Nursing bras, wellness elixirs and recycling on deck for final Early Risers

Pitches will start promptly at 8a in The Square at The Hub, 31 S. Main St., Dayton. (We will also stream the pitches via zoom.)

For five years, this community-supported pitch series has connected entrepreneurs to the people they need most, like first customers, key employees, mentors, investors, and more. Each startup gets 10 minutes to pitch, then the audience gets 5 minutes for Q&A. Attendees tap their networks to help connect these Dayton region founders with the right people to help them move their business forward.

As pitch opportunities across the region have grown, the need for this monthly community pitch series has waned. On Dec. 3, come support the pitching entrepreneurs and help us close out this event series with a bang. In 2022, stay tuned for new opportunities to practice your pitch & connect with investors, champions and supporters.

Make the greatest impact with your dollars this holiday season by shopping local and shopping small.

Launch Dayton’s partner organizations are again collaborating to run the online #LaunchIntoTheHolidays campaign to promote Dayton-region small businesses this holiday season.

Beginning Cyber Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, and running through Friday, Dec. 17, tune in every weekday at noon to the Launch Dayton Facebook page to connect live with local businesses offering consumer goods perfect for your holiday gift list. The lineup will feature a range of products including baked goods, clothes, jewelry, beauty products, housewares, fair trade goods, handcrafted items, restaurant giftcards, CBD products + more.

You can use this lineup as your go-to resource for your local Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday shopping this holiday season, too!

Launch Dayton is a collaborative effort of entrepreneurial resource provider organizations across the region to support and promote all Daytonians building businesses. Launch Dayton partners believe everyone, regardless of their background, should have the opportunity to determine their own economic prosperity. Several Launch Dayton partner organizations including Aviatra Accelerators — Dayton, Downtown Dayton Partnership, Miami Valley Small Business Development Center, Parallax Advanced Research, and Entrepreneurs’ Center will also be sharing #LaunchIntoTheHolidays posts.

This is the driving question founder Michel’le Curington considers as she manages Fail Me Not Tutoring, a tutoring program that services students in grades K-8th in math, reading, and writing in the Dayton area.

Michel’le is a graduate of Early Risers Academy, a 10-week business-building bootcamp powered by Launch Dayton partner Parallax Advanced Research. We recently caught up with Michel’le to learn more about Fail Me Not Tutoring and her Academy experience

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Michel’le: One day, I was at home praying that I would find a job that allowed me to serve my purpose. I closed my eyes and the word tutoring flashed across my head. I tutored for several years as a hobby. In 2019, I applied to get my LLC to become an actual business.

I built my brand mostly through word-of-mouth. A lot of students’ parents saw great results and growth in their children academically, and we got a lot of positive reports from teachers as well. That is how my business grew.

Why this idea?

I had already received my bachelor’s degree in education. I was in the middle of graduate school, and it was recommended that graduate students don’t have a job. I was doing school full time, but I needed extra income. I was getting my master’s in education, so it just made sense.

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

No, I hadn’t thought about it. I always saw myself working as a teacher. The idea hadn’t crossed my mind until I was sitting in my living room that day and had the idea. It was like a light bulb went off in my head. It was going to allow me to serve my purpose, and it is in the field I am in. It made perfect sense.

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

I am very determined. When it comes to entrepreneurship, I am determined in making sure that I am running my business with complete authenticity. I am determined to run my business as if I am on the receiving end; I run my business as if I am a parent. I am a thinker, so I always think things through and plan things out.

What is the biggest barrier you’ve faced in entrepreneurship?

Training my staff properly so they know how to run my business. My goal is for my business to run so smoothly that no one is able to identify the owner of Fail Me Not Tutoring. I always say I want it to run like Chick-Fil-A!

Why do you love what do you?

I was a kid that didn’t understand things in school. I really struggled. I valued those teachers who took the time to help me and tutor me before and after school. I valued those students in the Sinclair and Wright State writing labs and math labs who spent the time to work with me to develop my skills. I want to give back that feeling and energy that those teachers gave and invested in me.

How was your Early Risers Academy experience?

It was amazing! I met so many different people with so many different businesses – businesses that I didn’t even think would exist. It was really cool to learn about the different types of businesses and ideas that people have. I really valued and appreciated that from Early Risers Academy. I was also grateful to meet established entrepreneurs to give us feedback because they have been through it; their advice was extremely helpful.

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

We are in need of some things, so if anyone has any resources where we can get some laptops that would be great. I am also looking to add STEM activities and courses into my program. If anyone in the STEM field has knowledge about activities or courses that we can offer to students in the Dayton community, that would be greatly appreciated. The students of Fail Me Not Tutoring are a product of Dayton. Any resources that help me also help push the students forward and would be greatly appreciated.

