Launch Dayton Startup Week is the entrepreneurial community’s largest gathering, drawing roughly 1K attendees together each year to celebrate, inspire and equip the Dayton region’s business owners and startup founders.
This year, we’re seeking a local artist to design the official conference tee. It’s the most coveted piece of Startup Week SWAG.
Interested? Tell us your idea by June 17. We’ll choose four concepts, and we’ll pay each artist $250 to actually complete and submit their design. Artists will be notified by June 24, and designs will be due July 8.
Then the community will vote on the design they want to see on this year’s T-shirt! Voting will open July 12 & run for at least two weeks.
Questions? Reach out to Audrey at [email protected].
CRG has landed $206K in federal fuding to develop a new solid-state transformer that aims to improve the resiliency of the grid.
The Dayton-based technology company is one of 259 grant recipients to receive a portion of the $53M total funding awarded by the Department of Energy last week through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
“Supporting small businesses will ensure we are tapping into all of America’s talent to develop clean energy technologies that will help us tackle the climate crisis,” said Steve Binkley, Acting Director of the DOE’s Office of Science. “DOE’s investments will enable these economic engines to optimize and commercialize their breakthroughs, while developing the next generation of science leaders and ensuring U.S. scientific and economic competitiveness that will benefit all Americans.”
CRG is developing a solid-state transformer with an embedded digital–twin for predictive maintenance, a technique that can pinpoint repair or replacement of electronic components nearing the end of their useful life. Predictive maintenance reduces the total life-cycle costs of the installed system, ultimately reducing the cost passed on to citizens. Additionally, this technology will improve the resiliency of the grid by reducing power outages, which cost the U.S. economy $150B annually.
CRG sees initial market demand for its power conversion systems in rural and remote microgrids, island grids, military microgrids, and critical facilities, such as hospitals. These initial applications will provide a real-world proving ground to mature the power conversion hardware, software, controls, and standards that will be needed to incorporate predictive health monitoring into the bulk grid of the future, which will be heavily dominated by distributed energy resources including wind, solar, and stationary storage.
Once demonstrated, this technology will be capable of quickly expanding to a wide range of products used by the public, including power conversion systems in electric vehicles and aircraft.
Other DOE awards will support projects relating to particle accelerators and fusion technology, applied nanoscience, quantum information applications, and dark matter research, among others. See the full list here.
CRG is a collaborator in Launch Dayton partner Entrepreneurs’ Center’s Entrepreneurial Services Provider (ESP) program.
You might know her as the lead facilitator for Early Risers Academy, the manager of the Launch Dayton Mentor Network, podcast cohost, or all-around Dayton champion and entrepreneur.
But next month, KeAnna Daniels will step into a new role as Lead Engagement Strategist for Filament, a St. Louis-based organization that specializes in meeting facilitation.
We’re sad to see her go, but we’re excited for her next adventure, and grateful for all the energy and ideas and work she has contributed to build up Dayton’s entrepreneurs over the last three years as a Parallax project manager.
We caught up with Ke recently to hear more about what’s next for her.
Ke: Filament is a consulting agency where we do meeting facilitation for helping organizations and corporations have better and more productive meetings. We spark ideas, creativity and productivity within organizations, and really help them maximize meeting time by getting inputs from everyone, allowing all voices to be heard in the room, to meet bottom-line goals. I will be the Lead Engagement Strategist, where I’ll do meeting facilitation, and I’ll be in charge of expansion and growth into other cities and states.
I’m jazzed to be going from one team that’s amazing and dope to another. I appreciate that the organization has an entrepreneurial growth mindset and an enterprising environment. As a serial entrepreneur myself that is extremely important to me. While it’s a shift in focus, in that I won’t primarily be focused on entrepreneurs, it’s still very entrepreneurially-minded. And I’m very excited to be going back to St. Louis, which I consider home. I didn’t see it coming, but it feels full circle and in total alignment with God’s plan for my life.
I’m most proud of the impact that we’ve had in the community, serving startup and small businesses, specifically Black and Brown businesses, woman-owned businesses — helping eliminate barriers that have existed forever, and being able to watch these businesses accelerate and grow and get connected to the right people, and access to opportunity, resources, and information. That has always been my goal and the very thing that kept me going, and I had a chance to watch it manifest, to be part of that change and positive impact. I really do feel like I came, I conquered, and I’m leaving my city and community in a better position than I found it. I am immensely grateful.
