----------Cool Cleveland versions----------
----------Published 05.13.09----------
Lizalyn McKnight wasn't satisfied with her fabulous career as an aerospace engineer at NASA, so she decided to open up a Cleveland chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers to offer mentorship and tutoring to black high school students who might be interested in becoming engineers. With scholarships, awards, competitions and other programs to stimulate interest in engineering, NSBE, Jr. works with a network of industry professionals to connect them to young and aspiring engineers. Lizalyn's project was funded by the Civic Innovation Lab, which will help her create a website and a database of engineers so she can connect young African-Americans in Cleveland high schools with area universities, corporations, and engineers. http:/pci.nsbe.org/default.asp
----------Published 05.20.09----------
Trevor Clatterbuck's idea for a "virtual farmer's market" is not only a brilliant concept, but timely as well. In order to connect local restaurants to local farmers they designed an oursourced logistic solution. What they are working on now is allowing small regional farmers to use collaboration and networking tools to set up their own delivery networks. The Civic Innovation Lab heard a proposal from Fresh Fork Market and offered it $30,000 of funding and professional mentorship early on in their business cycle. "We've had absolutely great access to mentors," says Trevor, who admits that Civic Innovation Lab funding kept him and his colleagues out of trouble with their strong, early committment to his business. http://www.FreshForkMarket.com http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
----------Published 05.27.09----------
Brother Charlie McElroy knew that there was a lot of state & city grant money available for area businesses to support green renovations- $170M focused on energy efficiency issues alone. And Brother Charlie knew that 80% of his students at John Carroll University have to pay for all their college expenses with no family support. He developed College Interns for Energy Efficiency to help local manufacturers with green renovations and improve their energy efficiency, and at the same time help raise money for scholarship programs for his students, who are often burdened with tremendous debt. After approaching the Civic Innovation Lab and receiving funding and mentorship to pursue his program, Brother Charlie gained the benefit of professional resources, advice, connections and exposure for his fledgling program. To discover how your program might benefit from Civic Innovation Lab funding and mentorship, and to learn more, visit http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
----------Published 06.03.09----------
Shannon Davis had a "mom" moment in her kitchen a while back. While enjoying raising her own kids, she started wanting to get back into the workforce, and didn't find a lot of options geared towards women in her position. She has found that women generally between 25-45 who are looking to work up to 35 hours a week needed a place to go to look for employment, so she founded BeyondMotherhood.com. The Civic Innovation Lab helped Shannon take the business to the next level with funding (she had been funding the business out of her own pocket), as well as hooking her up with mentors who could steer her business decisions in the right direction. http://www.BeyondMotherhood.com, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.com
----------To be Published 06.10.09----------
Michael Lagoni identified a huge problem in our society:\ high-achieving kids, from low-income families and low-income school districts were not getting accepted to the top Universities and Colleges in the country. He started Minds Matter, which offers individualized academic instruction for four hours every Saturday during the school year for three years. Then, after their high school Sophomore year and again after their Junior year, the high-achieving, low-income students are sent to a summer program at a leading University to gain real-world experience in living on campus, taking classes and experience college life. The 12 students in Minds Matter's first year will be attending summer programs this year at top schools such as Brown University, Johns-Hopkins University, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania and others. Minds Matter received a $30,000 grant and mentors from the Civic Innovation Lab which took a risk on a start-up with no track record. They leveraged the money and mentorship into introductions to foundations, building a strong board of directors, and connections to business partners, which launched the group to a whole other level. http://www.MindsMatter.org, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
----------Published 06.17.09----------
Jodi Marchewitz has developed iGuiders, an online research tool that lays on top of Google, but allows in-depth, complex searches that generate a much smaller number of much more relevant results.Watch this video with Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready, shot in front of the Rock Hall in Downtown Cleveland, as Jodi explains how her new company taps into a vast knowledge of subject matter experts in the information security and social media marketing industries, with the goal of guiding users and buyers through the search process.