Also, Fail Me Not Tutoring is hiring! If interested, you can send your resumes to [email protected].

There’s no one way to be an entrepreneur.

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.

Meet Jeff Graley & Jorge Sanchez, doing cool stuff with cool people

When Jeff Graley and Jorge Sanchez joined forces to launch Mile Two in 2015, they had a clear goal — to do cool stuff with cool people.

“Technology is advancing at a pace that’s just fascinating over the last several decades. How do you bring people, technology and work together? That mission was the same over there inside the fence as we have here at Mile Two,” Air Force veteran Jeff Graley said. “We want to stay on the cutting edge of technology, and as you’re doing that, how do you make sure that people are involved so you can accomplish the mission?”

Jeff and Jorge did that by putting down roots in downtown Dayton and building a now 100+ strong team that is as focused on the community as on the work.

“If you just look at Third Street, Second Street, First Street, how much they have changed over the last five years, we’ve been a part of that, and I think that has been really cool,” Jeff said.

“Community has always been a huge part of what we do,” Jorge agreed. “Having the ability to run with our own sense of what giving back means [as we’ve built our company] has been very rewarding as well.”

Experiencing community

“I grew up in southern West Virginia, very much in the coal fields. There were poor people and middle class people. But there was community. If someone had something or someone needed help on a project, everyone dropped what they were doing to go help them,” Jeff recalled. “I saw multiple instances where my dad, on his vacation or weekend, would go help the neighbors build their deck because he saw that they didn’t have all the skills or understanding they needed to do that, so that sense of community, that sense of ‘Hey, we’re all in this together,’ shaped the way I look at the world, and the way Mile Two interacts with the world.”

Jorge credits his time at University of Dayton for strengthening his own focus on community. After college, as he got involved in downtown Dayton, he worked with Bicycles for All.

“We’re very like-minded,” Jorge said of his co-founder. “I went to school at UD, and one of the mottoes there is ‘learn, lead, serve.’ Service has always been part of what I’ve done in my life, and bringing that into the company as well. I was involved in a lot of work downtown with Bicycles for All, working to empower people that needed transportation and help people get fit and help kids entertain themselves, and that just stuck with us. Being able to do the right thing with people has always been a pivotal part of what we do.”

Irrational confidence

The year the pair launched their company, Jorge also found himself caring for a newborn.

“Being able to manage the lack of sleep at home, and being present both at work and at home, ended up at some points being a challenge, because one of them is always competing for attention over the other,” Jorge recalled.

The experience of being a new parent is an apt metaphor for launching a startup, Jeff says.

“The newborn drives your schedule,” he said. “You don’t decide when they’re hungry, or when they wake up, or when they need your attention. You have to be highly adaptable, but still get the other things done during the day that you need to do.”

And to pull it off, you have to truly believe in what you’re doing, Jorge says.

“You have to have some level of self-belief and understand that what you’re doing is worthwhile and actually believe that what you’re doing is going to move something forward,” he said. “A good chunk of the reason we were able to make it through is that we have a very strong belief in what we’re doing.”

Setting an example

As their children get older, the fathers are excited for the opportunity they have to be an example of entrepreneurship for their kids.

“Nobody talked about entrepreneurship when I was a kid,” Jeff recalled. “There were no good examples of what we’re doing when I was a kid, but my kids, and my kids’ friends, get to see that. My daughter was here with two of her friends, and they were looking over the shoulder of one of our female software developers, and the only reason the female part is relevant is, the girls were standing behind them and they said, ‘I don’t think I could ever do what you do,’ and she turned around and said, ‘Be quiet, don’t you ever say that, you can do any of this stuff, it’s just software, it’s just stuff you gotta practice and learn’.”

“They walked away and thought, ‘Maybe I can do that,’ so just being able to crack that door where she thought it was closed, and having a representative within the company to be able to that, for me, that’s a huge impact.”

This year’s Launch Dayton Startup Week brought you speakers and workshops curated to spur tangible progress for local businesses and to celebrate the diversity of our startup community.

Monday we kicked off with inspirational stories and how-to talks from founders offering advice that applies across industry lines, all told from our main stage in the historic Rotunda.

Tuesday through Thursday, we dug deeper into your business with industry-specific tracks and hands-on workshop opportunities.

Saturday sessions?

Pitches will start promptly at 8a in The Square at The Hub, 31 S. Main St., Dayton. (We will also stream the pitches via zoom.)

There’s no one way to be an entrepreneur.

They proudly declare, “I Am an Entrepreneur” — and you can be, too.

Meet Carlos Portis, UX designer by day, parentpreneur & tech founder by night

Carlos Portis was rocking his 7-month-old son when he had the initial idea for Soft Cards digital greeting cards.