I hope the new member of the Parallax Launch Dayton team is someone who will be as excited about community work and making a difference and continuing to move the needle forward and collaborate for a collective impact; to do what’s said to be impossible. To my Dayton community, my hometown — thank you for accepting me when I returned from St. Louis, for trusting me and supporting me in the visions I have for connecting the dots and helping to put Dayton on the map. To the dreamers, doers, movers, and shakers, I’m confident in the amazing talent in Dayton to continue creating and dreaming what’s possible for our community and our future. Rise to the occasion, it really is yours for the taking. I’m going to miss everyone. I look forward to staying connected.
By Katie Aldridge
“We focus on a lot of things that don’t matter,” Kia Wilson, also known as Cupcake, explains. “Life isn’t about what you look like, it’s about how you feel. What makes your soul sing? What makes your soul dance? Things that don’t bring your soul happiness, get rid of them. Your soul matters, that’s my message to the world.”
Kia, mother, believer and founder of Me’ Yanna Berry Co., is spreading this message with cupcakes.
Her passion for baking began nine years ago, after an accident where she broke her leg. She couldn’t walk for a year, and once she was up and moving again, she felt the urge to run at her destiny, she said.
She made her daughter a strawberry Care Bear cake for her first birthday, and everything clicked.
“At the party, she fed me the cake. The amount of joy I got out of making her cake inspired me to start a bakery,” Kia said.
It’s bigger than just baking, she said of her bakery business. You get a cake to celebrate something, and she gets to be part of those memories when she crafts the cake.
Kia always knew that she didn’t want a 9-5 job, even when things were tough.
In early April, Kia’s book, Never Give Up, was released. She dreamed of writing it at 19, but her pregnancy and college career delayed that goal. At the time, everybody said she was throwing her life away, but now, 19 years later, her son is in college living his best life, and so is she.
“I didn’t know when my story was going to be written, but I wrote it because my life has been a testament of faith,” she said.
Kia heard a lot of no’s, and people told her she didn’t have what it took, but she persevered.
“I’m fairly new to being in a building, but getting here was monumental for me. All I had was faith,” she said. “God made me these promises, and here I stand on them.”
The Downtown Dayton Retail Lab also got her brick-and-mortar ready.
“My biggest fear was the component of managing workers, money,” she said. “Many of us small businesses are floating on faith and a dream. Once you get into class, it helps you understand the business to make the dream a reality.”
When Kia is baking, she is at peace; it’s a sacred space for her. Baking offered refuge through a terrible marriage. And when she began baking, people started showing up in her life that loved her for what she was doing. It was something she had never experienced.
“The reciprocation of me doing something people enjoy, and getting to enjoy watching them enjoy it, that was big for me,” she said.
Visit Me’ Yanna Berry Co. in person at 15 E. 1st St., Dayton, online, or on social media @meyannaberryco.
Curious if the Retail Lab is a fit for your business? Learn more here.
You don’t have to look a certain way, operate in a particular industry, pursue specific education, grow up in a particular household, or spend your free time nurturing any particular hobbies — entrepreneurs grow from all walks of life.
In a new video series we are excited to launch today, entrepreneurs, founders, and small business owners from across the Dayton Region share their individual stories in order to break down those pervading stereotypes about who can or can’t be an entrepreneur.
They proudly declare, “I Am an Entrepreneur” — and you can be, too.
When he was a kid, it was Yuxing Wang’s brother who enjoyed taking risks, not Yuxing himself.
“I’m a risk-rewards person, but my brother is different. He was doing all sorts of crazy stuff,” he said, recalling a day when his brother encouraged him to jump off a 10-foot tall wall. Yuxing stood there for many minutes before finally jumping and letting his brother catch him.
But today, it is Yuxing taking the risks as an entrepreneur. The researcher is cofounder and CTO of MilesAhead Energy, where he’s developing new battery technology that will power the electric cars and airplanes of tomorrow.
“It lead me to think, where did I get that gene, or the why to do something crazy like entrepreneurship?” he said.
He credits much of that shift to his experience as a foreign exchange student. Born in China, Yuxing came to the U.S. when he was 20 to study at the University of Washington.
“It was probably through that experience that I grew a pretty thick skin,” he said. “You do need thick skin to be an entrepreneur, right, people say no to you all the time, and you’re doing things that you’re not even sure about, so you just have to push forward.”
America is a very different place from China — more open & business-friendly, Yuxing shares.
