The large number of open jobs in the startup community indicates these companies are doing well and growing. But working for a young startup has unique challenges. Recruiters and employers discuss some of the critical qualities required for those looking for a good fit with a startup.

Cleveland Cyclewerks (CCW), a startup that manufactures and sells its own motorcycles, is set to open the first Cyclewerks-exclusive dealership at its warehouse in the Gordon Square Arts District. The owners will host a party on Saturday, October 5th with food trucks, kegs of free beer and tours of the shop, which sells accessories and also repairs bikes.

"A year ago, this place was a mess," says general manager Jon Dale. "We cleaned it out, pressure washed everything and built a new plywood floor. We wanted to keep the old building feel, though, with the brick walls and the concrete floors."

The shop at Herman and W. 65th Street will be open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5, and will soon be open on Saturdays, as well. The repair shop specializes in vintage British and Japanese bikes, and the staff can custom-build CCW bikes based on a customer's preferences. All of the company's models, including the soon-to-be-released ACE, will be on display in the store.

Owners Scott Colosimo and Jered Streng created CCW after getting laid off from their industrial design jobs in 2009. The lightweight bikes have 250cc engines, are inexpensive to maintain, and get 100 miles to the gallon. They've been described as having a "retro-futuristic" look and are priced at only $3,295.

Dale says that Colosimo and local architect Robert Maschke purchased the vacant, 70,000-square-foot warehouse, which was last home to a rubber stamping plant but built as a meat packing plant, for a small sum. They are slowly refurbishing portions of it and leasing it out to small companies or using it for CCW's operations.

CCW has grown tremendously over the past few years, and now sells bikes at 40 dealerships in the U.S. and 15 countries throughout the world. Dale, a Cleveland native, says that the company has allowed him to stay in the city and do what he loves.

"Not only is my passion my job, but I get to help revive the city," he says.


Source: Jon Dale
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The Cleveland Clinic’s annual Medical Innovation Summit will be the first event held at Cleveland’s brand new Global Center for Health Innovation. The event will be held October 14-16, and organizers expect it to draw more than 1,200 people.
 
"We’ll have CEOs from major companies, investors, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs,” says Gary Fingerhut, acting executive director and general manager of information technology commercialization at the Clinic. “Deals come out of this summit. Past innovation deals have been made on the buy-side and in research.”
 
More than 1,000 jobs and $700 million in investments have been created from the regional spinoff companies.
 
On the first day, 12 startup healthcare companies will have a chance to pitch their companies to a panel of executives. “The winner gets a year engagement with StartUp Health Academy."

The theme this year is Finding Balance through Innovation: Obesity, Diabetes and the Metabolic Crisis. Fingerhut says the topic was chosen because of the growing international concern about diabetes. "Clearly, it's an economic problem in the world," he says. Demonstration and panel discussions will focus on the impacts of type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Mike Roizen and a panel of experts will discuss the Clinic's top 10 medical innovations for 2014. Fresh Water readers can receive a discount to the summit. Go to the registration page and use promo code FRE2013 for a special $500 rate on registration.

Source: Gary Fingerhut
Writer: Karin Connelly

The entrepreneurs behind Piccadilly Artisan Yogurt, who opened their first location in the old Grog Shop space on Coventry Road less than a year ago, will open their second location in Ohio City this fall.

Adrian and Cosmin Bota, Romanian-born brothers who grew up in Parma, have also signed a letter of intent on a retail space at West 117th and Clifton.

The Ohio City location is a slender, 1,100-square-foot storefront that's sandwiched between Crop and Bonbon Cafe in the 2500 block of Lorain Avenue. Adrian Bota says the location, which will offer the same organic, locally-sourced frozen yogurt that's available in the Coventry store, is perfect for the urban-oriented company.

