Two years ago, after a 17-year career as a communications consultant with some of the area’s larger human resources firms, Denise Reynolds decided she wanted to put a little color in her job. So after she was laid off from her last position, she launched Outside the Lines Creative Group (OTL), a company that uses cartoons to convey company messages.

“I wanted to take all of my knowledge about benefits, wellness, policies and procedures and make it fun,” she says of her newfound venture. “I thought, this stuff is so boring. If only we’d put cartoons with it, people would actually read it.”
 
So she recruited nationally syndicated cartoonist Jenny Campbell to illustrate Reynolds’ HR messages. Reynolds uses humor and illustrations to communicate sometimes not-so-exciting subject matter, like dress codes and employee safety rules. “Companies love it,” she says. “And employees think it’s great.”
 
Currently, OTL has about 20 clients, ranging from Jergens Industrial Supply to the Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. In fact, finding clients hasn’t been too hard, says Reynolds. “You have to find clients who want to do something innovative."
 
Jergens liked Reynolds’ campaign so much they asked that the cartoon characters be painted on the plant’s machinery. “Companies try everything to get the attention of employees, but they haven’t tried cartoons yet,” says Reynolds. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park hired OTL to create a children’s educational activity book featuring a river otter. The book won an international award and the otter has been made into a plush stuffed animal.
 
In fact, OTL won five international awards in two competitions in 2013 for its work on projects for Akron Children’s Hospital, ACRT, Jergens Industrial Supply and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
 
OTL recently was awarded a $5,000 loan from Bad Girl Ventures, which Reynolds plans to use to update her website and post some work samples. She also plans on hiring a second cartoonist.

 
Source: Denise Reynolds
Writer: Karin Connelly

As recently as last year, the Colonial and Euclid Arcades downtown suffered from 40 percent vacancy. But oh, how fortunes have changed. The once-moribund properties, rebranded as 5th Street Arcades, have gone from half-empty to almost full. Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski spent some time in the arcades window shopping with his camera.

What's the big idea behind the South Euclid Idea House? Housing Manager Sally Martin says the goal of the energy-efficient, 1,800-square-foot home, which was completed this fall, is to stimulate new thinking about the future of this built-out, inner ring 'burb.

That future now includes seven new-construction homes scattered throughout the community, five community gardens and three pocket parks. These projects rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the foreclosure crisis -- South Euclid has now demolished 56 homes, with more to come. The city also has inspired at least one private builder, Weathervane Homes, to build homes in the community.

"We built the Idea House to show that you can live big on a small lot," says Martin. "The 'big idea' is that infill development is a great possibility for the private sector, and that houses can be built here in a modern way that modern buyers will like."

In the past, Martin says, many builders looked past South Euclid to the exurbs. The modest silver lining in the housing crisis, which resulted in many vacant homes, is that infill lots are beginning to open up. One South Euclid, a new community development group, now offers these lots for development.

The Idea House features an open floor plan, upscale finishes, first-floor master bedroom or den, and energy-efficient design. The house, which was built using Neighborhood Stabilization Program funding, is under contract for $162,000.

Martin says the new homes, coupled with green space initiatives, aggressive code enforcement, nuisance abatement and offering of lots to private developers, have spurred the beginnings of a renaissance.
 
"We've planted the seeds, and it's taken off from there. We've seen a small increase in the housing market. There's hope."


Source: Sally Martin
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Tomorrow's economy-boosting titans are today's middle and high school students, and there's no good reason to make them wait until college or later to start honing their business acumen. Fortunately, area programs aimed at would-be high school entrepreneurs are providing experience that will serve them well regardless their future paths.

When Craig Lewis, a mechanical science and engineering major at CWRU, was given an extra credit assignment in 2011 to come up with something that would increase household energy efficiency, he started thinking about how much water people use in the shower.

“We did a little preliminary research to see if people could track their water consumption in the shower,” Lewis recalls. “We found that 76 percent of people we surveyed had no idea what their water consumption was.”
 
