Norwood : Innovation + Startup News

Zooted Delivery brings food to your front door from restaurants around the city that don’t typically deliver. While it was only a weekend operation from the beginning, Zooted now offers service seven days a week, with their delivery radius spanning Hyde Park, the downtown business district, the Banks, Clifton and Norwood.

Created by Sheroz Zindani, a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s business program, Zooted Delivery works in conjunction with more than a dozen restaurants to bring their menu items to hungry customers’ homes. 

The company has a recurring message that it reiterates to customers: “You drink, we drive.” This message targets the late night crowd, which is why Zooted Delivery operates until 3 a.m. on weekends.

Registration is not necessary to use the service—you only need to have access to Zooted’s website. The order is placed online, “zooted” to the restaurant automatically, and the customer need only “sign and dine.” Payments can be made with cash or credit cards. The service and delivery fee is nominal and the convenience is unparalleled. 

Offering a broad range of restaurants, this added service is sure to accommodate nearly every type of palate. If not, it’s likely that whatever type of food they would want already delivers directly, so it’s a win-win for homebodies. 

Interview by Sean Peters

CincyMusic Spotlight is a new radio show dedicated to highlighting new and exciting music in the Queen City. Featured on The Project 100.7 and 106.3, the show’s format provides a much-needed outlet for local musicians. Hosted by veteran band promoters and DJs Venomous Valdez and Joe Long, the show’s end goal is to help expose new local artists to the general public.

“The Project already has added a handful of bands hailing from Cincinnati in their established playlist," says Valdez. "If a song does really well on the show, it has the ability to live in regular rotation. The Project would love nothing more than to help break a Cincinnati band."

Valdez, who is known by just about every venue owner as the booking agent and promoter for Wussy and The Sundresses, is a longtime ally to Cincinnati musicians.

“Cincinnati has a deep, rich musical history," she says. "For many generations, this has been a music town, so it’s in our blood. We have more genres available, more venues catering to original music than most cities larger than us. Overall, I think we have a great support system with musicians, promoters, booking agents and venues that encourages and nurtures the creative outlet."

Listeners can tune in Sunday nights at midnight on The Project 100.7 FM and 106.3 FM. Podcasts will be available on cincymusic.com and cincinnatiproject.com.

By Sean Peters

Grupo Xela is a marketing research agency that specializes in Hispanic demographics. Founded by Jose Cuesta in 2003, the company found success in Cincinnati by communicating an authentic and carefully researched Hispanic perspective to Procter & Gamble and QFact, among other locally owned businesses.

Originally from Colombia, Cuesta earned a BA in industrial engineering at Javeriana University. He came to Cincinnati in 1998, where he earned an MBA from Xavier University. Cuesta’s mother is originally from Cincinnati, and he was prompted by his family to move to the Queen City.

“You don’t go to Cincinnati unless you have a reason,” Cuesta says. “But there’s always a reason to go.”

After earning his degree from Xavier, Cuesta began working for Cincinnati Bell as a manager for various departments.

Cuesta founded what would eventually become Grupo Xela with his brother-in-law. Their first business attempt was as coffee distributors for regional restaurants, but their work in the city helped them realize the Hispanic community’s marketing potential. Prompted by the fact that Hispanics were the most rapidly growing minority in the country, Cuesta knew he could offer a very important perspective to P&G—Cincinnati’s powerhouse corporation.

By interacting with Hispanic panelists sourced from Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Indianapolis, Chicago, Atlanta and Miami, Grupo Xela’s chief concern is gathering qualitative market research.

The company has since gone international, with a United States' headquarters in Cincinnati, and a Colombian office in Bogota, with plans to expand into more cities and countries soon. 

By Sean Peters

Novak Consulting Group was started on a dare.

Egged on by her husband and friends, Julia Novak felt compelled to earnestly pursue starting her own consulting business for leaders in government and non-profit communities. She began her solo venture at home, and has since hired staff around the country and progressed to working out of the Hamilton County Business Center. There, her consulting firm continues to serve clients all over the country.

