How LaunchHouse Redefines Social Networking

Todd Goldstein (l) and Dar Caldwell (r), co-founders of LaunchHouse

Todd Goldstein (l) and Dar Caldwell (r), co-founders of LaunchHouse

 

Like many of today’s adults who are past the traditional college roommate stage of their lives, Mitch Turck shares a house with others who are saving money by living together. But unlike those who have cobbled new housing arrangements out of financial stresses, Turck was one of 19 applicants for nine available spaces in two homes. Previously based in Pittsburgh, the entrepreneur researched accelerator programs, applied for this unique startup “neighborhood,” then picked up and moved in August….to Cleveland.

The city commonly known as the “Mistake by the Lake,” Cleveland might be the punchline of many jokes. For entrepreneurs looking for a cost-efficient and supportive base from which to grow a startup, however, this Midwestern location offers some seriously kick-ass perks. A lot of those benefits are thanks to LaunchHouse (http://launchhouse.com), a startup accelerator that came on the scene in 2008. Home to more than 200 companies through its co-working office program, LaunchHouse added two actual houses to its leasing options in April. Located just around the corner from its 23,000 square-foot main facility, the two residences are filled with entrepreneurs like Turck. They come from a variety of locales, two from as far away as China.

“Why would anyone ever move to Cleveland?”

The question is posed, and promptly answered, by Todd Goldstein, Chief Executive Officer of LaunchHouse. Along with co-founder Dar Caldwell, Goldstein has been at the front lines of creating this tight-knit startup community.

“This is bringing interest from all over the world,” says Goldstein. “Only 30 percent of the applicants for the housing were from the northeast Ohio region. We’re here in Cleveland asking what early-stage entrepreneurs need. They need social, cultural, and educational support. They need an ecosystem.”

And what an ecosystem it is. Entrepreneurs who reside in the two houses and those who use the co-working spaces at LaunchHouse enjoy more than just hot coffee. There’s the expected: whiteboards, first-come-first-serve desks, private offices, copiers, conference rooms. And there’s the decidedly unexpected: a gigantic open production space housing enterprises ranging from landscapers and agricultural suppliers to videographers and fashion designers; hens housed in the parking lot; a puppy following Caldwell as he gives a tour; 3-D printers; Gigabit broadband with super-fast Internet access.

In-house eggs + Gigabit connectivity = LaunchHouse ecosystem

What?  The same space that has in-house fresh eggs also boasts connectivity rivaling that of Google Fiber’s Kansas City Startup Village. LaunchHouse partnered earlier this year with OneCommunity (http://onecommunity.org), a nonprofit established in 2003 that owns and operates a high-speed all-fiber network spanning 24 counties and over 2,000 miles in northeast Ohio. Experienced at providing data service for more than 2,300 public institutions, OneCommunity first worked with LaunchHouse to bring the high-speed Internet to the 23,000 square feet of co-working space. The two enterprises turned the corner, literally and figuratively, when they partnered to extend the service to the two LaunchHouse entrepreneurs’ residences which are located on a quiet side street just off the busy commercial setting of the accelerator’s Lee Road location. Think of it as northeast Ohio’s first “fiberhood.”

While the high-speed connectivity is certainly a draw for those who want to live in an entrepreneur house or pay as little as $125 per month for 24/7 access to the co-working space, it’s the social connectivity fostered by LaunchHouse’s leadership that really makes it work as a startup accelerator. For instance, Caldwell, Goldstein and the five partners they’ve added to the LaunchHouse team since 2008 host 20-25 MeetUp groups per month. There is always something going on at LaunchHouse.

“They’re all encouraged to use the space for free,” says Caldwell. “We have hackerthons here, workshops, our ‘Whiteboard Wednesdays’ when we brainstorm ideas. It’s an open community.”

Social, social, social: the startup’s version of real estate’s “location, location, location”

For Jeremy Handel, managing partner of Handelabra Studio and Handelabra Games (http://handelabra.com), the openness at LaunchHouse benefits his creativity – and his business. The videogame developer took the much-worn path tread by many entrepreneurs: from attic office to coffeehouse office to traditional office. That last one, with its traditional rents, proved too expensive; Handel moved to LaunchHouse about one year ago and became one of their portfolio companies. (LaunchHouse invests in selected startups).

“Initially, I moved here because it’s cheaper,” says Handel. “But the number one selling point is the social. I get up and walk around, talk with people to see what’s going on. It’s the first place that has felt collaborative. Here, an idea shared is grown, not stolen.”

