In a few months, beer lovers who have conquered the Winking Lizard World Tour of Beers will have another well-stocked venue where they can wet their whistles. When the popular Winking Lizard chain opens Lizardville in the Galleria this summer, as many as 32 draft beers from Ohio and contiguous states will be available on tap. The venue also will serve Ohio-made whiskey and wine, plus a full menu of food crafted from local ingredients.

Winking Lizard owner John Lane announced plans to bring his successful Lizardville concept, which first opened in Bedford Heights last year, to downtown Cleveland. He plans to take over a former art gallery space on the first floor near Dollar Bank, while adding a 1,000- to 2,000-square-foot patio with a bar.

What distinguishes Lizardville from Winking Lizard is the concept of specializing in locally made libations of all stripes.

"I don't know of another place downtown where you can get all of these Ohio beers on tap," says Lane. "We're bullish on the area because it is so close to the new Medical Mart, Convention Center and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. When people come to visit Cleveland from out of town, they ask the bartender, 'What do you have that's local?'"

Lane is bringing the Lizardville brand to other cities in Northeast Ohio, including a location in Rocky River that will offer beer and wine to go at retail prices, like the original in Bedford Heights.


Source: The Winking Lizard
Writer: Lee Chilcote

"When it comes to U.S. job growth, startup companies aren't everything. They're the only thing." That's the conclusion of a study released last year by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Missouri. The study goes on to argue that the U.S. would be better off investing in assisting entrepreneurs rather than helping established companies, because the former are creating jobs while the latter are merely shedding them.

That kind of thinking is on display daily at Baldwin-Wallace College (BW), which created the Center for Innovation and Growth (CIG) to support student entrepreneurship and innovation. This month, BW announced that it has landed a $1 million grant from the Phillip E. and Carole R. Ratcliffe Fund of Fort Lauderdale, Florida to support student entrepreneurship programs.

The CIG is designed to facilitate collaborations and small group discussions among students, faculty and business collaborators. Each year, approximately 40 students are selected to be CIG student fellows. As a cohort, these students engage with business leaders, learn concepts of innovation and work on hands-on projects. At the end of their fellowship, they also make a team presentation of their project findings to a client company's senior management team.

According to the nonprofit Jumpstart Inc., more than 50 percent of people age 18-24 indicate that they're planning to or have already started a business. Even students who don't start their own companies may end up working for an entrepreneur. That's why Jumpstart and other collaborators have focused on growing the collegiate entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northeast Ohio.


Source: Jumpstart Inc., Baldwin-Wallace College
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Adam and Susan Fleischer of the Wine Spot in Cleveland Heights have opened a boutique wine and craft beer store at a time when many big box retailers are vying for this same business. Yet, spend a few minutes with them and you'll realize that their infectious enthusiasm and love of wine is also backed up by creativity and a solid business plan.

Adam Fleischer first developed the store concept as a way to ditch his fast-paced corporate lifestyle, spend more time with his family and do something he loves.

"My wife and I came back to Cleveland from Washington D.C. after our son was born, but my job had me traveling 100 percent of the time," he explains. "I got burned out on the corporate scene and really began to miss my family. So we decided to take our passion and hobby and turn it into a business."

Fleischer freely admits that opening a retail wine and beer store is a "high-risk proposition" these days, yet says he's identified a niche market that is a unique destination. The Wine Spot is more than just a run-of-the-mill beverage store; rather, it's a place where one comes to learn about wine and beer, sample new favorites, and simply enjoy the company of others in a great atmosphere.

Once patrons discover the gorgeous interior, most won't want to leave, Fleischer adds. The store is filled with custom-built wine racks, tables built from repurposed wood by A Piece of Cleveland, an authentic tile floor from the days when it housed Bruder's Dairy, and a large, comfortable bar area. For more than 50 years, the space housed neighborhood favorite Seitz-Agin Hardware.

Fleischer says it's perfect for his diverse Cleveland Heights clientele, who are all passionate about the history represented in the community. "It still feels like an old Cleveland Heights shop, but with all of the modern conveniences."


Source: Adam Fleischer
Writer: Lee Chilcote

On Tuesday, February 7, Global Cleveland opened the doors to its Public Square welcome center. The organization is tasked with attracting and retaining talent to the region from around the globe, with the goal of adding 100,000 people to the region. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski was at the ribbon cutting.