How big is their potential market? Online lead generation is expected to be $3.9B by next year, and this potential was one of the reasons that the Civic Innovation Lab got behind iGuiders early, with funding and mentorship. This led to the company being funded by JumpStart, and now iGuiders is entering their second round of financing. http://www.iGuiders.com, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
----------Published 06.24.09----------
Jennifer Thomas runs the Civic Innovation Lab, which invests in people that have cool ideas (called "champions") that foster downtown vibrancy, attract and retain talent, support entrepreneurship and build emerging industries. As one of the few sources of support for early-early-stage start-ups, the Civic Innovation Lab has granted over $1.3 million to a portfolio of 45 cool start-ups from City Wheels to Fresh Fork Market to Cool Cleveland.Listen to Jennifer as she talks about a number of recent projects that have been helped by the Lab, not only with significant funding, but also by offering mentorship and staff resources such as challenging start-ups to concentrate on revenue generation, marketing, and developing their elevator pitch. http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
----------CIL versions----------
Lizalyn McKnight wasn't satisfied with her fabulous career as an aerospace engineer at NASA, so she decided to open up a Cleveland chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers to offer mentorship and tutoring to black high school students who might be interested in becoming engineers. With scholarships, awards, competitions and other programs to stimulate interest in engineering, NSBE, Jr. works with a network of industry professionals to connect them to young and aspiring engineers. Lizalyn's project was funded by the Civic Innovation Lab, which will help her create a website and a database of engineers so she can connect young African-Americans in Cleveland high schools with area universities, corporations, and engineers. http:/pci.nsbe.org/default.asp
Trevor Clatterbuck's idea for a "virtual farmer's market" is not only a brilliant concept, but timely as well. In order to connect local restaurants to local farmers they designed an oursourced logistic solution. What they are working on now is allowing small regional farmers to use collaboration and networking tools to set up their own delivery networks. The Civic Innovation Lab heard a proposal from Fresh Fork Market and offered it $30,000 of funding and professional mentorship early on in their business cycle. "We've had absolutely great access to mentors," says Trevor, who admits that Civic Innovation Lab funding kept him and his colleagues out of trouble with their strong, early committment to his business. http://www.FreshForkMarket.com http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
Brother Charlie McElroy knew that there was a lot of state & city grant money available for area businesses to support green renovations- $170M focused on energy efficiency issues alone. And Brother Charlie knew that 80% of his students at John Carroll University have to pay for all their college expenses with no family support. He developed College Interns for Energy Efficiency to help local manufacturers with green renovations and improve their energy efficiency, and at the same time help raise money for scholarship programs for his students, who are often burdened with tremendous debt. After approaching the Civic Innovation Lab and receiving funding and mentorship to pursue his program, Brother Charlie gained the benefit of professional resources, advice, connections and exposure for his fledgling program. To discover how your program might benefit from Civic Innovation Lab funding and mentorship, and to learn more, visit http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
Shannon Davis had a "mom" moment in her kitchen a while back. While enjoying raising her own kids, she started wanting to get back into the workforce, and didn't find a lot of options geared towards women in her position. She has found that women generally between 25-45 who are looking to work up to 35 hours a week needed a place to go to look for employment, so she founded BeyondMotherhood.com. The Civic Innovation Lab helped Shannon take the business to the next level with funding (she had been funding the business out of her own pocket), as well as hooking her up with mentors who could steer her business decisions in the right direction. http://www.BeyondMotherhood.com, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.com
Michael Lagoni identified a huge problem in our society:\ high-achieving kids, from low-income families and low-income school districts were not getting accepted to the top Universities and Colleges in the country. He started Minds Matter, which offers individualized academic instruction for four hours every Saturday during the school year for three years. Then, after their high school Sophomore year and again after their Junior year, the high-achieving, low-income students are sent to a summer program at a leading University to gain real-world experience in living on campus, taking classes and experience college life. The 12 students in Minds Matter's first year will be attending summer programs this year at top schools such as Brown University, Johns-Hopkins University, UCLA, University of Pennsylvania and others. Minds Matter received a $30,000 grant and mentors from the Civic Innovation Lab which took a risk on a start-up with no track record. They leveraged the money and mentorship into introductions to foundations, building a strong board of directors, and connections to business partners, which launched the group to a whole other level. http://www.MindsMatter.org, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
Jodi Marchewitz has developed iGuiders, an online research tool that lays on top of Google, but allows in-depth, complex searches that generate a much smaller number of much more relevant results.Watch this video with Cool Cleveland's Thomas Mulready, shot in front of the Rock Hall in Downtown Cleveland, as Jodi explains how her new company taps into a vast knowledge of subject matter experts in the information security and social media marketing industries, with the goal of guiding users and buyers through the search process.
How big is their potential market? Online lead generation is expected to be $3.9B by next year, and this potential was one of the reasons that the Civic Innovation Lab got behind iGuiders early, with funding and mentorship. This led to the company being funded by JumpStart, and now iGuiders is entering their second round of financing. http://www.iGuiders.com, http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
Jennifer Thomas runs the Civic Innovation Lab, which invests in people that have cool ideas (called "champions") that foster downtown vibrancy, attract and retain talent, support entrepreneurship and build emerging industries. As one of the few sources of support for early-early-stage start-ups, the Civic Innovation Lab has granted over $1.3 million to a portfolio of 45 cool start-ups from City Wheels to Fresh Fork Market to Cool Cleveland.Listen to Jennifer as she talks about a number of recent projects that have been helped by the Lab, not only with significant funding, but also by offering mentorship and staff resources such as challenging start-ups to concentrate on revenue generation, marketing, and developing their elevator pitch. http://www.CivicInnovationLab.org
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