And Turck, who is growing his Vendalize (http://vendalize.com) local search tag startup both in the entrepreneur house and in the co-working space, agrees. “In an office by yourself, you have to motivate yourself. When you’re socializing with others, the pace is faster. It’s easier to work harder.”

Juli Kaylor Gray has covered traditional business topics, as well as offbeat fare ranging from lenticular art exhibits to the “wedding-on-a-hike minister,” in her ten years as a freelance writer and magazine editor. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, she’s a focused Tweep at @QuirkyCleveland and a distracted blogger at http://quirkycleveland.com/.

Tackk Wants to Prove Tech Can Be Done Anywhere

tackk

Crain’s Cleveland Business Journal is reporting that Cleveland-based Tackk recently received $1.2 million dollars in a funding round led by ff Venture Capital out of New York. The 1-year-old startup helps users create simple web pages, a la Tumblr. In fact, Tumblr-size success is the exact mark they’re shooting for.

“We invest in companies where we think they can change the behavior of millions of people. I can see absolutely no reason why you can’t have millions of people using this,” John Frankel of ff Venture Capital told the Cleveland Business Journal.

“Ridiculously simple creation + sharing,” it says on the Tackk homepage. And, it is just that simple. The homepage allows you to drag and drop pictures, edit text, and play with colors, fonts, and backgrounds without even creating an account. (Registration is required if you want your Tackk up longer than a week.) The Tackkboard allows you browse Tackks on a variety of topics, and you can like and share your favorites.

Despite the comparisons to Tumblr, Tackk isn’t necessarily seeking to become a huge social network. CEO Christopher Celeste told TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha that they were more interested in helping people create and tag content, then push it out through whatever social media or physical way they desire.

The recent seed round will be used build out a mobile platform and make it easier to browse Tackks.

According to the Business Journal, investors suggested the team move to New York to complete the next stage of development. The team said no way, and they are now building what they hope is the next great content creation tool right at home in Cleveland.

As the voice of startups everywhere else, we at Nibletz think that’s a great decision, but it’s not one that every company makes. I asked Eric Bockmuller why he would want to stay in Cleveland, when all the money is telling him to move.

Our founding team was born and raised in Cleveland, we have a connection with the city that I think only fellow Clevelanders understand. We see an opportunity to create something special that typically doesn’t happen here. We know it may be more of a challenge, but we understand that we’re not just building a great Cleveland company. We’re building a great company that lives in Cleveland but impacts the whole world.

The second part of his answer was surprising: talent.

Many startups tell us it is hard to recruit good talent outside of Silicon Valley, but Bockmuller doesn’t see it that way. With tons of talented students graduating from the universities in and around Cleveland, the Tackk team is seeing many who are willing to stay at home and build the next great tech company.

Bockmuller also acknowledges that there will be challenges. Without success stories going before them, they have fewer mentors and examples than you find in the Valley. It’s also more time consuming to meet with investors when that meeting involves a flight. But Bockmuller is an entrepreneurs and has a cheerful answer for these challenges:

There will always be the questions around talent, money and scalability being based in Cleveland and we believe the opportunity to overcome those questions is now with Tackk…it only takes one to change a region.

Go check out Tackk and keep up with them on Twitter.

Startups In The Fastlane: Flashstarts Startup RegulatoryBinder

RegulatoryBinder, Cleveland startup, Flashstarts accelerator, accelerators, fastlaneWhile Richard Arlow was pursuing a dual MD/PhD at Case Western Reserve University he experienced the pain first hand that so many doctors, researchers and scientists experience far too frequently.

“I realized that my clinical collaborators were killing themselves to painstakingly record data in hundreds of pages in paper regulatory binders. They would get audited and after two days of searching, the auditor could always find some way to show that the documentation was not accurate, complete or current. Their trial would then be completely shut down, sometimes just over a single missing signature.” Arlow told us in a FastLane interview.

We’ve heard this before from our friends going though the ZeroTo510 accelerator in Memphis, and others in the medical and life sciences startup fields. We also found out that restarting a trial, even after being shut down for something as small as a signature can cost thousands upon thousands, if not millions of dollars. This of course is a huge pain point and a huge problem.

Arlow is hoping to solve this problem with his SaaS solution for the regulated medical industry. RegulatoryBinder is an enterprise document management (EDM) web app specifically for clinical trial regulatory documentation. When researchers, scientists, and doctors integrate their research with RegulatoryBinder, the system will help them keep all of their documentation organized, current and in compliance, saving millions of dollars.