"Our whole focus was not to be in the suburbs, and to focus on urban areas we’re both interested in and want to promote," says Bota. "We were looking for areas in Cleveland that had same vibe [as Coventry Village] and that we could be a part of. Ohio City was our top choice for expansion. It's a great place because people are moving back and they're really interested in reviving that neighborhood."

Bota says the new store will feature unique, creative design with an urban flair. Ariel and Otelia Vergez of design firm Vergez Inc. helped design the interior, which will feature refinished plywood design accents, tables made from reclaimed wood, and a lounge area that might feature a porch swing (the Botas haven't made up their minds yet). Local architect John Williams developed the interior plans.

Bota says the Coventry location has been successful enough that they were able to use some of their profits to launch additional stores. Construction is underway on a third location next to Melt in the Short North district of Columbus. He is talking with representatives of Downtown Cleveland Alliance about a downtown shop.

The Bota brothers, who worked at the West Side Market as teenagers, intend to source as many ingredients as possible from the market and other local vendors.


Source: Adrian Bota
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Core and shell renovations of the 150,000-square-foot Victory Center, a $26 million project located along the Health-Tech Corridor, are almost complete. Tenant build-outs will follow, and although none have signed leases yet, developer Scott Garson says that will change as his team finishes the common spaces and shows the property to more prospective tenants.

"Everybody thinks it's wonderful, great… The trick is getting the first one in," he says. "I have enough letters of intent out there that I'm confident it's only a matter of time."

Garson says the demand is there for flexible, ready-to-grow office space geared towards biomedical, research and technology companies, which is why he decided to undertake the project. He points out that nearby buildings owned by Geis Companies and Cumberland Development are almost completely full.

So far, Garson has completed the project without a bank loan, using partner equity and a $720,000 loan from the city, $2.5 million in tax increment financing, federal and state historic tax credits, and a $1 million State of Ohio job ready sites grant. Garson expects to secure bank financing in the near future for tenant build-outs.

The building's unique features include a new interior with a historic waffle slab ceiling, window wells that allow plenty of natural light, copious backup power, fiber-optic connectivity, and the right mechanicals in place for laboratory space. The building will be certified LEED Silver, saving tenants 20 percent on utility costs. Finally, it has views of downtown, free parking and HealthLine access.

"We went through a recycling program with the materials and our landscaping uses stormwater management strategies," says Michael Augoustidis of Domukur Architects, the firm that designed the project. "It's very energy-efficient."

Although he's not ready to declare victory yet, Gardon says the historic building, which was built in 1917 as the Arts Center, is nearing the goal line and ready to score.


Source: Scott Garson
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Cleveland Clinic Innovations has launched a spinoff company, Shield Biotech, out of the Lerner Research Institute. Led by Vincent Tuohy, the company is developing a vaccine for breast cancer.

The vaccine uses the body’s own immune system to fight off and kill cancerous tumors. Tuohy, who serves as Shield’s chief science officer, has been working on this theory for the past 11 years. 
 
The next step is to secure FDA approval for human clinical trials, probably within the next two years. Researchers found that a single vaccination could prevent breast tumors from occurring in mice genetically bred to develop breast cancer, while also inhibiting the growth of already existing breast tumors. The research was originally published in Nature Medicine in 2010.
 
“It works in animals,” says Tuohy. “It’s safe and very effective. We’d like to see women live longer without tumors, not women live longer with tumors.”
 
Tuohy sees the vaccine as particularly effective in breast cancers that are aggressive and tend to recur. “Triple-negative breast cancer has a higher recurrence rate than other forms of breast cancer and is insensitive to current forms of adjuvant therapy,” he says. “It’s the predominant form of breast cancer that occurs, for example, in women with BRCA1 mutations. “
 
Tuohy sees potential in eventually immunizing against prostrate and ovarian cancers as well. 

Source: Vincent Tuohy
Writer: Karin Connelly

Cleveland, like most American cities, has had its challenges regarding segregation. But emerging patterns of desegregation can significantly advance our city's position as a center of innovation. This represents a key opportunity to reconstitute a new American neighborhood model by harnessing the potential of diversification.