“There’s not a lot of rules, socially,” he said. “If I was still in China, I probably wouldn’t start a business, but in the U.S., if you look at the culture, the tax codes, the opportunities — whoever has the means to start a business without being too adversely affected by the risk, I really feel you should try here in the U.S.”
And Dayton in particular is a good spot to give it a go, offering great schools and low cost of living, he said.
“Dayton is a really great place to raise a family,” he said. “And low cost of living — that’s important for me. As an entrepreneur, you have to think about those first couple years, when you don’t have revenue coming in. My wife is a full-time employee, so she’s actually the breadearner of the family, and because of the low cost, we still have a fairly good standard of living here, so it gives me peace of mind to pursue something that’s very risky.”
The city also offers great resources through institutions like Wright Patterson Air Force Base and entrepreneur support organizations like Launch Dayton partners Entrepreneurs’ Center and Parallax, Yuxing added.
“This is the birthplace of aviation,” he said. “Yes, there’s been decline, and companies have moved out, but I was still marveled at how many great resources there are, whether it’s people, infrastructure, and even entrepreneur support. Dayton is such a great place for raising a family and starting a business.”
Thinking of giving it a go yourself? Yuxing offers a few nuggets of wisdom.
“My first advice is, be brave,” he said. “If you’re not willing to try things, to do things that are tough, to explore things or push boundaries, then there’s a very low chance you can be successful. Being a foreign exchange student, someone not familiar with the environment, is tough. So be brave.”
His second piece of advice? Open your heart.
“You really have to have curiosity of learning things,” he said. “America is such a big country with such a diverse culture. And also, in the technology space, you’ve gotta learn from a lot of people — mechanical people, chemistry people, physics people, or maybe even some field that you feel is a little irrelevant. Try to open up from your small field of expertise and just embrace what’s out there.”
And finally — persevere.
“Once you are really insistent on doing something and start making progress, people will come onboard and see, this is someone they can rely on, someone they can gather on, and eventually parts just pick up,” he said. “Maybe you don’t have expertise in this, but you have someone who belieevs and sees your perseverance and really want to help. Here in America, and especially in Dayton, there’s so much help you can get.”
“I am Yuxing Wang, and I am an entrepreneur.”
LaunchPad is where the entrepreneurially-minded connect. Featuring a “Startup Week-lite” format, this monthly event series brings you opportunities to expand your networks and grow your business.
Mix & mingle with fellow movers, shakers, entrepreneurs, creatives, founders, freelancers, engineers, researchers. Build networks in & out of your industry. Learn what and connect with who you need to launch your: startup, business, product, idea, collaborative, nonprofit.
From 12 – 8 p.m. CONNECT at The Hub and enjoy free, open coworking
And SPUR TANGIBLE PROGRESS — attend workshops curated to help you move your endeavor forward. Don’t just watch a presentation, actually do some work, & leave with a tangible take-away you can implement tomorrow.
Experts from Entrepreneurs’ Center and Parallax Advanced Research’s APEX program join forces to help you build your Small Business Innovation Research program proposal. They ‘ll answer the questions you have as you work to get funding for your startup.
Don’t up mess your financial foundation — build your financial projections correctly, right from the start! Arthi and Patrick from the Book+Street team will help you piece together the custom lego blocks of your business and understand the impacts of revenue, expenses to financial projections, and rules of cash flow to help you build your vision in a sustainable manner.
You can’t outlearn failure — even Beyonce fails sometimes! A product drop or event failure is not a personal failure. In fact, failures can be stepping stones to success. Join founders LeKeisha Grant & Christina Mendez as they help you learn how to move through your own.
Entrepreneurs, and especially women, often undercharge and experience imposter syndrome. In this session, Whitney Barkley, founder of Speakerazzi and Director of the Greater West Dayton Incubator, will help you understand how to set the right pricing and market your worth.
Register here to snag your spot!
By Katie Aldridge
Problematic feet? Shayna Boyd’s got you covered.
Self-proclaimed community foot fairy, Shayna is the owner and creator of Naturally Bare, a practice focused on medical pedicures. She is also a recent Early Risers Academy graduate, and one of the winners of her winter 2022 cohort.
“Naturally Bare is the first responder to foot care,” she said.
But what is a medical pedicure?
“A medical pedicure uses the same tools and techniques as a podiatrist,” Shayna explained. “Those tools and the attention to detail is what sets a medical pedicure apart from a traditional pedicure.”
Medical pedicures are more focused on the wellness of the skin and nails than the beautification of the foot. They are able to identify fungi and diseases, then make referrals to podiatrists, she continued.