So Lewis and his partners, Andrew Schad and CJ Valle, set out to create a shower head that tracks water consumption. “How can you be efficient if you don’t know what you’re consuming,” asks Lewis. The result is Sprav, a company that makes a water meter by the same name for the shower. Today’s model is wireless and works with the users’ mobile devices to provide usage data. It takes seconds to install and requires no tools.
 
Sprav entered Case's St. Gobain Design Competition in the fall of 2011 with a prototype and came in second place. Listening to feedback from the judges and the audience, Lewis and his team redesigned the meter, making it sleeker and with more functionality, and proceeded to take top honors at the following year's competition.
 
Sprav ran a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year. While they fell short of their fundraising goal, the company enrolled in Bizdom’s fall class. “It’s been a great opportunity,” Lewis says of Bizdom. “They’ve done a great job of guiding us along the path.” The company has also turned to Blackstone Launchpad for guidance and resources.
 
Lewis has taken a year off from school to work on Sprav full-time. While the device is still in development, the company has an agreement with CWRU to test it in the dorms in 2014. While Lewis calls Sprav a “grass roots effort” right now, he has his sights set on getting Sprav in big box stores like Walmart and Home Depot, “where people expect to buy these types of things.”

 
Source: Craig Lewis
Writer: Karin Connelly

As an investor in Biolectrics, a company that makes a battery-powered mouthpiece – think sports mouth guard -- that treats periodontal diseases with electric stimulation, Paul Ruflin began thinking about the device’s potential in other applications.
 
“The mouthpiece delivers a small amount of current that kills oral bacteria,” Ruflin explains. “In the lab it kills 75 to 100 percent of bacteria in the mouth in five to 10 minutes. The early results are promising in killing oral bacteria.”
 
With human trials completed at the University of Buffalo, Ruflin has created Animal Oralectrics, based out of MAGNET’s offices. The company uses the same technology as Biolectrics but applies it toward dogs, sheep, cows and cats. “Animals are five percent more likely to have periodontal disease than humans,” says Ruflin. “Less than one percent of dog owners brush their dogs’ teeth or takes them to the vet for a cleaning.”
 
Ruflin recently created a prototype on a 3D printer and is working with Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine to test Animal Oralectrics on dogs. So far, the response has been positive. “This device kills oral bacteria, prevents gingivitis and gum loss,” explains Ruflin. “The current is undetectable. The concept here is to make a device that gives treatment but looks like a chew toy or pull toy. You can even put a treat in the end of it. The key is getting them to engage with it for five to 15 minutes.”
 
The Innovation Fund recently awarded Animal Oralectrics a $25,000 grant to further develop its product. Currently, the company consists of just Ruflin and an intern from CWRU. But he plans to hire a marketing and social media person soon. He also plans on running a crowd funding campaign before releasing the product in of 2014.
 
Ultimately, Ruflin predicts he will add seven to 10 direct employees and another 15 to 20 indirect employees over the next two or three years.

 
Source: Paul Ruflin
Writer: Karin Connelly

Developer Rick Foran has made a career out of saving buildings, yet his latest project involves repurposing elements of one structure that was beyond repair.

Foran was hired by the Episcopal Diocese of Northeast Ohio two years ago to evaluate the condition of the long-vacant Emmanuel Church at 8614 Euclid. After discovering that the building needed structural repairs, the diocese marketed the property, but no buyers were willing to reinvest in it. When the Cleveland Clinic bought it, approval for demolition was granted with the condition that some parts be preserved.

Today, Foran's crew is carefully disassembling the stone facade, numbering, photographing and cataloguing each piece, and palletizing, shrink wrapping and storing them for later use. The goal is to reconstruct the narthex facade at another location to be determined. Additionally, the Skinner organ, woodwork, baptismal font, French floor tiles and historic light fixtures also are being salvaged.

"Nobody likes to tear down a landmark church, but if the decision has been made, I'm pleased that we can repurpose artifacts of the church and give them a new life," says Foran. "By the time the demo occurs, many of the more distinctive features will have been salvaged and relocated. There's also been an effort to keep them in a religious environment, or to keep them in the city of Cleveland."