Check out our Startups In The Fastlane interview with Arlow below:

 

Where is your startup originally from?

Cleveland, OH

Tell us about your current team?

As the sole founder of RegulatoryBinder.com, I am a medical geek who unexpectedly became an entrepreneur. I was trained as a biomedical engineer and started a device company at Lehigh University in PA. The company created a clinical grade device, several patents, and was named one of BusinessWeek’s Top 25 Under 25 in 2010.

As for my education, I went to Case Western Reserve University to pursue a dual M.D. / Ph.D. degree again in biomedical engineering. I conducted clinical trials, particularly supercomputer simulations for medical research. I have presented at conferences and have been published in top journals, including Elsevier Neuroscience.

Throughout my involvement in clinical trials

So, I started RegulatoryBinder.com and have since taken leave from the M.D. / Ph.D. program to pursue this opportunity full-time. I have built a strong team of advisors and developers that compliment the vision.

What does your startup do?

We are a software and service provider for the regulated medical industry.

We developed the first clinical trial regulatory software (CTRS). The software is an enterprise document management (EDM) web app specifically for clinical trial regulatory documentation.

We are also the only hosting provider that assumes responsibility for eRecord regulation compliance for instant, risk-free use.

Without RegulatoryBinder.com, institutions need to perform additional procedural controls (i.e. training, backups, tech support, access control) and validate software technical controls, in order to comply with regulations. The performance of these controls comes with additional cost, time to implement, numerous procedures and still the risk of non-compliance.

Existing comparable eClinical software takes $3-5M and over 1 year to implement. We bundles these procedures and risk for the user whining their license cost, and provide them with the ability to electronically complete their regulatory binders in the shortest possible amount of time. We can thus exceed both customer and regulatory expectations while lowering total cost.

What are your goals for the accelerator program?

Throughout the rest of the accelerator program, I plan to close more clients, finalize our next major release and start our next funding round – while ensuring that the needs of existing customers are still being met.

What’s one thing you’ve learned in the accelerator?

Iterate everything. As a startup, you have to iterate—or rethink, adjust, change everything you think you know. Iterate your client and investor materials. Iterate your product. Iterate your quality, support and sales strategies. Then iterate your vision, which will cause you to iterate all the former. Of the most importance, iterate how you iterate and manage operations. Have defined and realistic goals, metrics and timelines for all iterations.

What’s the hardest piece of advice you’ve had to stomach so far?

Doctors don’t make great businesses (on average),  so if I want to make a great business, I need to focus 110% of my energy solely on that goal.

I became a doctor to help individuals.

I’ve become an entrepreneur to make a great business and help society.

What is your goal for the day after demo day?

It’s just another day. I’ve got to talk with potential clients, support users, engage the developers and raise money.

Why did you choose this accelerator?

I was not looking to join an accelerator. I did not need the money or experience of being in an accelerator. And, if you look at the math or history, almost all companies from accelerators fail.

I chose FlashStarts because of the team, environment and enterprise-IT focus. It was the right choice for me and has enabled me to scale the company.

If you relocated for the accelerator are you staying in your new city?

I am a Clevelander.

What’s one thing you learned about an accelerator that you didn’t know when you applied?

I was gratefully surprised by the integration of business, development and designer interns that work with my team.

This enabled me to start assigning tasks and focus on core deliverables, like learning how to be a CEO. :)

Where can people find out more?

www.RegulatoryBinder.com

Check out more of our Startups In The Fastlane interviews here.

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Crowdentials Makes It Easier to Crowdfund Investors

There’s been a lot of chatter about the April 5 signing of the JOBS Act. Most people in the startup community are especially excited about the possibility of offering equity via crowdfunding platforms.

What many have missed in all the exultation is that, while it’s easier to offer equity, the standards for investors have risen. It’s now more difficult and invasive to prove you’re an accredited investor, but companies have to take “reasonable steps” to ensure their investors are accredited. This means more intrusive questions that few investors are willing to answer.

As Richard Rodman, CEO of Crowdentials, puts it: “There are two sides to this ruling. On one side, the bar for advertising has been lowered. On the flip side, the bar for verifying accredited investors has been raised dramatically.

Crowdentials is on top of the new problem. This week they launched the Certified Accredited Investors (CAI) program. The program will use a simple form and third parties to verify that an investor is accredited. After that, they will certify that the investor is accredited. No need for every crowdfunding platform to have access to your bank statements or tax records. The program is secured by multiple passwords, randomly generated IDs, and pages that expire within a certain amount of time.

