Lay of The Land

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