The baptismal font, French floor tiles and stained glass window have been relocated to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Mentor. Light fixtures are being dispersed among various churches in Cleveland. The hand-carved lectern and bible stand are being added to the Cleveland Museum of Art's collection.

The Clinic plans to build a hotel on the site that will provide families a place to stay while a loved one is in the hospital. The Clinic's previous guest house was displaced by the new medical school building recently developed in partnership with Case Western Reserve University. Groundbreaking on the new hotel is expected to occur next year.


Source: Rick Foran
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Have you ever walked into a sweet li'l shop with a bevy of well-displayed merchandise and thought, Wouldn't it be fun to do something like this? That's exactly what artists Jen Buchanan and Colleen Bridegum always thought -- and they decided to act on it by launching Girl's Best Trend boutique this fall.

Girl's Best Trend, located at 17007 Madison Avenue, offers "art and accessories for you and your home," according to the tagline. The selection includes art, candles, glassware, pillows, clocks, frames, handbags, jewelry, scarves and perfume, all made by local artists and craftspeople.

"Colleen and I have known each other for 20 years, and we're both just really creative people," explains Buchanan. "We always thought on our own, 'Boy, I'd like to do something else.' We were talking one day, and both realized we were thinking about the same thing. Then we found the space, and boom, it all happened really quickly."

Buchanan works as an interior designer during the day, while Bridegum works as a home health care professional in the evenings, so they run split-shifts at the shop. Buchanan makes handbags and Bridegum is a painter. They hope to eventually offer interior design services out of the shop, as well.

Girl's Best Trend is about 600 square feet currently, but will expand to 1,200 square feet early next year when the space is fully renovated. Next door, a new pottery workshop is going in, and there are other galleries in the area.

"They're building up Madison now," says Buchanan of Lakewood's increased focus on that commercial strip. "There's a new Madison Arts District group that's going to start doing art walks in the summer."


Source: Jen Buchanan
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Researchers and hospitals literally can accumulate rooms full of paperwork documenting a single clinical trial. Rick Arlow offers a better method of document management without all that paper. RegulatoryBinder is an early stage software company focused on document management for medical clinic trials.
 
Arlow, who was earning a dual M.D. and Ph.D. a year ago, observed how much paper was wasted in clinical trials, came up with the idea to go paperless. So he quit his studies, formed RegulatoryBinder and joined accelerator FlashStarts in PlayhouseSquare.
 
“I have a tool that allows hospitals to store clinical trial data electronically,” explains Arlow. “Up until now, researchers would store paper in three-ring binders. There were literally rooms of paper.”
 
RegulatoryBinder’s Enterprise Document Management software provides up to a 33 percent increase in documentation productivity while standardizing the documentation system and saving researchers money. The biggest challenge Arlow encountered in developing a system of electronic records for clinical trials was efficiency and adoption.
 
“The large issue is, how do you do this in an efficient manner and still be compliant,” explains Arlow. “We had to find a way to provide the software, training and services and get people to adopt it.”
 
RegulatoryBinder is being used in pilot programs at University Hospitals and a number of other sites. Arlow says that so far people have been quick to adopt the technology.
 
RegulatoryBinder was one of six Northeast Ohio start-up companies to receive $25,000 from Lorain County Community College Foundation’s Innovation Fund. Arlow also recently received follow-on funding from FlashStarts. He plans to use the money to hire staff in customer support, marketing and sales, and to promote RegulatoryBinder to more markets. Arlow hired his first employee this month and plans to hire another before the end of the year. He anticipates two more hires in 2014.

 
Source: Rick Arlow
Writer: Karin Connelly

When remodeling a kitchen, people usually rely on friends for advice on contractors and architects. Brides use websites and friends as resources when planning their wedding. Entrepreneurs Brian Verne and Mike Eppich figured: Why not create a place where athletes can get advice on apparel?