“Transparency with privacy” is the goal of the new program.

Crowdfunding platforms that expect a big need can license the technology based on monthly requests. Individual companies can use the service just once or twice for a smaller fee.

Crowdentials is accelerating at the new FlashStarts accelerator in Cleveland. Investors, crowdfunding platforms, and statups can check out the new program on their website. Below is an infographic explaining how it all works.

caiInfographic

 

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Nashville Is Great. Ohio Is Too. This Guy Is Oblivious.

Cleveland Startup, Nashville Startup, startup, startups, Ohio, Tennessee

On Saturday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a guest post by Dr. Jeffery Canter. Canter is a retired professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a consultant for many healthcare startups in Nashville.

Apparently Canter lived  in Ohio before Nashville. In his piece Canter criticizes Ohio as a whole and offers a laundry list of tips to keep it’s talent, which he says Ohio is giving to Tennessee for free. All of this is based on people Canter has met who relocated to Nashville to launch their businesses. Canter makes a point that Ohio has paid for these people twice:  “First, you paid for educations that were far better than ones these new Tennesseans would have received in Nashville. Second, these productive young people removed themselves from your tax base and left you behind to pay even higher taxes.”

At Nibletz our mission is clear: to give a voice to startups everywhere else.  With offices in both Memphis and Cincinnati, we know a lot about the ecosystems of each state.

Tennessee has an impressive startup ecosystem. They were the second state region in the Startup America Partnership. There are 9 accelerator regions across the state that are administered by a public private partnership called Launch Tennessee. There are several incubator and accelerator programs, with the biggest being GigTank (Chattanooga), Jumpstart Foundry (Nashville), Seed Hatchery (Memphis), and Zeroto510 (also Memphis).

If you think there’s a lot of entrepreneurial and startup activity in Tennessee, you’re absolutely right, but some believe that Ohio has even more going on.

For starters the Brandery in Cincinnati is one of the top 10 startup accelerators in the country. Cincinnati also has the new Cintrifuse initiative, CincyTech for capital, and regularly holds events like Startup Weekend.

Traveling north, Columbus also has it’s share of exciting startup activities and initiatives. Columbus is home to not one but three accelerators; 1492, 10x, and the Founder’s Factory. TechColumbus is one of the driving forces behind the startup scene, and there are also plenty of resources for capital.

Move a little further north to Cleveland and there’s still NO shortage of startup activity. In fact the nationwide non-profit startup acceleration organization, Jumpstart Inc, is headquartered in Cleveland. Then again there’s not just one but two startup accelerators: LaunchHouse and the new FlashStarts founded by Cleveland serial entrepreneur Charles Stack.

 

serious

So, what makes a good ecosystem?

Gary Hardin at Knoxville startup BounceIt tweeted us the other day, after we ran Entrepreneur Magazine’s 7 best places to startup. Hardin thought that Tennessee should be on that list because there’s no income tax. Makes logical sense, right? Maybe.

As all of our readers know, during the nationwide sneaker strapped road trip, we’ve seen nearly 100 different startup ecosystems in person and are often asked where would we move if we could go anywhere. We chose Memphis, and at that time we had no idea there was no income tax in Tennessee.

When a startup chooses an accelerator or to relocate for one reason or the other, it’s typically resource or industry related. Nashville is hot for medical devices (you’re probably thinking music, but medical devices definitely prevail). If I needed help with branding, I’d move to Cincinnati; automotive, yes we’d still move to Detroit, Government relations or government sales, DC and so on.

Native Memphian Sarah Lacy penned a column just days after her trip to Nashville’s Southland conference entitled “Memo to non-Valley, non-NYC ecosystems: No one you want cares about cost of living.” And guess what, they don’t. Facebook Co-Founder Dustin Moskovitz also says he wouldn’t move somewhere just for optimized taxes. In fact he said this 13 months before Lacy’s article.

Are the Plain Dealer and Dr. Canter just oblivious to what’s going on around them in the startup space?

There are two certain things certain in life: death and taxes. In general, startups are oblivious to both.

Where ever you are, you need to make plans to attend this startup conference for startups everywhere else.