Shayna originally set put to be a nail technician. She thought she was too old to get started, but her cousin convinced her to go for it anyway. Once she got into class, she noticed that no one wanted to do pedicures, and was drawn to the procedure as a result.
After graduating nail school, Shayna connected via Instagram with a few women who exposed her to the world of medical pedicures. She signed up for a few more classes, and fell in love with the work.
“Our feet are our foundation,” Shayna said. “I love what I do because I’m able to stop people’s foot-related problems before they grow into serious health issues. It’s a long-term service for my clients, and I’m able to impact peoples’ lives in a way I’d never thought about.”
Shayna works a corporate 9-to-5, and comes from a family who does the same. She never saw herself as an entrepreneur. But now, she’s working to grow Naturally Bare into her full-time career.
I never looked at Naturally Bare as a hobby,” she said. “My full-time job gets in my way with a lot of stuff. I would be more ahead and more accomplished if I wasn’t so restricted.”
She shared these frustrations with a fellow budding entrepreneur, who told her about Early Risers Academy, a 10-week, cohort-based business class series powered by Launch Dayton partner Parallax.
Early Risers Academy business classes help new and aspiring business owners build strong foundations in order to succeed and grow in their industries. The supportive cohort environment offers one-on-one coaching, access to networks, and accountability partners.
“I knew the class had things to offer that I needed for my business,” she recalled. “Before Early Risers Academy, I didn’t have confidence when I talked about my business.”
In fact, the “What’s your why?” lesson helped her realize she wanted to focus exclusively on footcare.
“It was so much more than just taking a class for a pitch competition,” Shayna said. “Early Risers Academy was a family, a confidence booster, a place for networking, and a place to learn . It was hard in the beginning, but it definitely paid off in the end.”
Support Shayna by spreading the word about Naturally Bare’s services & connect with her on Facebook & IG @naturallybare.llc
Intrigued by Early Risers Academy? Learn more and apply for the next cohort here!
In March, your favorite local fresh, small-batch baby food hit retail shelves near you!
Taste-T-Love is now available at the Dorothy Lane Market Springboro location, coming soon to DLM’s other locations.
It was a long process, founder Kourtney Terry shared — her baby food is frozen, and grocers just haven’t know exactly what to do with her product.
“Part of my pitch was, you can be first,” she said. “We look forward to our partnership with Dorothy Lane Market as we continue to strive and be a leader in our frozen baby food industry.”
Today, you’ll find Taste-T-Love’s packs, not in the freezer aisle, but in a custom-wrapped freezer right there in the baby food aisle.
“I feel good about the launch,” Kourtney said. “We’ve been on shelves about a month, and we’ve had sales every week. We expected a slow start, but it has been good.”
In addition to launching in DLM, Kourtney is focused on growing Taste-T-Love’s corporate clients this year. She is in the process of onboarding Dayton Children’s Hospital, and hopes to expand to their sister networks as well.
Kourtney has received business support from Launch Dayton partner Entrepreneurs’ Center as an Entrepreneurial Services Provider client. The EC team helped her with her pitch and presentation, and helped her get in front of the right people at DLM, she said.
Her advice to fellow entrepreneurs on the journey? Be consistent and surround yourself with people who see your vision. And don’t forget that it takes money to grow.
“When you grow, you have to spend money,” she said. “We’ve grown a lot this year, and I’ve had to make sure I keep people around me who believe in my business just as much as I do. Otherwise, I’d be back in corporate right now.”
Read more about Kourtney’s mission to provide healthy, fresh, small-batch baby food here.
The tell Kourtney congratswhen you see her out and about, and shop Taste-T-Love at Dorothy Lane Market — Springboro, or online at tastetlove.com!
Of course you want your business to grow. But what does that mean? How do you determine your actual business growth goals in order to pursue them?
The first step is to rephrase the question, shares serial entrepreneur and Launch Dayton Mentor Network manager KeAnna Daniels.
Ask yourself — What three things have to happen today to get the most basic version of my product or service to market where people can actually buy it?
For example, you might think you need an app for people to book your services — but right now, you really just need a website that allows customers to book your time. Building a basic website is your first business goal. The app can wait.
Or, if you already have sales — what three things have to happen today to keep money coming into your business? Do you need to reach new audiences to increase those sales? Do you need to secure a retail account so customers can pick up your product on their own?