So Verne and Eppich created Phenom, a mobile app where athletes can brag about the apparel and equipment they use to train. “Influences have a place,” says Verne. “Athletes are concerned with how they look and the products they are using.”
 
Phenom is designed to give amateur athletes a leg up on the decisions they make.
 
“Phenom connects athletes with the best gear, equipment and training opportunities based on what their peers are using right now,” says Verne. “From buying a new product to vetting a trainer, camp or combine, Phenom will become the easiest way for athletes to get the inspiration, advice, product information and professional reviews they need to win.”
 
Verne describes Phenom as “an app to promote your style and your hustle.” Users create a digital profile in a virtual locker to share what they like and are using. “The virtual locker has information on how they’re using that stuff, where they’re using it and how they’re training and competing,” explains Verne.
 
After first starting a successful performance apparel company, Verne and Eppich decided they needed to expand their vision. “We wanted an app that had a heartbeat, to capture things in real time – people getting ready to train and wanting to compare equipment,” says Eppich. “The whole idea is to see an athlete’s day or athletic career in every single segment, from the training they do to their post-workout after the game.”
 
Verne and Eppich have seven part-time employees in New York, a vice president of finance in Boston and are planning on hiring two to three full time developers in their Cleveland headquarters. On January 7, the two will head to New York to pitch Phenom to investors in First Growth Venture Network’s SecondGrowth.
 
To build awareness of the app, Phenom recently hosted an open house during a soft launch at their downtown Cleveland offices.

 
Source: Brian Verne and Mike Eppich
Writer: Karin Connelly

An east-side developer has purchased the historic streetcar power station on Larchmere Boulevard. Once home to the American Crafts Gallery, which is thought to be the oldest gallery of its kind in Cleveland and is now housed within the Dancing Sheep boutique down the road, the property has been vacant for years. Ilene Greenblatt, who has developed properties in Chicago before moving back to Cleveland to be near family, bought the building and expects to wrap up renovations by March.

"It's a very handsome building and I've always loved it," says Greenblatt. "When I saw it was for sale and the price was reasonable, I jumped in and bought it."

Renovating the building has not been quite as reasonable. Shortly after the purchase, the back wall caved in and the roof collapsed. Greenblatt soldiered on, fixing a leaky basement, cleaning out an old tunnel leading to the street that was stuffed with trash, and rebuilding a mezzanine that was too dangerous to stand on.

The property, which has soaring 30-foot ceilings, brick walls and large windows, will soon house Wolf's Gallery, a long-running fixture on the Cleveland art scene that opened a gallery on Larchmere a few years ago. Owner Michael Wolf plans to relocate to the 6,000-square-foot space in spring, a dramatic expansion from his current storefront.

"I love the people in the area, they're wonderful," says Greenblatt. "The building was neglected for so long, it needed a lot of money and a lot of work. But it will be here for at least another hundred years, easily."


Source: Ilene Greenblatt
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland Neighborhood Progress, a nonprofit community development organization, has begun offering Cleveland City Life tours to expose suburbanites, millenials, empty-nesters, boomerangs and newcomers to town to all the city has to offer.

CNP Director of Marketing Jeff Kipp says the tours really are about helping Clevelanders see for themselves the positive change taking place in the city.

"We'll do the proverbial handholding and take you into the neighborhoods," he says. "You see the positive headlines and positive trends, but a big chunk of our population doesn't have firsthand experience with the city. This is about removing that intimidation factor and bridging the gap."

Tours starts in Ohio City and include stops in Detroit Shoreway, the lakefront, University Circle, Little Italy, Midtown, downtown and Tremont. Along the way, it also touches on neighborhoods such as Cudell, Glenville and Fairfax. Each lasts two hours, costs $12 and comes with a free Live!Cleveland/City Life T-shirt.
 
"As we drive through University Circle, we can reference the excitement that's happening in North Shore Collinwood," Kipp explains, adding that while the tours can't feasibly cover the whole city, they will highlight all city neighborhoods.

The tours are being marketed through CNP's website and partner organizations such as Global Cleveland and the Downtown Cleveland Alliance. There currently are tours scheduled between Christmas and New Year's and around the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.

