JumpStart Blog

Last week, the Cleveland Indians routed the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-2. During the eighth inning, grizzled veteran Jason Giambi hit a ground ball down the first base line. Although the Indians were up by a whopping 12 runs at the time, the 42-year-old still hustled like the game was on the line and slid headfirst into first base—safely.

BOLD Guidance CEO Nichelle McCall was born and raised in the city of Cleveland. From a very early age, her family instilled in her the value of a quality education; in fact, McCall’s mother worked three jobs to send her daughter to Laurel School, in order to ensure she received a solid school experience.

Trust in a mentor/mentee relationship plays a key role in the success of the mentorship experience, and can also have an impact on the long term success of the business.

On Wednesday, April 17, Northeast Ohio business leaders, investors, college students, faculty and families gathered at the University of Akron’s Martin Center for the 7th annual LaunchTown Entrepreneurship Awards.

When then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2 in March 2011, the device and its characteristics weren't the only things dominating the news cycle. In fact, one particular quote from Jobs' speech proved to be somewhat controversial. "It's in Apple's DNA that technology alone is not enough," he said.

Amplified Wind Solutions CEO Niki Zmij has had quite a successful few months. After taking second place in the student business idea competition at the 2012 Northeast Ohio Entrepreneur Expo, her cleantech company—whose technology was developed out of Cleveland State University—won the Ohio Clean Energy Challenge and competed in the regional competition in Chicago.

On Tuesday, March 12, the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network, with help from BioEnterprise, hosted a presentation led by Liz Powell, Principal and Founder of G2G consulting, about the Rapid Innovation Fund and related funding opportunities from the Department of Defense for biosciences, IT, aerospace and other high-tech innovations that can assist the military.

On Tuesday, March 19th, JumpStart hosted a lively discussion about what mentoring is, how it can help businesses grow and why it’s more important than ever—to both mentors and mentees.

The MAGNET (Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network) Product Acceleration & Technical Assistance Grant program (MPAcT) is currently accepting applications for grants of up to $30,000.

That mentoring helps entrepreneurs isn’t in doubt: According to stats reported by the Startup Genome Project, startups are seven times more likely to raise investment money and three-and-a-half times more likely to grow user numbers for their products and services if they have helpful mentors. However, other aspects of the process aren’t so clear-cut: How do these mentors help entrepreneurs? What qualities make a mentor successful? And why is mentoring such a valuable tool?

New JumpStart portfolio company Casentric recently launched CaseXpert™, a cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application that helps evaluate and resolve property and injury cases faster and more accurately.

The mentoring program at JumpStart was created to expand Northeast Ohio’s capacity to deliver resources and assistance to some of the region's most promising entrepreneurs.

JumpStart’s mentoring program recently celebrated its first birthday. Modeled after MIT’s well-respected, entrepreneur-focused Venture Mentoring Service, the program comprises seasoned business owners or serial entrepreneurs from many industries (healthcare, advanced manufacturing, IT) and across multiple sectors (investment, marketing, sales).

As an entrepreneur, when you hear common startup stories shared, you might want to ask yourself: Is what I’m hearing a myth, or reality? Sometimes it can be hard to tell.

Thanks to movie characters such as Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid or Robin Williams' engaging teacher in Dead Poets Society, the prevailing mentor archetype hews closely to the word's dictionary definition: "a wise and trusted counselor or teacher" or "an influential senior sponsor or supporter."