The Founders Exchange Powered by TBEIC Aims to Connect Successful Business Owners to the Community 

• Doors Open 5:00pm
• Program 5:30-6:30pm
• Networking & Live Music 6:30pm-8:00pm

For more information contact Rose Saborse at [email protected] or call 330-207-2635.

The Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center, also known as TBEIC will be hosting the Founders Exchange, a new Entrepreneurial event aimed at introducing successful entrepreneurs to community startups and the public through the exchange of startup knowledge.

TBEIC will host the first Founders Exchange event on Monday, October 30^th at the Lime Tree in Warren.  The kickoff event will feature a discussion featuring entrepreneurs Courtney Gras and Adam Keck sharing their triumphs and tribulations as business owners. The event is open to the public and those interested in starting their own business and small business owners are encouraged to attend. Doors open at 5:00pm, programming will take place from 5:30-6:30pm followed by networking and live music.

Courtney Gras is a female engineer and entrepreneur that was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2016.   Courtney started her career at NASA as a power systems engineer and left to follow her passion for entrepreneurship.  Courtney co-founded an Akron-based clean energy startup, Design Flux Technologies and is working to establish herself as a leading a female voice in male-dominated industries with the goal of encouraging other young entrepreneurs (especially women) to pursue non-traditional career paths.

Adam Keck is Mahoning Valley native and founder of Modern Methods Brewing Company.  In 2009, Adam graduated from Brown University and decided to return home after college to work as a Community Organizer with the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative.  In 2013, he switched careers to work as an Information Technology Manager at Compco Industries, which gave him invaluable, hands-on experience in manufacturing, especially in costing, material and supply chain planning, production scheduling, and quality control. Adam has been home brewing for six years and in that time has brewed over three thousand gallons of beer. Modern Methods Brewing Company (MMBC) will be a production brewery and taproom located in the TBEIC Warehouse in Dave Grohl Alley with a planned opening date of Winter of 2017.

The Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center is a federally funded business incubator aimed at growing energy technologies and allied products such as: advanced materials, electronics, and efficiency, control systems. TBEIC’s physical location opened in downtown Warren in Court House Square in January 2015 and currently has 11 physical tenants and 80 virtual companies.  TBEIC has recently secured funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to develop a Shared Resource Center, a project that will make TBEIC a regional resource lab for companies to research, test, and certify products.  This lab will potentially spur job and company creation in the Warren and Mahoning Valley region.