“I was playing with the texting platform, seeing what people are able to do with SMS,” he recalled. “I decided I could build a rough prototype of what I envisioned with my skillset building webpages, so I decided to push forward.”

Flash forward a few years, Carlos is a UX designer at University of Dayton Research Institute by day, and works on his company, Inveloped, with co-founder Buddy Pitts by night.

Through it all, he is also a husband and father who consistently shows up for his family — a priority he learned from his own father, he said.

Family-focused

A self-described military brat, Carlos’s family lived in different places including Las Vegas and Japan before coming back to Ohio and settling in Dayton.

“I appreciate my dad making the decision to change the trajectory for his family. By being a Black man joining the military, he was getting away from a certain environment, and that allowed us to blossom,” Carlos said.

Today, his dad is still his model example on how to do right by himself and his family.

“Anything in life, whether it’s your business, or time with your kids, you have to be intentional about it,” he said. “I had one of the best examples in the world with my father. He was an amazing father for me and my sister. He’d get off work after a long day, put his bags down, and be willing to hop on a video game or play basketball.”

Carlos’s own typical day begins by waking up his kids — ages 4 and 7 — and getting them ready for and off to school. Between his day job and his startup hours, you might find him playing Legos, pushing swings, or jumping on the trampoline.

“I try to hold myself to that example and make sure my kids have a dad who is not only physically, but mentally, present,” he said.

‘A long haul’

“I feel like I always had entrepreneurial endeavors, raking leaves for money, mowing yards,” Carlos recalled.

He studied visual communications and web design in college, and found a job with his church right after graduation handling their marketing and graphic work. Other churches began to take notice, and then restaurants and other small businesses began reaching out to Carlos for website work. His first company was born.

“More than anything, you get discouraged about the timing of things. You want things to happen all at once,” Carlos said. “If there’s anything I realize about the entrepreneur journey, it’s that sometimes it’s a long haul. You’ve got to be willing to put in an adequate amount of time without sacrificing family.”

“You may have self-doubt, but just always be weighing your intention and making sure you’re taking action and having the right intent,” he said.

Launch Dayton’s partner organizations are once again collaborating to to promote Dayton-region small businesses this holiday season through the online #LaunchIntoTheHolidays campaign.

Beginning Cyber Monday, Nov. 29, 2021, and running through Friday, Dec. 17, Launch Dayton will host a Facebook Live each day over the lunch hour that will feature a series of small, local businesses showcasing products that make the perfect holiday gift.

The goal is to connect the region’s small businesses with new customers seeking to shop local and maximize the impact of their dollars this holiday season.

This campaign is supported by partner organizations including Aviatra Accelerators — Dayton, Dayton Powerhouse, Downtown Dayton Partnership, Entrepreneurs’ Center, and Parallax Advanced Research, and more, who will share the live videos with their networks. Participating businesses will also share the posts, cross-promoting each other and helping all the local businesses in the campaign to reach new customers.

#LaunchIntoTheHolidays began in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down so many small retailers and restaurants earlier in the year. The campaign was a hit both with participants, many of whom reported a direct increase in sales as a result of the campaign, and with viewers, who enjoyed the sneak peeks into local kitchens and production spaces as they connected with new businesses to shop and support. In total, the 2020 campaign featured 44 businesses and racked up more than 22,000 views.

Launch Dayton is a collaborative effort of regional entrepreneurial support organizations to connect and support Dayton’s entrepreneur and startup community. Businesses selected for the campaign will:

Business owners must sign up here by Friday, Nov. 12. Participants will be notified and must confirm their Facebook Live time slots by Friday, Nov. 19.

Launch Dayton partners will offer an optional workshop for participants the week of Monday, Nov. 22 to maximize the impact of their Facebook Live, including how to prepare, where to do your live video, how to pick your top products to highlight, and more.

Ever thrown up your hands trying to figure out what to post to your business social to beat the algorithm? GuideBeam Digital Marketing is here to help.

Founder Danielle Phillips launched her company this year to help business-to-business companies in the Dayton-area grow capacity and focus on digital marketing.

Danielle is a graduate of Early Risers Academy, a 10-week business-building bootcamp managed by Launch Dayton partner Parallax Advanced Research. We recently caught up with Danielle to learn more about her company and her academy experience.

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Danielle: I started a few months ago. I have over nine years of experience in the digital marketing industry. I have worked with a variety of different industries. I got started because I saw the need for businesses that might not have the budget to hire an expensive marketing company, but they still need help with digital marketing.

Why this idea?

I love marketing and the potential of having a new marketing idea. The ability to think about what is important to business customers and how I can connect that to a marketing activity while also tracking their results is something that is very interesting to me. I love diving into the data of a business’ marketing and making recommendations based on that data. I want to help businesses recognize what investing in digital marketing can do by showing them real results.