Video games no longer are child's play. A multi-billion dollar industry, video game development seduces countless wannabes, each hoping to design the next Call of Duty. Helping to train those people is Cleveland Institute of Art, which recently launched its Game Design program. Combining classes in 3D modeling, game mapping, screenwriting and sound design, this challenging program is no child's play either.

NorTech has announced 14 finalists in its 12th annual Innovation Awards. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Thursday, March 22 at LaCentre in Westlake.
 
The awards, which for the past four years have been co-sponsored with Crain’s Cleveland Business, honors the top innovations in technologies such as advanced energy, advanced materials, bioscience, flexible electronics and instrument controls.

“The NorTech Innovation Awards showcase breakthrough technologies being developed and commercialized in Northeast Ohio,” says Rebecca O. Bagley, NorTech president and CEO. “We believe these innovations will have a positive impact on the region’s economy through job creation, capital attraction and overall business growth. Ultimately, the organizations being recognized this year are laying the foundation for a strong economic future for our region.”

NorTech received more than 40 applications this year. A panel of nine judges will evaluate the finalists on creativity, feasibility and triple bottom line impact. South estimates nine winners will be chosen. The panel of judges is selected to represent a broad range of expertise from academia, venture capital, private industry and economic development from throughout the Northeast Ohio region.

 
Source: Rebecca Bagley
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Fowler Center for Sustainable Value at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University has recently introduced a new form of sustainable consulting for small and medium-sized businesses.

In partnership with True Market Solutions, a San Francisco-based company, the Fowler Center introduced its Sustainability Circles initiative in October. The effort aims to help such businesses enhance their performance by fully integrating sustainable business practices into what they do.

The Fowler Center's Sustainability Circles include both peer-based learning and professional advising. The program brings up to nine organizations at a time into a peer learning community for one day a month for six months. Sustainable business practice topics range from the built environment to operational environments.

At the end of the process, Sustainability Circles participants walk away with specific outcomes that are intended to help them transition into more sustainable, effective businesses. Such results include a complete carbon footprint analysis, an initial project and a customized Sustainability Action Plan.

"This is about a whole new lens for business," says Beau Daane, Manager of the Fowler Center. "In a world with rising customer expectations and declining natural resources, businesses have to consider sustainable value or they'll be left in the dust. For us, this is where the scholarship meets the practice."


Source: Beau Daane
Writer: Lee Chilcote

CitizenGroove has changed the way music schools take applications. CEO John Knific and three CWRU classmates wanted to solve the paper problem involved with applying to music schools.

“We were initially inspired by the problem music school were having -- they were getting 1,500 to 3,000 DVDs with bundles of paper,” recalls Knific. “We thought, every kid who is applying to music school knows how to use YouTube and FaceBook and other social media.”
 
So, in 2010, CitizenGroove emerged as a streamlined way for students to upload auditions and present them to the schools they were applying to. The idea took off. The company of eight is split between New York and Cleveland -- four of which are located in Lakewood offices. Knific hopes to double his staff this year, and the company continues to launch new tools and improve on its product.
 
CitizenGroove is continuing to grow in popularity among music schools. “We went from 12 schools to 50 schools and we’re hoping for 100 schools by the end of the year,” says Knific. “We went from using arm wrestling maneuvers to get schools to choose us to now schools are calling us.”
 
CitizenGroove is a finalist in the Intel Innovation Awards. They are rallying people to vote for them on the company’s FaceBook page in hopes of winning the $100,000 prize.

 
Source: John Knific
Writer: Karin Connelly

At last count, Ohio City was home to nearly 90 nonprofit organizations and community groups. Combined they employ 3,000 individuals and have a collective budget totaling several hundred million dollars. They also attract over 100,000 customers annually, and boast more than 10,000 committed volunteers.

Since the recession began, the groups that make up this sizeable nonprofit community have met regularly to discuss ways to combine purchasing, share services and leverage their resources. Such conversations have led to Ohio City Dialogues, an effort to bring together and strengthen the nonprofits in the neighborhood that is being managed by the community development corporation Ohio City Inc.

"These groups are able to accomplish more and better achieve their missions by working together," says Jeffrey Verespej, Director of Operations and Advocacy with Ohio City Inc. "They are able to get better services at lower rates because they're sharing the burden across so many different organizations."

The group is now working with the Sourcing Office, a local company that helps governments, businesses and nonprofits obtain competitive rates for goods and services. Recently, they crafted a Request for Proposals for an information technology provider and selected Onelink, a Westlake-based company.

Verespej says that the Ohio City Dialogues group will display its growing influence in the coming year. The group is planning to hold its annual meeting in March, with Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson scheduled to deliver the keynote address.