While consulting with governments and nonprofits in public works, public safety, human resources, finance, planning and IT sectors, Novak Consulting Group aims to service more fields than other firms by working with a skilled team whose members offer a broad range of expertise.

With a background in city management, Novak has found success serving local governments across the United States. Having her own Cincinnati-certified small business has allowed her to take her talents to different types of clients. But her emphasis is in personalized service that suits each situation’s needs.

Expanding the office to the HCBC means dedicated meeting and collaboration space as well as increased support from other local ventures and small business advocates.

By Sean Peters

Applied Decision Science is a field-based research and development company that specializes in the the study and development of new ways to improve decision-making in high stress situations.

Founded by Steve Wolf, along with Laura Militello and Dr. Gary Klein—two authorities in the fields of human cognition and the budding study of naturalistic decision-making—Applied Decision Science is dedicated to improving the choices made by people in arduous situations (medics, soldiers, firefighters, etc).

By obtaining their data firsthand from the field and by interviewing pertinent subjects, Applied Decision Science can create protocol applications that enhance the chances of successful and beneficial decisions. This is a distinct difference from lab-based research, which separates the researcher from the core of their study.

While their military work is confidential, the work the company has done for the healthcare sector continues to enhance peoples’ lives. Their most recent efforts for the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention involve an application that helps healthcare providers identify patients at a higher risk of colorectal cancer, one of the deadliest iterations of the disease.     

Rooted in Wolf’s work of studying the potential for enhanced decision-making, and coupled with Dr. Militello and Klein’s expertise, Applied Decision Science was started largely thanks to the Hamilton County Development Company in Norwood. Through the business incubator, Applied Decision Science has overcome many of the struggles similarly sized startups encounter.

By Sean Peters

Today, Detroit-based Digerati launches its Intern in Ohio program to the public, which is sponsored by the University of Toledo. Like eHarmony, the program uses an advanced matching algorithm to match students with internship opportunities.
 
Intern in Ohio is free to both students who are looking for internships and businesses who want to post internships. To register, students and employers visit Intern in Ohio’s website to sign up and create a profile or post internship opportunities. Students fill out a short questionnaire about their preferences, and employers share information about the position. The system then identifies the top seven matches for each student, as well as for each position. When the match is made, both the student and employer are notified, and they must show interest before any contact information is shared.
 
“We encourage diverse companies—large and small, for-profit and nonprofit, government and corporate,” says Wendy Pittman, director of Digerati’s Classroom to Career. “It’s a great chance for employers to broadcast their company and internship program across the state and reach a larger pool of applicants.”
 
Only companies in Ohio can post opportunities to the Intern in Ohio website, but all types of internships are welcome. There are posts for marketing, engineering and social media, among others, says Pittman.
 
The program is open to all students who live in Ohio, whether they’re in-state or out-of-state students. Research shows that not only do internships often lead employment offers after graduation, but that students are more likely to remain in an area where they held and internship.
 
“This is the first replication of the Classroom to Career technology from Michigan to Ohio,” says Pittman. “Experiential learning is a game-changer; and we’re looking forward to working with smaller communities to make a difference.”
 
In 2011, Digerati launched its Intern in Michigan program, which has resulted in more than 127,000 matches and introductions between students and employers. Over 1,000 Michigan businesses have posted 4,824 internship opportunities, and 1,049 colleges and universities in the state use the site.
 
Full disclosure: Soapbox’s parent company, IMG, supplies content to Intern in Ohio on a contractual basis.
 
By Caitlin Koenig
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The Hamilton County Business Center is Cincinnati's oldest incubator, and has evolved over the decades as the economy has changed.

Startups are leaner and meaner now than ever before, and HCBC is piloting the region's latest coworking space, where small businesses can get many of the benefits of being in an incubator without the higher overhead.

HCBC's CoWorks had a very quiet launch late last fall. With three businesses in the space, which is located in Norwood, Executive Director Pat Longo is now getting the word out about HCBC.