"This is a way to roll out the red carpet and give a reintroduction to your Cleveland neighbors," Kipp adds.
 

Source: Jeff Kipp
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Startups @ City Club is a new collaborative effort between the City Club of Cleveland  and the Cleveland Startup Collective to bring the startup community together in educational, social and thought-provoking environments.
 
The first event was launched at Cleveland Entrepreneurial Week in November, with speakers on technology, product development, investing and the overall startup community in Cleveland. “The main goal of the entrepreneurial speaker series is to install the values of lean startup methodology, the entrepreneurial-driven startup community and mentor-driven startup development,” says Morris Wheeler, organizer and founder of Drummond Road Capital. 

Speakers included Chris Heivly, founder of MapQuest, venture partner and founder of TechPint Paul Singh and Alexis Giles, vice president of business development at MOX.
 
The Cleveland Startup Collective is a grass roots organization focused on lean startup methodology – launching a new product to market in as little as 10 to 12 weeks with as little capital as possible. “Life’s too short to build a product no one wants,’ says Wheeler. “A number of us over the past two or three years believe that at its core, startups and startup investing need to revolve around the entrepreneur. ”
 
Wheeler says entrepreneurs in cities like New York, Boston and San Francisco get together on Friday nights, drink beer and discuss issues around their businesses. While casual meetings are starting to take off in Cleveland, Wheeler says the city needs more.
 
“All of the other organizations like JumpStart are important to entrepreneurial success, but in our view we need to be meeting the needs of the startup community, not defining the needs of the community.”
 
Startups @ City Club plans to host four to six events a year, some of which will be partnered with other events like TechPint. “The idea is to have many different activities,” says Wheeler. “We’ll have dialogs, educational events, pitch events and social events.”
 
Source: Morris Wheeler
Writer: Karin Connelly

The City of Lakewood has issued 44 certificates of occupancy on Madison Avenue this year, and nine businesses are participating in the city's storefront renovation program. Planning and Development Director Dru Siley says these numbers show how much business interest there is along this traditional yet funky strip, which is seeing a wave of redevelopment activity spurred in part by Detroit Avenue's success.

"We want to reproduce the success we've had on Detroit, recognizing that Madison has unique character and flavor that make it distinct," he says. "Madison is a small business corridor. Of 300 businesses here, 95 percent of them are locally owned."

Siley says that Madison is home to independent restaurants and entertainment spots, professional services and service-oriented retail. Current vacancy rates hover around 14 percent, down from over 20 percent a few years ago. Lakewood is developing a new streetscape along Madison that will break ground fall of 2014. The city also is committing storefront renovation dollars to help attract businesses and redevelop properties.

Examples of new businesses attracted to Madison recently include Mahall's, a historic old-school bowling alley that has new ownership and added music, food and entertainment, and Barrio, a Mexican eatery. The streetscape project not only will resurface the street, but also reduce Madison to two lanes with a center turning lane to make it safer and accommodate bike lanes. No parking will be lost.

The City of Lakewood and LakewoodAlive hosted a forum entitled "Madison on the Move" on Wednesday, December 4th at Harrison Elementary School in Lakewood.


Source: Dru Siley
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland artist Jessica Newell recently quit her job teaching Psychology at Cleveland State University to open a gallery in the 5th Street Arcades. Jessica's Gallery, as it's called, functions as a studio, a gallery for the artist's work and a showcase for rotating local artists.

"I love to paint," Newell explains. "I began receiving a lot of commissions from friends and family, and pretty soon I began to realize, 'I can make a business out of this.' I inquired about a place in the 5th Street Arcades and discovered that there was retail space available. With its walkable traffic, I figured I'd make a go of it."

Newell opened two months ago, and she says she's been thrilled with the traffic so far. Downtown apartment dwellers and condo owners are a great market for unique, local artwork, she says. She enjoys painting in her studio during the weekday lunch hour, because that draws customers to come in and look around.