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Image credits: Nashville  Cleveland

These 11 Startups Have 6 Weeks To Go In Cleveland’s New FlashStarts Accelerator

Flashstarts, Cleveland startup, Cleveland accelerator, Charles Stack

Earlier this year Cleveland serial entrepreneur Charles Stack decided to launch a startup accelerator. Stack is credited as one of InfoWorld‘s “top 10 innovators in e-business.” Stack’s first company provided asbestos case management for law firms and was launched in 1984 immediately after his graduation. When he sold that company he had the capital to start his first e-business “books.com” which was eventually acquired by Barnes And Noble. Stack was early to the e-commerce and online bookstore space, having sold books.com in 1996.

Stack’s most recent venture, FlashLine, was acquired by BEA for $50 million dollars in 2006 and then acquired again in 2008 by Oracle. Stack’s story is a huge attraction for entrepreneurs and founders across Ohio and across the country.

With more and more startup accelerators popping up, entrepreneurs and founders are seeking out accelerators which have a pedigree in starting businesses. No one wants to get accepted to a 3 month program with a small seed investment to find that the people teaching the accelerator have no entrepreneurial experience.

With that in mind, Stack and hist team announced the FlashStarts accelerator in January.

Jennifer Neundorfer, FlashStarts Managing Partner, also comes to the table with meaningful experience. She comes from a role as Fox Networks Director of New Business Development where she helped create and launch the Dyle Mobile TV network, which PC Magazine called a “promising technology”.  Neundorfer holds a BA from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford she is also Google/YouTube alum.

While Cleveland may not come to your mind as a startup hotspot, it is quickly becoming one. They have the LaunchHouse and Jump Start are both based in Cleveland. We’ve met many great entrepreneurs in the Cleveland startup ecosystem, and the 11 startups in this class at FlashStarts are no exception.

These 11 teams will graduate from their rigorous program on August 27th, and Neundorfer already asserts they are exceeding expectations:

 

Anigraphic

Anigraphic is re-imagining the graphic novel.  Its unique platform enables graphic storytellers to make use of interactive scene-based panels, text options, audio and sound libraries, and animation sequences.

Aproofed

AProofed allows writers and editors to collaborate with each other in a marketplace environment. The online cloud-based platform allows editors to become self-employed while improving writers’ academic performances.  www.aproofed.com

BOLD Guidance

BOLD Guidance navigates students through college applications and allows counselors and parents to view their progress. The online platform and app makes the college application process easier with step-by-step guides and automated deadlines, tasks and reminders specific to each application. www.boldguidance.com

BranDR

The BranDR is committed to helping physicians create and maintain their personal brand identities online. Its mission is to revolutionize the way patients find, select, and interact with their doctors, by allowing them to access personalized doctor profiles.

crowdentials

Crowdentials helps businesses, investors and crowdfunding platforms comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules on equity crowdfunding. By completing a simple web form, Crowdentials users receive a report of their financial information and compliance status.   www.crowdentials.com

CuriosidyLogoFinal

Curiosidy is a new online platform for sharing and promoting life’s meaningful experiences. Users can write about experiences that have shaped them and draw inspiration and insights from a passionate, global community. curiosidy.com

LegalFunnel Logo Text 2

LegalFunnel helps lawyers meet and engage with targeted clients through efficient lead generation and personalized online branding.

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Ohio Independent Cinema strives to inspire an appreciation for independent films by making them more accessible for the general public. The company provides a new distribution option for independent filmmakers.

smooth

Smooth is a sophisticated, yet simple personal finance app currently in development. The program generates personalized recommendations that help users improve their standard of living and offers incentives for users to follow the recommendations.

 

Synthetic Intelligence sells Big Data cloud and consulting services. The company “makes Big Data go faster”.

Trailhead_logo

RegulatoryBinder.com, a product of Trailhead CFR, is a web application for managing regulatory documents of physician-sponsored clinical trials. The app is the only platform that instantly enables physicians to coordinate a clinical trial without additional procedures or risk.

You can find out more about FlashStarts here.

This conference is the best conference for startups everywhere else.

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We Catch Up With Sam Krichevsky From Cleveland’s LaunchHouse

launchhouse

LaunchHouse is the startup and entrepreneurial Mecca of Cleveland, Ohio. Like many facilities of its kind, LaunchHouse has an incubator, an accelerator, and co-working in their 22,000 square foot space.

We ran into the LaunchHouse team at Chicago TechWeek and got a chance to interview Sam Krichevsky, who’s really excited about the next level for LaunchHouse.

First, they are looking to expand their footprint across Cleveland, across Ohio, and across the region. Their model is working for startups at their earliest stages and continues to work and support ramp-up companies as well. They have touchpoints with every type of entrepreneur in the Cleveland area.