"This has grown out of our affiliate program," Longo says. "There were companies that weren't yet ready to apply for the incubator but they wanted to be around it."

HCBC has recently upgraded its conference room space, which has been attractive to small companies like SCORE, SBDC and Meetups that want to present themselves more professionally, says Longo.

HCBC has 45 companies that last year generated over $18 million in revenues, accessed over $8 million in capital and created nearly 50 jobs.

Renting CoWorks space on a month-to-month basis starts at $75 per month, and includes:

• 24-hour, 7-day-a-week access
• WiFi
• Concierge and receptionist services
• Free parking
• Fax, scanner and copier services
• Kitchen
• Up to four hours per month of conference room use
• A mailing address

"We talk about having an entrepreneurial ecosystem, but I like to think of (HCBC) as a coral reef," Longo says. "We have a lot of life, people can grow, there is lots of nourishment and places to go and hide if you need a quiet place to work."

CoWorkers will have access to the incubator entrepreneurial atmosphere, programming and resources. Some are free, while others have a fee attached.

"They'll get the benefits of being a client," Long says. "And we hope when they are ready, they'll move into the incubator."

Currently, there is space for about 12 companies, with potential room to grow. Interested businesses can find out more on the CoWorks website, where interpreters can fill out an application.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Going on maternity leave changed Gail Yisreal’s life in more ways than having a new baby to take care of.
 
When she returned to work, Yisreal says she learned her position was no longer there, so she began to look for a different job.

As wife and mother to a blended family of nine children, she might bake up to 11 birthday cakes in a year. But she hadn’t considered turning her knack for kneading dough into earning dough until she baked a wedding cake for a couple from her family’s place of worship. Not only did they like the cake, they suggested she start selling them.
 
Listening to her fans, Yisreal founded A “Mother’s Touch” Cakes with the nurturing tagline, “Making fresh homemade cakes when you don’t have the time.” Celebrating her two-year anniversary as a registered business in August 2012, A “Mother’s Touch” features signature and custom made flavors of fresh, savory gourmet, organic and vegan cakes and cupcakes that are good—and good for you.
 
“I didn’t know anything about decorating, so I took a class to learn more decorating skills," Yisreal says. "And I was shocked to find out that 95 percent of the cakes you buy are box cakes—because everybody wants the decoration. I started doing some research about the trans-fats and artificial ingredients, and I vowed that everything I baked would always be natural and from scratch.”  
 
After working as a waitress for two years and in management at Starbucks for six years, Yisreal developed a love for coffee. She jokes that most ex-Starbucks managers feel they know enough about coffee to create their own line, which she actually did for A “Mother’s Touch.”
 
Having tried organic coffees with weak flavor profiles, she researched and found Dean’s Beans, a fair-trade pioneer that allowed her to design her own custom blends. Her signature A “Mother’s Touch” blend is made with Mexican and Indonesian beans and pairs with her carrot cake as an after-dinner coffee.
 
“I’m really proud of my coffee and the fact that it really was custom blended for what I wanted to complement my desserts,” Yisreal says. And, true to her mission to serve natural, sustainable goods, she says that her blends are 100 percent organic, fair-trade certified and are shade grown.
 
Being on the scene without a storefront hasn’t stopped Yisreal. Instead, she’s building her brand as the “cupcake lady” who networks everywhere and invites people to taste samples of her creations. Yisreal also tapped into hidden markets by hosting deals through social media.
 
“I did a Living Social promotion last year, which was huge,” Yisreal says. “That first day, I think I got 1,500 hits on my website, and probably about 85 deals, which I thought was really good for people who didn’t know who I was.”
 
And even though she sells more cakes today, the ease of transporting cupcakes built her clientele.
 
“When I first came out, because of my financial situation, literally, cupcakes were paying my rent,” she says. After she and her husband separated, she remembers what it was like to go from making an annual salary of $60,000 to less than $20,000 a year. But she doesn’t do it all alone.
 
