Ryan McManus — founder and CEO of SHARE Mobility Ryan is passionate about solving workforce and rural mobility challenges, creating and affording equitable access to transportation, and ultimately changing the way people actually commute. To this end, SHARE Mobility, which raised over $12 million in funding from investors like JumpStart Ventures here in Cleveland, JobsOhio, Iron Gate Capital, Seamless Capital, and Venn Ventures among others, is a mobility-as-a-service platform empowering companies and municipalities to seamlessly implement a new transportation program or optimize existing on ..read more

Today we’re running a replay of one of my favorite conversations from 2022 with Lila Mills of Signal Cleveland. Since we last spoke, Signal Cleveland has continuously produced reliable daily journalism across a plethora of local topics and built Cleveland Documenters, a group of nearly 700 greater Cleveland residents, representing nearly every zip code in the county, who are trained and paid to cover public meetings. Additionally, launched in December 2023, Signal Akron joined Signal Cleveland as the 2nd newsroom within the Signal Ohio network of independent and community-led non-profit newsro ..read more

Rick Stockburger, CEO of BRITE Energy Inovators. Located in the City of Warren, just outside Youngstown in the Mahoning Valley, BRITE was founded in 2010 as a non-profit focused on the acceleration of energy technology in Northeast Ohio. Since then, and under Rick’s leadership, BRITE has helped over 600 companies, creating approximately 2100 jobs, and channeling >$250 million dollars into BRITE’s network of companies. Providing signature start-up programs, a networked ecosystem, and strategic presence to unleash the energy revolution across Ohio, Appalachia, and the Midwest writ large, BR ..read more

Kyle Maggard, Founder & CEO of Over Easy. Kyle started OverEasy in the fall of 2018, reflecting on his time as a former college athlete at Westpoint and as an Army Captain where living a healthy and active life wasn’t just his passion, but his job. As a busy father, husband, and entrepreneur, he came to recognize that staying fit and eating healthy were harder than they sounded in his busy lifestyle, and without a convenient and nutritious option to start his day, set out to create one for himself. Over East started with a year of Kyle iterating and testing different recipes while still ..read more

Azadeh Hardiman — Business Leader of Level20, the new business incubator of Progressive Insurance, one of the largest insurance carriers in the US (which was founded and still headquartered here in Cleveland)! As the new business incubator, Level20 is focused on addressing the unmet needs of current Progressive customers and the general population, by understanding the real problems people face every day, deserving of real solutions. Azadeh and her team drive growth beyond insurance to develop new ideas, products, and services that help these people. Azadeh joined Progressive in 2015 as a Di ..read more

Nick Dadas — Co-Founder of University Tees, SISU Lifestyle, Acton Academy Lakeside, ISI, and MasterPlan Coach. In 2003, still a sophomore at Miami University, Nick co-founded University Tees after trying to organize a t-shirt order for his business fraternity and becoming frustrated with his experience; so he and his co-founder, Joe, decided there had to be a better way and like all good entrepreneurs, they started their own company. Since then, University Tees has gone on to grow into the premier custom apparel brand for the college market with over 700 campus managers at over 300 colleges na ..read more

Reilly Berk, CEO of Berk Enterprises. Founded back in 1946 by her grandparents, Suzanne and Harold Berk, Berk Enterprises boasts a diverse history that began with the creation of the "QuicKill" insecticide and the subsequent founding of Berk Exterminating Company in Warren, Ohio. Evolving, the company expanded its ventures into numismatics, leading to the Warren Coin Shop, and later transformed into Berk Paper and Supply, carrying janitorial products such as tissues, napkins, and paper towels. In 1976, Berk Paper and Supply evolved into Berk Enterprises, when the company underwent transformati ..read more

Mary Cowan, the President of NCS Credit, based here in the greater Cleveland area. The story of NCS Credit is one of family, growth, and success anchored in a belief of uncompromising excellence and ever-advancing technology. Founded in 1970 by Howard V. Cowan as a commercial collection agency, NCS Credit’s goal was to form trusted partnerships and provide exceptional debt recovery services for its clients. In the early 1980s NCS Credit earned a reputation as a leading authority in the corporate credit industry and expanded its services to meet the needs of its credit professionals by adding ..read more

Ethan Holmes — founder and CEO of Holmes Mouthwatering, a Cleveland-based manufacturer of all-natural applesauce, made with Ohio-grown apples, pears, and local apple cider.  To date, over 50,000 customers have purchased and consumed Holmes’ products, processing over 500,000 pounds of apples and delivering over 250,000 units to consumers across the US. Holmes Mouthwatering applesauce can be found in retailers including Heinen's, Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Giant Eagle, among others. Inspired by his Grandfather who had always made food at home from scratch, when Ethan was 15 years old ..read more

Mohamed Kamara, founder and CEO of InovCares. Grounded in a sobering reality: The United States has the highest rates of maternal mortality in the industrialized world. In May 2017, having lost both his sister and aunt to preventable pregnancy-related causes, Mo found himself in a place with the motivation and determination to confront this maternal mortality crisis head-on. Mo ultimately founded InovCares to this end — to address the concerns of women of color who are, unfortunately, often dismissed in healthcare settings. Where in addition, many of them do not receive culturally humble and ..read more