Kelli Hanley Potts has lived in Denver and Albuquerque, where she got involved in the slow food movement, replaced her front lawn with a vegetable garden, and worked for some of those cities' top chefs. When she got the urge to move back home to Cleveland, she knew she wanted to do something food-related.

That's when she stumbled upon a business idea. Despite the rise of the local food movement, most people had no idea how to cook kale, make jam or preserve food. She asked 18 female friends if they knew how to make a pie from scratch, and only two said yes.

Additionally, many people in the local farming movement have trouble explaining and marketing their products to customers, who are largely unfamiliar with them, she explains.

There are no cooking schools in Cleveland that did what she wanted to do -- connect people back to the land and back to their grandmothers' kitchens by teaching them the age-old skills of home economics -- so she decided to create one.

"I didn't want to watch a chef in front of me and drink wine," says Hanley Potts. "I wanted to learn something. I wanted to reconnect people to the lineage of the table, help them build their own table culture."

She recently launched the Agrarian Collective, an earth-to-table lifestyle school. Her mobile cooking school is offering classes this fall that cover topics like roasting your own coffee, fermented and cultured foods, and discovering local apples, among others. She'll be teaching students how to make the perfect pesto at this weekend's Cleveland Flea.

She was aided by a $5,000 low-interest loan from Bad Girl Ventures, which enabled her to purchase supplies and begin reaching out to chefs and farmers as partners.

"This is like home ec, but not quite as official and nerdy," she says. "It's about reconnecting people. All these things we once learned and were taught, they're missing. We're teaching people the 'how' of home."

Source: Kelli Hanley Potts
Writer: Lee Chilcote

As millenials, empty nesters and other demographic groups flock to downtowns across Ohio, business improvement districts -- or BIDs -- are playing an important role in ensuring that these areas are clean and safe and that residents, office workers and property owners have the amenities they need to thrive.

A business improvement district is a defined area in which property owners pay an additional tax in order to fund projects and services that enhance the area. Downtown Cleveland has a BID, and the organization provides basic "clean and safe" services, organizes events and markets downtown to prospective residents, visitors and businesses.

This week, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, which manages the downtown BID, organized the first all-Ohio BID conference, bringing together BID leaders from across the state to network and learn about issues they share in common.

"It came from the idea that there's not a unifying organization or conference for BIDs," says Anna Beyerle with DCA. "We can learn a lot from other BIDs across Ohio. The idea was to get in the same room and throw out ideas and best practices."

Topics included food truck legislation, downtown transportation, farmers markets, placemaking, and office and retail recruitment strategies.

Participants also enjoyed several tours of downtown Cleveland and the surrounding area and had a chance to learn from Cleveland's redevelopment.

Beyerle says the conference will help BIDs, such as the one in downtown Cleveland, to become more effective. "We're up for renewal in a couple years, and we're looking at how we can improve."


Source: Anna Beyerle
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Since 1988, Beachwood-based Acendex has been the go-to IT consulting company for businesses looking for information and communications systems. “We’re like the IT department for companies too small to afford the talent and too large to not have high-end support for their systems,” says Jonathan Husni, founder and president of Acendex.
 
The Acendex philosophy is to let their clients focus on what they do, while Husni and his team build the right voice and data networks to help them do those jobs.
 
With the local economy improving, business has picked up. To cover the increased business, Acendex is looking to add three or four senior network engineers to its 14-person team. But Husni is having trouble finding talented people to keep up with client demands.
 
“Just finding folks who have the skill set I’m looking for is very, very difficult,” he says. “The guys who have been with me who are successful have been with me 10 to 15 years.” Like many IT companies, Husni finds that applicants have the training, but they don’t have the hands-on experience. “A lot of people have the credentials, but they don’t have the experience to back it up,” he says.
 