Maybe you’re working on a business plan for a quick turnaround pitch, but you’re getting overwhelmed and stuck. Complete a Business Model Canvas instead. It’s better to have something than nothing at all, and this shorter document can live a second life as the executive summary for your longer business plan. Keep it simple. You can always expound on it little by little.
Here are a few examples of business growth goals:
Whatever your business growth goals, a mentor can help you achieve them. Mentors can help you break those goals down into manageable steps.
In the Launch Dayton Mentor Network, we pair up pioneers and business owners with business mentors who have been there, done that, and can provide one-on-one support to help their peers avoid costly mistakes while they move their business forward.
Learn how the Launch Dayton Mentor Network can help you grow your business here.
Cardiovascular disease kills 17M people a year, making it the leading cause of mortality across the globe.
As many as half of these deaths are caused by heart attacks — but emergency healthcare providers will soon have a new tool in their belt to save these patients, thanks to Mick Hopkins and the MedTech Launch Fund.
Hopkins is a 20-year+ emergency room nurse turned founder of True Concepts Medical Technologies, where he has invented a series of dual-syringe technologies designed to address problems he repeatedly encountered in that emergency room.
SAFE Syringe™ is the first of his syringes to be prototyped, thanks to support from the MedTech Launch Fund.
True Concepts Medical Technologies new SAFE and D’VIA syringes will change the way life-saving medicine is delivered.
Currently, certain cardiac conditions require medication followed rapidly by a 20 ml normal saline flush to ensure that the medication reaches the heart immediately. The current setup to administer these medications can take longer than the 4-6 minutes, is prone to error in administration, and 90 percent of clinicians fail to flush enough saline through after the medication.
SAFE Syringe looks to change all that — its advanced 2-in-1 dual chamber design enables pre-loaded medications followed by a 20 ml flush to be delivered in one step, ensuring the correct right amounts of medication are delivered rapidly to the heart.
“I see this revolutionizing the way code medications are given,” said Jordan Bonomo, MD, Director of Critical Care in Emergency Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
The device was prototyped over the last 12 months with support from the MedTech Launch Fund, launched in fall 2020 to accelerate the development of medical technology by funding alpha prototype development. The fund is managed by Launch Dayton partners Parallax Advanced Research and Entrepreneurs’ Center and financially supported by Ohio Third Frontier and the Economic Development Administration’s i6 program.
Hopkins was one of the first founders accepted into the MedTech Launch Fund portfolio.
“It’s been a tremendous experience, to see your idea come all the way through to fruition and actually have a working prototype,” Hopkins said. “It was a catalyst to take everything to the next level, build out the business, and really prepare us for an exciting 2022 and 2023.”
SAFE Syringe isn’t the only syringe technology Hopkins and his company are developing. A second device, D’VIA™ , aims to eliminate the $8.3B hospitals lose annually treating false-positive diagnoses for sepsis.
These false-positives occur when blood culture specimens — the gold standard to diagnosis sepsis — are contaminated during collection. Every year, there are an estimated 40M blood cultures collected in U.S. hospitals. Eight percent of these draws are positive for sepsis, 40% of those positive tests are false-positives, causing unnecessary prescription of antibiotics, increased hospitals stays and financial burden to patients, providers and payers.
D’VIA will utilize a 4-in-1 dual-chamber design to isolate the first 3ml of blood likely to contain contaminates. This blood is repurposed for other testing, so it is not wasted. The remaining chambers ensures that a full 20ml of “clean” blood is collected, then accurately dispenses the appropriate amount of blood into each blood culture bottle.
“I’m confident that the D’VIA dual chamber blood collection system has the potential to positively impact the care of septic and suspected sepsis patients across the entire population,” said Kettering Health Medical Director Dr. Michale Lakes.
D’VIA will likely be the first device to get to market. But the company holds 30+ US and international patents in 11 countries on its syringe designs, so it certainly won’t be the last.
Hopkins and his team are gearing up for a $15M Series A funding raise to finish development and rapidly pursue regulatory clearance for its innovative technologies.
“It has been amazing over the last couple of years — the quality of the innovation and sophistication of the inventors and researchers is definitely increasing and inspiring,” said Dan Sands, tech scout and advisor to the MedTech Launch Fund. “I think the impact of the fund and the Dayton Entrepreneurs’ Center bringing together resources to help mentor and coach these early companies is making a significant impact.”
To learn more about True Concepts Medical Technologies, follow the company on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/company/true-concepts-medical-technologies-llc/.
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