What We Are Doing to Help Companies Navigate COVID-19

Like many businesses, JumpStart has had to pivot quickly over the last month—both to protect the health and safety of our own team and to find new ways to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who need support more than ever. Here are a few of the steps we’ve taken recently, along with a

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Meet Our Newest Portfolio Company: MedPilot

In early February, Cleveland AI startup MedPilot announced it has raised $1.5M in its latest funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $3.6M. JumpStart provided funding for this latest round alongside Cleveland attorney Jon Pinney, North Coast Angel Fund, Valley Growth Ventures, Wavemaker Three-Sixty Health and Hudson River Capital. READ MORE ABOUT MEDPILOT’S LATEST

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Meet Our Newest Portfolio Company: Axuall

On September 25, Cleveland startup Axuall closed a $3 million seed financing round. JumpStart led the round with an investment from our Evergreen Fund, and we were joined by large group of prominent investors including  Zapis Capital Group, M25, North Coast Angel Fund, Kettledrum Ventures and Drummond Road Capital. Read more about Axuall’s seed round in Crain’s Cleveland Business We’re excited about Axuall because

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Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition Offers CWRU Student And Alumni Founders A Shot At $25K

Last year, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) partnered with university trustee and venture capitalist Bob Pavey, JumpStart and the Morgenthaler family to introduce the first Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition. Designed to identify and support high-potential startup companies coming out of CWRU, the second annual competition is currently seeking applications from ventures whose founding teams include at least

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5 Essential Legal Issues To Address Before Securing Venture Capital

According to the MoneyTree™ Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, venture capitalists invested $71.9 billion in 5,052 deals last year in the U.S., making 2017 the second year that saw dollar funding top $70B. The PwC MoneyTree Report further notes that global funding increased nearly 50% in 2017, with $164B invested across 11,042 deals. So what are these

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Meet The Winners Of The Inaugural Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition

On Thursday, March 15, 2018 six startups with founding teams consisting of at least one current Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) student or recent alumni pitched at the Larry Sears and Sally Zlotnick Sears think[box] for a shot at $50,000 in total prize money. The six finalists received assistance from JumpStart Inc. to hone their

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Meet Our Newest NEXT Fund Portfolio Company: ReadySet Surgical

The JumpStart NEXT Fund has already invested more than $8.5 million in growing tech startups across the state of Ohio. Now, the NEXT Fund has a new portfolio company—Cincinnati-based ReadySet Surgical. Founder & CEO Keerthi Kanubaddi launched the company in 2014 to solve a critical, but little-known problem in medicine—miscommunication among hospitals, surgeons and the

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New $25k Startup Competition Seeks CWRU Student And Alumni Founders

Late in the summer, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) partnered with university trustee and venture capitalist Bob Pavey, JumpStart and the Morgenthaler family to introduce the new Morgenthaler-Pavey Startup Competition. Designed to identify and support high-potential startup companies coming out of CWRU, the annual competition is currently seeking applications from ventures whose founding teams include

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KeyBank Business Boost & Build Program: Frequently Asked Questions

We are extremely excited to announce a new partnership with KeyBank Foundation. The “KeyBank Business Boost & Build Program, Powered by JumpStart” initiative is designed to stimulate economic growth and workforce development by fostering small business success in communities throughout Ohio and upstate New York. Below we have answered some of the questions you’re likely

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Risky Business: All startup investments come with risk, but that doesn’t erase the need for strong founder fundamentals

Anyone familiar with the venture capital industry knows that it is a high-risk, high-reward business. A startup that succeeds can make a lot of money for themselves and their investors. However—as the common VC proverb goes—for every one startup that hits it big, another nine will fail. In reality, the numbers probably aren’t quite that stark.

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Venture Capital Investors Like Revenue, But They Love Predictable Revenue

For any startup, generating that first dollar is a huge milestone. Revenue signals to investors that a company is helping to solve a problem in the market, and even more importantly, that people are willing to pay for that solution. If you are an entrepreneur that has reached this point, we truly applaud you—many startups

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