Newell's paintings feature abstract representations of the Cleveland Metroparks and images of the city that "capture what the city could be." Currently, Jessica's Gallery also features the work of local landscape artist Michael Greenwald.

"It's amazing how this place has turned around," she says of the 5th Street Arcades, which are nearly 100 percent leased now. "Between Small Business Saturday and Winterfest, an incredible amount of people came in. It was packed."

Newell has also completed several murals around town, most recently for Piccadilly's Artisan Yogurt on Lorain Avenue in Ohio City, which just opened.


Source: Jessica Newell
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Dan Mansoor’s 30 years in nonprofit fundraising has taught him one thing. Well, it’s taught him a few things, actually. One is that people think they give to their favorite charities much more often than they actually do. Two: donor retention rates hover around only 40 percent. And three: 80 percent of charitable giving is still motivated by direct mail.
 
Mansoor thought there had to be a better way, one that makes it just as easy to make and track donations as buying a book on Amazon. So he created GiveNext, an online brokerage account of sorts that makes giving easy.
 
“It’s easier to buy a book than save a life,” Mansoor says. “The decision of making a gift is the hardest part. It shouldn’t be making the gift.”
 
GiveNext works for both donors and organizations. Donors simply sign up online, choose the charities of their choice and make donations. They can then generate a report of the year’s gifts for tax purposes. Nonprofits can register their causes, invite their donors to visit GiveNext to make a donation and receive timely donations.
 
With GiveNext, you’re one click away not only from helping a charity, but one click away from helping with any cause or emergency, says Mansoor. “How many of us wanted to help others after Hurricane Sandy, the Newtown shooting, the Boston bombing, the Philippine typhoon, or Illinois tornadoes? But we didn't because we did not know which charity to give to, or it was too cumbersome to give, or we were distracted by our busy lives. If all we had to do is get out our phone and type in an amount and hit ‘enter,’ more people would do more.”

Mansoor went through the most recent LaunchHouse Accelerator program and won first place and $20,000 in the COSE Business Pitch Competition on October 23. “It’s nice to know there are others out there who think the concept is somewhat worthy,” Mansoor says.
 
While Mansoor is the only GiveNext employee right now, he expects to have 30 to 50 employees in the next five years. He anticipates going live in the next two months.

 
Source: Dan Mansoor
Writer: Karin Connelly

When Lisa Reed was coaching clients on health and nutrition out of her Chagrin Falls office, she would always make them a healthy green juice. After time, Reed realized that some of her customers were coming more for the juice than they were for the counseling.
 
The juice, today known as Mean Green, is made with celery, cucumber, kale, spinach, romaine and lemon. “You really feel good because your body becomes alkaline,” explains Reed. “You crave it in a way because you feel good.”
 
Reed realized she had something with her juices. In 2012 she launched Garden of Flavor and this past April she delivered her first order of juices to Heinen’s. Today she is in almost every Heinen’s store, plus Whole Foods, Mustard Seed and Lemon Falls in Chagrin Falls. Reed’s juices also are in Dorothy Lane in Dayton and Columbus and Whole Foods in Cincinnati. In January Garden of Flavor will expand to Pennsylvania and Chicago.
 
In addition to Mean Green, Garden of Flavor currently features six juices that range from Goji Pineapple (goji pineapple, mint and ginger) to Twisted Roots (carrot and beet juices). Reed also has developed a one-day juice cleanse that is quite popular.
 
Ironically, Reed’s most loyal customers happen to be home juicers. “Our best customers are juicers themselves and do it at home,” she says. “They realize the cost of organic produce, the time and cleanup involved, and it’s a lot easier for someone to do it for them.”
 
Reed juices all of her fruits and vegetables in a 38-degree refrigerated space in Midtown. “It’s an ideal environment with very little oxidation or breakdown,” she explains, adding that she’s adjusted to the chilly work environment.
 
Reed’s son Clayton works for Garden of Flavor, and she uses a staffing firm to help with the labor involved. She plans on hiring two to three full time people in the near future.

 
Source: Lisa Reed
Writer: Karin Connelly