"There's a real nonprofit economy here, and nonprofits have an economic impact that's not often seen," Verespej says. "We think we can tell a different story, and leverage nonprofits into a stronger impact for the community."


Source: Jeff Verespej
Writer: Lee Chilcote

LifeServe Innovations, which is developing a percutaneous tracheostomy introducer dilator, recently
received $75,000 from the Lorain Innovation Fund. The device allows medical personnel to place a tracheotomy tube with greater ease and with fewer procedural complications than existing systems.
 
Co-founders Zach Bloom and Rick Arlow first came up with the idea as a class assignment while attending Lehigh University. “We were looking for problems to solve in emergency or critical care,” recalls Bloom. “We ultimately developed a safer and much more user-friendly approach.”
 
While they each went on to graduate school, they took their intellectual property and decided to bring their device to market. LifeServe Innovations was born in 2009. Bloom and Arlow chose Cleveland for its balance of medical and entrepreneurial support. “Cleveland is an entrepreneurial community and a medical community,” Bloom says.
 
The process of developing the dilator was one of trial and error. “It’s the nature of any startup -- the product you ultimately come up with is never the original,” says Bloom. “We kept designing products for surgical airways until we found something that met the need.”
 
LifeServe will use the grant money to manufacture and test their dilator. “We hope to have the product cleared for market by the end of second quarter,” says Bloom. While the company has volunteers helping them, Bloom hopes to hire two to three people in the near future. “As the growth begins to come and we see success in our investment, we want to bring income to Cleveland.”

 
Source: Zach Bloom
Writer: Karin Connelly

If the printed book business is dead, don't tell Mike Zubal. His family's Zubal Books is one of the largest booksellers in the country, moving about a quarter million titles per year. Though you'd never know it, roughly four million books fill a nondescript warren of buildings about a mile from the West Side Market. Never heard of the place? You're not alone.

Shaker LaunchHouse, the pre-seed investment fund and business accelerator, is hosting a gala on Saturday, February 18 at the Cleveland Skating Club to raise awareness of the more than 200 entrepreneurial activities hosted by LaunchHouse each year.
 
“All of the stuff that we do, a lot of the costs are incurred by LaunchHouse,” explains founder and managing partner Todd Goldstein. “So we decided to put on the gala to raise awareness.” Events include Whiteboard Wednesdays, Job Hunters Coffee and Donuts, and regular seminars and lectures.
 
In addition to the programming LaunchHouse has created more than 20 paid college internships in the past two years.
 
Organizers hope to raise $50,000 at the gala to help meet their goal of $250,000 this year. “Any money raised from the gala is used to support entrepreneurial activities,” says Goldstein. “None of it will be used for salaries.”
 
The event is sponsored by the Shaker Heights Development Corporation and included dinner, dancing and silent auction. The band Shout will play, which Goldstein describes as “one of the hottest bands in Northeast Ohio.” Auction items include lighting from Kichler Lighting, a vault tour of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, dinner at Maxi’s in Little Italy, and a gift certificate to Paysage.
 
Tickets are $125 per person or $1,000 for a table. Contact LaunchHouse for an invitation.

 
Source: Todd Goldstein
Writer: Karin Connelly

Slavic Village, a neighborhood once considered to be the epicenter of the national foreclosure crisis, took another step this week towards remaking itself as a regional hub for urban recreation. A public meeting was held to kick off the design of a new skateboard park that will be located at Broadway and Union Avenue on the site of a former brownfield.

"It all started when a neighborhood resident approached us about creating a skate park," says Jacob Van Sickle, Active Living Coordinator for Slavic Village Development, the nonprofit community development group that serves the neighborhood. "From there, we worked to build awareness of skateboarding by creating the 'East Meets West' competition, offering lessons at Stella Walsh Recreation Center and engaging skateboarders in the neighborhood."

Van Sickle soon found that skateboarders were leaving the city in droves to pursue their sport elsewhere. The reason is that the City of Cleveland lacked a decent, permanent skatepark. "Many of them are artistic and entrepeneurial; they're part of the creative class," he says. "We saw an economic development opportunity to attract people from across the region to our neighborhood."

Slavic Village Development engaged the nonprofit Public Square Group to help create a new park. Both parties saw it as a way to redevelop the blighted Broadway Avenue corridor. "Skateboarding evolved out of an urban environment, and skaters have always reclaimed less developed public spaces," says Vince Frantz, President and Executive Director of the Public Square Group.