Next, Krichevsky is excited about LaunchHouse’s next batch of startups that will report to the accelerator in August.  This class includes 3 startups from outside the region and a variety of technology spaces.

Another thing that Krichevesky and the LaunchHouse crew are excited about is a “startup neighborhood” concept that they are working on. They are hoping to build a Live/Work/Play space to help attract and cultivate the best startups and entrepreneurs to Cleveland.

Cleveland is bustling with startup and entrepreneurial activity. Jump Start America is based in Cleveland. They also have the BizDom accelerator and a very active startup community.

Check out our video interview with Krichevsky below and for more info visit launchhouse.com

 

This Ohio startup launched a crowdfunding compliance platform.

CTW-ELEVATELONG

Sports Fans Find Your Out Of Town Bar With Cleveland Startup: BackerBar

You see the tweets, Facebook mentions and Google+ messages all the time, someone in your timeline is out of town and wants to catch their favorite game at a team friendly bar. After all you don’t want to go into just any sports bar in Baltimore Maryland and ask to put on the Steeler’s game.  Those special bars are what this Cleveland startup refers to as “BackerBar’s” which is where their name came from.

The team at BackerBar came up with this clever little definition:

backerbar: [n.] /ޖbakər/ bär/ – a bar that supports, or ‘backs’, a team foreign to the local market. Support can range from just a banner or two hanging up, or on game days packed wall to wall with fans wearing the teams’ jerseys…even the bartenders! Bar owners can choose to support a professional and/or college team.  Examples include an Ohio State BackerBar in Chicago, Dallas Cowboys BackerBar in Los Angeles, or USC Trojans BackerBar in Boston. The combinations of teams/cities can be endless. We cover the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, as well as NCAA football and basketball.

As you can see if you’re a sports fan this is a very important startup. BackerBar has developed a gigantic database and interactive web based platform so that any traveling or transplanted sports fan can find out where their team’s “backer bar” is. They also told us in the interview below, that naturally a mobile app is in the works. No more worries about getting laughed, at made fun of or even injured for supporting your own team. You’ll find that special backer bar with BackerBar.

In the interview below BackerBar co-founder Michael Stratis talks about their startup and also building a startup in Cleveland which has become a town full of startups and innovation. In fact one of the biggest organizations that supports startups and entrepreneurs, Jumpstart Inc, is also based in Cleveland.

Check out the interview below:

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Bizdom Cleveland Startup Accelerator Gets A New Bizdom

Bizdom is a startup accelerator program with locations in Detroit and Cleveland. Both Detroit and Cleveland have growing entrepreneurial and startup ecosystems, where Bizdom’s program and facilities naturally fit in.

Bizdom was launched in Cleveland by one of their biggest tech startups turned successful giant companies, Quicken Loans Inc,and Chairman Dan Gilbert’s Rock Ventures. Gilbert is passionate about technology, entrepreneurship and Cleveland is also the majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Bizdom program is actually one of the earlier startup accelerator programs. They hold three month sessions and provide startup companies, selected for their program, with $25,000 seed investments for 8% equity. Startups selected for the Bizdom program at either location are given office space, internet access, access to a wide variety of mentors, business services and other perks.

The Cleveland program has been operating out of the Quicken Loans Web Center inside the MK Ferguson Building at Quicken Loans Arena. Now they’re moving to their own 7,000 square foot space at 250 W. Huron Road in the 250 Huron Building.  The Bizdom Cleveland headquarters will be inside the five story commercial building which sits directly below the Ritz Carlton Cleveland Hotel.

“Establishing our Cleveland headquarters at 250 Huron solidifies Bizdom as an anchor in the city’s growing tech hub,” said Ross Sanders, chief executive officer of Bizdom. “Much like our Detroit headquarters, we have designed a collaborative and dynamic space that fosters an atmosphere for our entrepreneurs to truly excel,” he said.

The Detroit Bizdom location moved to a new headquarters in the Madison building in Detroit back in March.  Space is one of the values that is very important to Gilbert which explains why both locations have relocated prior to their next session.
“The opportunity came open at the Madison and part of Dan Gilbert’s vision is that place matters,” says Maria LaLonde, Bizdom’s recruiting and development leader told XConomy about the Detroit move. “We’re trying to create a great tech community where our entrepreneurs are closer to mentors, closer to funding sources, and can collaborate in an open workspace.”
Both locations offer four seasonal sessions a year and have graduated over 50 startups.
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