So in the meantime, Husni came up with a solution. He hires entry-level people and puts them in the field with clients who want someone on-site 40 hours a week. They have the knowledge for basic support and at the same time have the backup of senior level staff if there’s a more advanced problem.
 
“They get the opportunity to get real world experience, but when they get stuck they can call our senior engineers.” Husni says. “It’s a sort of proving ground. It works for the client because they get 40 hours of help at a low cost. It works for me because they get the training they need.”
 
 
Source: Jonathan Husni
Writer: Karin Connelly

Are you sustainable, Cleveland? That's the question environmentally conscious city officials are asking heading into the fifth annual Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Summit. The initiative to build "a green city on a blue lake" is at the halfway mark, and Cleveland's new chief of sustainability believes Northeast Ohio is meeting the metrics set out a half decade ago.

When Andy Halko founded Insivia right out of college in 2002, he was more of a freelancer, picking up projects piece by piece. Today, the company is a full-service marketing firm working out of the Agora in Midtown.
 
“We’ve really evolved into a strategic marketing firm for our clients,” says Rick Scheeser, Insivia's director of operations. “Nowadays we’re their entire marketing department. We have a more strategic partnership with our clients, and we have a lot more control over what we do.”
 
Over the past year Insivia has developed its client base, grown into a 16-person company, and is looking to add a back-end developer and an account executive.
 
“Before we had lots of one-off projects,” says Scheeser. “Now our clients are more our partners; we’re working with them on a long-term basis.”
 
Scheeser says Insivia has developed a niche market in the manufacturing industry. “It really helps us understand how we can use technology in their businesses and communicate with their clients,” he says regarding developing an expertise in the market. “I don’t think you could be in Cleveland without helping manufacturing companies.”
 
Another niche evolves around small tech startups. But Scheeser says no matter what the industry, Insivia gets to know the inner workings of the client. "It’s all about learning about our clients,” he says. “We focus on long-term objectives from a marketing perspective. It allows us to really own the results, instead of just one small piece.”
 
Source: Rick Scheeser
Writer: Karin Connelly

There are very few properties in Cleveland where a resident can don a pair sandals and stroll straight to the beach from one's front door. But when it comes online next summer, the Shoreway Building will join that small and privileged group.

The building at 1260 W. 76th Street, once home to the Globe Machine and Stamping Company, has been used for years as a storage facility by the Catan family (of Pat Catan's Craft Centers).

With the reopening of the pedestrian tunnel at W. 76th Street -- a few feet from the building -- the Catans recognized that it was time to reenergize the building as a hub for city living.

Using a combination of state and federal historic tax credits and other financing sources, the Catans are renovating the empty building into 45 market-rate loft apartments with indoor and outdoor parking, huge windows and a common roof deck boasting matchless lake and downtown views.

The building also will feature an indoor fitness center and a small street-level retail space that could become home to a future cafe.

"These are true loft-style units," says Michael Augoustidis, an architect with Domokur Architects who helped design the project. "They have exposed brick walls, really big industrial-style windows, exposed concrete ceilings and concrete floors."

Augoustidis says the level of quality will set the building apart. All units will have gourmet kitchens featuring Corian countertops, hardwood cabinets, and boast an "urban feel."

There isn't a bad view in the building. The structure's orientation allows for stunning treetop views looking out over Edgewater Park and Lake Erie, or dramatic urban views looking out over the lake, Battery Park and downtown. You choose.

Units will be between 900 and 1,400 square feet and will lease for $1,000-1,900 per month.
 
Augoustidis says that units will be ready starting in May or June of next year, and that some of the old wood plank floors will be upcycled into common area design elements.


Source: Michael Augoustidis
Writer: Lee Chilcote

As summer transitions into fall, we wanted to take a moment to look back on a season filled with family, friends and festive neighborhood gatherings. Throughout it all, Fresh Water photographer Bob Perkoski has been attending and shooting the best summer festivals. This slideshow features captured images from a dozen events.