Van Sickle and Frantz expect the new park to create amenities for skaters and non-skaters alike, as benches and spectator amenities will be incorporated. The design has been funded by Neighborhood Progress Inc., and additional public meetings are scheduled to take place in the coming months. As the design is completed, project leaders will seek sources of funding to build the park.


Source: Jacob Van Sickle, Vince Frantz
Writer: Lee Chilcote

It's hard not to notice the attractive bike racks that have been popping up around town lately. Much more than simply utilitarian places to hitch your ride, these racks are at once urban sculptures and retail signage for local businesses. Many of them have been designed by Rust Belt Welding, two Cleveland entrepreneurs who are making a living doing what they love.

"We wanted to do creative, bicycle-related projects, and we knew there was a need for more bike racks because we'd ride around town and say, 'I wish there was one here,'" says Grant Smrekar, who created Rust Belt Welding with his friend Lou Erste four years ago in order to build bike frames, something that remains the core of their business. "We wanted there to be an artistic quality to these projects, and for the bike racks to represent the place they're at."

What started out as a small project grew quickly once the bike community and enthusiastic business owners grabbed ahold of it. "The local cycling group Crank-Set Rides offered to help us raise funds to create more bike racks, and that allowed us to make a few of them," says Erste. "Then places like Market Garden Brewery asked us to create custom racks in front of their businesses."

Their most recent creation, which was installed last month in front of Market Garden Brewery in Ohio City, spells out "BIKE" in red, metal letters. Rust Belt Welding has also installed bike racks in front of Phoenix Coffee, Joy Machines bike shop, Blazing Saddles bike shop and other local venues.

"We'll build pretty much anything, but the more that we can build stuff that's fun and creative, that's even better," says Smrekar, who adds that Rust Belt is planning to add more artistic bike racks around town in the near future.


Source: Lou Erste, Grant Smrekar
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland-based clothing designer iLTHY (I Love the Hype) has opened a new store in the Gordon Square Arts District in Detroit Shoreway. The shop, which is located in a former art gallery at West 54th and Detroit, sells the brand's popular hip hop and sports-themed T-shirts. It's a major move for the start-up apparel company, whose products were previously only available online and at select retailers.

Artist and founder Glen Infante's colorful designs have been worn by up-and-coming rappers such as Machine Gun Kelly, Wale and Mick Boogie. The name iLTHY comes from the notion that the company was built on "hype" and that such grassroots, street-level support helped it to grow rapidly in the first two years. Infante also earned some ink from the media in 2010 after raising funds for a downtown billboard urging LeBron James to re-sign with the Cavs.

iLTHY produced over 50 original T-shirt designs in the past year alone. The company hopes to expand even further in 2012, and to advance its overarching goal of putting Cleveland on the map in the creative apparel industry.


Source: iLTHY
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Rene Polin, president and founder of Balance Product Development in Chagrin Falls, likes to find solutions to problems. The product design house was formed in 2004 and has developed products for a number of other companies. But Polin wanted to create something out of his own ideas.
 
That idea came when Polin watched his seven-year-old daughter playing with his iPad. “Rene would come home and hand over this expensive piece of equipment to his daughter,” recalls Polin's partner Anthony DeMore, Balance vice president of strategy and business development. That’s when the idea hit to make a foam case to protect the iPad from accidental drops and other damage.
 
After seeing his iPad slide off the kitchen table one too many times, Polin and DeMore developed the Fomation iPad2 case -- a soft but durable foam protective case. The foam material, which is often used in commercial applications like airplane seats and roller coasters, protects the iPad from the bumps, bruises, shakes and rattles of everyday life.
 
“We wanted to create an elegant, beautiful, but very protective foam case,” says Polin. “When we started researching, we found that there were foam cases, but they were made overseas and typically were made with unsafe chemicals and processes.” The Fomation is made out of foam manufactured safely by a Lorain County manufacturer.
 
Balance put the Fomation idea on Kickstarter.com to secure funding for the product, and the company is in talks to secure a partnership with a local college that provides iPads to all first-year students. Balance plans to launch Fomation even if they don’t meet their goal on Kickstarter.

 
Source: Rene Polin and Anthony DeMore
Writer: Karin Connelly

It’s not exactly a news flash that tattoos have become decidedly more mainstream. Long the province of drug-addled rock stars, ex-cons and bikers, tats now can be spotted on even the most civilized among us. And as the tattoo market continues to heat up, more talented artists are finding work in Cleveland's new tattoo studios.