form of this episode. It's been an absolute pleasure working with Tagan to get Lay of The Land up and running and I think you'll all enjoy learning about her background and Cleveland story.Connect with Tagan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thetagan--Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLandVisit our website: http://layoftheland.fmSay hello: jeffrey@layoftheland.fm

Ron Stubblefield is a nationally recognized lawyer, scholar, economic development professional and entrepreneurial advisor. As a shared Entrepreneur-in-Residence, he acts as a collaborative resource for the Economic Community Development Institute, the Hispanic Business Center, The Presidents’ Council, The Urban League of Greater Cleveland and JumpStart. Ron works with these organizations to advance Black and Brown tech and tech-enabled entrepreneurship within the City of Cleveland.In this role, Ron coordinates community and neighborhood outreach and programming, provides direct assistance to entrepreneurs and advocates for the needs of these entrepreneurs with partner organizations in the state-funded Entrepreneur Services Provider (ESP) network.Prior to taking on this role, Ron was Assistant Director for Emerging Technology Centers, a venture of the Baltimore Development Corporation focused on the incubation and acceleration for early-stage technology-based startups. Before this, he served as a Neighborhood Legal Fellow and a Neighborhood 360 Fellow with the NYC Department of Small Business Services, where he assisted with corporate governance and economic development research and program management.Outside these positions, Ron has also designed and implemented financial models and strategic plans for a variety of colleges, financial institutions, non-profit organizations, political campaigns and foreign governments. Additionally, he is a published thought-leader on topics of diversity equity and inclusion and has traveled both nationally and internationally to speak on these topics, as well as overall startup incubation and financial management.Ron is a proud alum of Morehouse College. He also holds a master’s in Management Science and Engineering from the Stanford University School of Engineering and a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law, where he was a Jacobson Law and Business Scholar and graduated with distinction as a Vanderbilt Medal winner.Learn more about Jumpstart: https://www.jumpstartinc.org/Connect with Ron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronaldstubblefield/Follow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLandVisit our website: https://layoftheland.fmEmail us: hello@layoftheland.fm

Carrie Murphy was born and raised in Cleveland. After graduating from Syracuse University with a degree in Public Policy and Strategic Management she decided to move to New York City. Her first job was working for the startup, The Ladders, where she began her career in recruiting. From there, she went into retained executive search working at a boutique firm, Daversa Partners, where she placed executives across the C-Suite for high-growth, venture-backed companies. This is when she realized the positive impact startups and disruptive technology can have on the economy and global population. In 2015, Carrie decided it was time to move back to her hometown and became the Director of HR and Talent Acquisition at a series B technology company, Vertical Knowledge. There she saw the company nearly double in size from 35 – 65+ employees and helped with not only identifying and retaining the best talent but also figuring out the processes needed in order to successfully scale the business. Carrie found herself inspired to want to help Northeast Ohio attract the best talent and further help the startup ecosystem grow and thrive. She’s extremely excited to be able to join the VFA team as the Director of Northeast Ohio and hopes to expand VFA’s footprint and impact locally and beyond.Learn more about Venture for America: https://ventureforamerica.org/Follow Carrie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarrieMarkworthFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLandVisit our website: https://layoftheland.fmEmail us: hello@layoftheland.fm

This week, we're talking with Ed Buchholz, the founder of Start in CLE.Ed is founder of three venture-backed software companies and has more than twenty years product leadership experience with multiple B2B and B2C products. Since recording this episode, Ed has taken a job as a product manager at Facebook in Menlo Park.In this episode, we not only talk about Ed's journey and Start in CLE, but we also have a very transparent letter from Ed about the Cleveland ecosystem and how it can be successful moving forward.Learn more about Ed: https://edwardbuchholz.com/Learn more about Start in CLE: https://startincle.com/Follow Ed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ebuchholzFollow Lay of The Land on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PodLayOfTheLandVisit our website: https://layoftheland.fmEmail us: hello@layoftheland.fm