“I have three almost-teenage girls; 12, soon to be 15 and 17, so they are my preppers,” Yisreal explains. “It’s hilarious because we’ll be in the kitchen and everybody has their big bonnets on, and they’re scraping carrots, mashing fruit, lining the liners. I have a girlfriend who I’ll sometimes sub-contract out to do deliveries. And if it’s a huge event—like for the Autism Foundation, I had to knock out 40 dozen cupcakes—I have two sisters, and at the time I had just split up with my husband so we were in literally an 800-square-foot apartment. The kitchen was all of maybe 150-square-feet, we put out six-foot tables and we were like an assembly line! It was hilarious, but we got it done. It was like an I Love Lucy episode!”
 
By Mildred Fallen

Susan Ingmire is frank about the type of philanthropists she works with. “The vast majority would not be a good fit.” As president of Ignite Philanthropy Advisors, a “niche player,” Ingmire works with individuals and organizations who need help giving money away.

Some have inherited money and want to do a good job giving it away charitably. Others want help identifying their priorities, then mapping out a strategy that allows them to give according to certain goals, such as promoting education or supporting the arts. “It’s sometimes hard for people to say no when asked to give. If you have a strategy, then you can say we give in the areas of arts, education or health care. It’s how people learn to say no, or we say it for them,” Ingmire says. She teaches these investors to decide what to give and to whom, and even how to research organizations that pique their interest.

The firm mainly works on a retainer basis with Cincinnati-area clients giving away at least $25,000-$50,000 a year and up, with her smallest foundation gifting about $100,000 annually. Most business comes through referrals, especially from local attorneys and accountants. They provide advice, demystify the giving process and even offer administrative support, such as preparing agendas for foundation board meetings, writing checks and processing mail.

Ingmire started in the field as a serial volunteer, working as a foundation volunteer, mentor and with arts and housing programs. She also spent a decade with Fifth Third Bank’s trust department. And her idea of doing “less than I used to” means staying involved with the YWCA, Social Venture Partners Cincinnati, United Way and her church. And after spending so much time in the trenches, she embraces the joy in helping others support nonprofits. “When we can call up somebody and say, you’re getting $30,000 and here’s why, it’s a real joy.”

By Robin Donovan

Cincinnati area salon owner Gary Benz took a chance and offered an idea that's grown his own business — New Client Invitation — to his fellow Greater Cincinnati hair care experts.

"I've been invited to try exercise clubs and exclusive country clubs by way of new client invitation," Benz says of the idea behind HairSalonDiscount.com. "If it works for them, it should work for me."

Benz, who, with his wife owns Benzie Salon in Montgomery, has tripled sales since starting the salon in 2004. He attributes part of that success to his New Client Invitation marketing program, expanded online at HairSalonDiscount.com. The targeted programs attract new potential clients with half-off pricing on services. It's similar to popular major daily deal websites, but the salon services are 50 percent off at most, instead of the up to 70 percent at some major daily deal sites.

It's a price point Benz says is both attractive to a potential buyer and to the business owner. Benz works to market the site to certain groups, like new homeowners and people who've moved into target neighborhoods that the salons typically service, which include Norwood, Oakley and Hyde Park.

Benz, who has a background in SEO and web development, also promotes the site through organic and paid online search results, he says.

The deals work like Groupon or Living Social — users go online and purchase a service deal. The deals are marketed as New Client Invitations and Benz says the goal is to attract five new potential clients each week for participating salons.

That's in contrast to the major daily deals sites that market to mass buyers, with deeper discounts. Those sites can bring businesses hundreds of new customers, but often they aren't the repeat clientele that salons seek, Benz says.

"We sold 350 deals (with another site), and a lot of people had no intention of ever coming back again," Benz says. "There are a lot of mass emails through those sites, and the next time another salon has a deal, they're going to hit up another salon."