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Actually, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. What changed my mindset on this was recognizing that it will be hard, and it will be difficult, but depending on the type of business, you can really manage and balance that difficulty.

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

I have always been involved in a variety of different things. My history and track record to be able to follow through on my promises has really taught me to bring energy into what I do. Somehow, I still have that college student mindset of, just get it done even if you have to stay up late.

What is the biggest barrier you’ve faced in entrepreneurship?

The biggest challenge is that everybody wants to help you, but you don’t always know the best way for those people to help. I am very appreciative of how much everyone wants to help, but I don’t know who or where to get the information from until the questions hit me. There is a lot of uncertainty; I don’t know what I don’t know.

Why do you love what do you?

I really love helping people. A lot of times, with marketing, people are at their wits end, especially with digital marketing. What I like most is when I can actually teach somebody something. I like making something that was complicated to someone easier the next time they try do it.

How was your Early Risers Academy experience?

If anybody hasn’t done this, and they’re considering starting a business, they should do it, because it was so helpful to define the business and what you’re offering. It is a useful way to get introduced to people who will be able to help you with finances, research, and so many other things.

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

I’m accepting new clients right now, so if there is anyone who is running a business and needs help with their marketing, reach out! I’m open to doing free consultations over a cup of coffee and learn more about their business.

Self-proclaimed “Kobe and Shaq” of the business world, former college roommates Jeffrey Caldwell and Charles Wheeler are the co-owners of Tumble, an on-demand dry cleaning and laundry service that serves the Dayton Region.

We recently caught up with Jeffrey to learn more about Tumble and his Academy experience.

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Jeffrey: Our company started our senior year at Miami University. Charles had just gotten home from a busy night working for Oxford to You, which is almost like UberEATS local to the Oxford area. He got home and he still had laundry to do; I was in the living room, working on laundry myself, and watching an NBA basketball game. Charles had the bright idea, what if there was a company or business that took care of our laundry — picked it up, did it all, and dropped it back off to us? I thought, that’s a great idea, & that could be us! We took off from there and got our LLC together February of this year.

Why this industry?

One of the funny things we learned out of doing the Wright State University pitch competition was that one of the judges, their grandparents were in the laundry business. They said that they went through world wars and the Great Depression, and their laundry business was able to remain stable. It got them and their family through the Depression. I think back to that as it’s one of those businesses that is depression-proof. People are always going to need clothes, and clean clothes at that. It makes the industry that much more important and essential.

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

Yes, I’ve always wanted to have my own business. I always think about if the little kid version of me could see me now, I know he’d be smiling from ear to ear. I remember as a kid going out and cleaning people’s attics and garages, selling stuff on eBay, or trading Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and Pokémon cards to find the most collectable ones and selling those. I’ve always been a hustler, and the entrepreneur spirit is definitely in me.

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

I would say my resiliency, grit, and hard work. Without those, where do you get in life? There are going to be times where your back is against the wall, or something doesn’t work out the way you want it to, and you’re going to have to use all three of those in order to figure a way out or to put a positive spin on it.

Why do you love what do you?

I love the ability to be my own boss, which is what everyone always says, and it’s cliché, but it’s a really great feeling. The other part I love is teaching other kids that look like me that you can go out and own your own business — you can get in front of other people that might not look like you or talk the same way you do, but you should still feel comfortable enough to pitch your business idea. If it’s something that is really good, it’ll connect to everybody no matter race, ethnicity, greed, all that stuff.

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

The best way they can support us is by getting the word out there. Let everybody in Dayton know that we have our own on-demand laundry and dry-cleaning service. If we can let people know that we’re here, we’re trying to stay around for as long as we can. In addition to that, go ahead and join Tumble Prime! We have a subscription service that I use myself and I would recommend anyone else to go ahead and use. If you really don’t like doing laundry and you want to spend time doing stuff that you enjoy, I would highly recommend doing that!

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Why this idea?

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

What is the biggest barrier you’ve faced in entrepreneurship?

Why do you love what do you?

How was your Early Risers Academy experience?

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

There’s no one way to be an entrepreneur.

Meet Jeff Graley & Jorge Sanchez, doing cool stuff with cool people

Experiencing community

Irrational confidence

Setting an example

Saturday sessions?

There’s no one way to be an entrepreneur.

Meet Carlos Portis, UX designer by day, parentpreneur & tech founder by night

Family-focused

‘A long haul’

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Why this idea?

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

What is the biggest barrier you’ve faced in entrepreneurship?

Why do you love what do you?

How was your Early Risers Academy experience?

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

Launch Dayton: How did your company start?

Why this industry?

Did you always want to be an entrepreneur?

What identities do you bring to entrepreneurship that helped prepare you for this lifestyle?

Why do you love what do you?

How can the Launch Dayton community support you?

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