The site has about 20 salons on its roster so far. While the bulk are from Cincinnati, it has already attracted salons from Georgia, Northern Kentucky and Dayton. He hopes to soon add some Chicago area salons, with an ultimate goal to include salons from every state.

"As long as I stay true to my brand, and to quality, I think it's a feasible business plan," he says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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“People always say, ‘Be careful working with your best friend,’ but we’ve never had those negative experiences. Our relationship and the way we know each other has been such a strength,” says Lisa Mills, a psychologist, and co-founder of research consultancy Sprout Insight, of her 22-year friendship with co-founder Kathy Burklow.

Mills and Burklow became friends as graduate students in psychology, working together first at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2006, frustrated by the disconnect between scientific advancement and community engagement, they left Children’s to launch Harmony Garden, a nonprofit community research center focused on improving the health of Cincinnati girls.

Building on the idea of helping community members be heard and understood, the duo pivoted last February, launching Sprout Insight, a market research and insight consultancy. These days, the leverage decades of clinical and research experience while work closely with companies, hospitals, nonprofits and branding firms that target African American, Latino and Asian shoppers.

“Unless [companies] get better at collecting information about racial and ethnic minorities, they’re going to continue to miss opportunities in their industries,” Mills says. “There are a lot of consumer insight and market research companies, but very few are looking at consulting with businesses and corporations about gathering insights from racially and ethnically diverse populations.”

Accordingly, the women help organizations identify what types of data they need and how to gather it, both quantitatively through customized surveys and qualitatively, often through focus groups that allow the pair to gain deeper insight into consumers.

In practice, that might look like tweaking an existing survey to avoid leading questions or to gather more specific data. It could also mean setting up focus groups at a church or recreation center (rather than the typical observation room) to allow meaningful feedback and insight to flow. “Taking [people] out of their community, you may get answers, but they may not be relevant answers,” Mills says.

And so Mills and Burklow keep bringing new voices to the conversation between companies and consumers, hoping for the same goal sparked their friendship decades ago. “Kathy and I are really about the bridging of the gaps,” Mills explains.

“For our society to work together, everybody needs to be knowledgeable on some level so that they can sit at the table, and communicate.”
 
 By Robin Donovan

"Going Green" isn't just a feel-good initiative for businesses. It can have real economic benefits. Those benefits -- lower utility bills, less waste, among others -- are there to take advantage of regardless of whether the business considers itself green.

That's the message organizers of this year's Energy, Economy and Environment (3E) Summit want businesses to grasp. The 4th annual 3E Summit is Oct. 5, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Xavier University's Cintas Center. Tickets are $50 each, with discounts for Green Umbrella Members and students.

"There's a lot of small and medium businesses out there, the people making widgets, who don't always have time to think about how to green their business," says Cincinnati's Sustainability Coordinator Steve Johns.

The Summit hopes to remedy that, giving these businesses concrete ways to become more energy efficient, as well as insight into how that affects the bottom line.

There will be two panel discussions on Green Business. One is a CEO Roundtable featuring local companies that decided to incorporate green concepts into their businesses. The panel will feature Mac's Pizza, emersion DESIGN, Compost Cincy and Burke, Inc.

"Most of these companies aren't producing green products, but thought it was important to take care of energy and waste needs more effectively," Johns says.

A second panel discussion will feature reps from UC Health and Procter & Gamble highlighting their efforts to green their supply chain by seeking out sustainable suppliers.

"You can really have a competitive advantage by having a green business," Johns explains.

The Summit also will feature a "Speed Greening" session, where experts will be on hand to answer specific questions about greening businesses. Those experts can answer questions related to electric and natural gas, waste disposal, transportation and water.

In addition to the City of Cincinnati, the 3E Summit is hosted by Green Umbrella, Xavier University's Brueggeman Center for Dialog, the Greater Cincinnati Green Business Council, and USGBC Cincinnati Chapter.

Register and find more information at the 3E Summit website.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Kristi Woodworth and Jennifer Sauers tell stories for a living, but they’re not performance artists or members of the media. In fact, they’re licensed oral historians. The business they launched together, Beyond the Trees, offers design and printing services for small runs of books, many of them celebrating milestone accomplishments or memories of a lifetime.

“You get really close to people,” Woodworth says, describing how she becomes enmeshed in family stories while working with groups of people to compile photos and written memories.

“It’s sort of a privilege for us to be that close to the lives of these people, because what they’re doing with these books is creating a gift of love to honor the people in their life, and it’s a thrill to help them do that.”

Moving to the Norwood-based Hamilton County Business Center in 2009 helped grow the budding business, says Woodworth. “We could kick ideas around more easily,” she says. The duo also received business coaching in speed sessions during morning mentoring sessions at the HCBC.

The women are currently working on products that will allow people to complete their own projects, such as legacy letters to one’s descendants, or other projects. The company offers Cincinnati-based workshops, for example, and skills taught in these classes are now being leveraged into products that anyone can use, regardless of their location.

Services provided by Beyond the Trees include tribute books that can be purchased as gifts for milestone occasions, such as graduations, birthdays or anniversaries.

The company issues invitations by email or standard post to friends and family of the honoree, then compile the resultant memories and photos into a bound book. Beyond the Trees also provides self-publishing services for authors who want to print and sell books of prose, poetry or other creative work.

Woodworth says the trend she sees now is how much easier it is to self publish. When the company began, it was something of a novelty, and Woodworth’s partner, Jennifer Sauers, took materials to Staples to have them printed, then downtown to be hand-bound. Still, the family cookbooks she produced were a smash hit, and, soon, other people were asking about having books made.

“What we’re adding to it is the value of the service. We are adding the advice and the guidance through it and the design of the product,” says Woodworth. 

By Robin Donovan

Flywheel, Cincinnati's social enterprise hub, has launched a new series of training sessions designed to develop marketing, planning, research and business skills in the nonprofit sector.

Meetings run this month through November, beginning with a session on Market Research, Wednesday, Sept. 19. The session will help nonprofit's better use market research to test the feasibility of new programs or to improve existing ones. (The session runs from 2 to 4 pm at The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. You can register at Eventbrite.)

This training series fits with Flywheel's mission to help non-profits in generating money through social enterprise, or products or services that have social value. 

The organization was formed early this year by the Leadership Council for Human Services Executives, the Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University, and Centric Consulting.

Flywheel has scheduled two other workshops. Click on the links to register for the them.

Social Enterprise 201

October 9, 1 - 4 pm

Business Planning Training

(in partnership with The Health Foundation)

November 2, 9 am - 5 pm

By Feoshia H. Davis
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When Cheryl Walters was laid off from her corporate marketing gig last February, she was a victim of the same mindset she describes as the most common misconception about her field: thinking it’s not important.

Marketers, Walters says, are often first to be cut in rounds of layoffs. Yet, “You don’t need to do big branding campaigns like [Procter & Gamble] to be effective. You do need to do something,” she says.

After the layoff, she launched her own marketing firm, CheronaWorks, to address the marketing needs of smaller companies in a variety of industries.

She specializes in budget-conscious work; many of her clients are just starting out, like Walters herself, or don’t have a marketing staff.

“I respect that clients don’t want to spend a lot of money,” she says. “I make sure I don’t give them any costs they can’t handle, and I’ll be honest if they do something and I think it’s a bad investment; I’ll tell them not to waste their money.”

CheronaWorks offers marketing services from direct response mailings to websites and email campaigns. Like so many startups, Walters is currently finding new clients through referrals and, of course, marketing herself. She says she uses social media to connect with local companies with marketing needs – and frustrations.

“When I’ve had to do marketing to drum up business, I’ve had luck with social media. I look for people who are looking for help or seem frustrated or are just blatantly posting that they need something,” she says.

Walters says her most common requests are designing logos and websites for new businesses or those “ready to move beyond their WordPress site.”

By Robin Donovan