We’re celebrating milestones big and small with our entrepreneurs and founders! Read on to see some of the awesome ways our startups have kicked off 2020.
Na’Asiaha Simon launched her PR & planning firm, Na’Asiaha Simon & Associates. She also landed the Oregon District Business Association as a client. Congrats, Na’Asiaha!
James Revels launched Katakage Brands. Congrats, James!
Santa Clara Juicery closed their retail storefront to pursue a new direction. Stay tuned for our interview with Elizabeth on what’s next.
Ella Bella is now fulfilled by Amazon. Congrats, Mandy!
Marxent landed a key 3D commerce patent for Marxent® 3D Cloud. Congrats, Beck & Barry!
Smooch Maquillage turned 4. Congrats, Jordyn!
Savorista Coffee was featured in Imbibe magazine. They’re also hiring for a part-time marketing position, & they received a Top 3 People’s Choice Award at the Cincinnati Coffee Festival in late 2019. Congrats, Kait!
Megan Smith, founder of St. Anne the Tart, was named Daytonian of the Week. You might have tasted some of her goodies last year at Startup Week. Congrats, Megan!
Charlynda Scales, founder of Mutt’s Sauce, was tapped to speak at this year’s POWERSHIFT conference alongside the likes of Mark Cuban. C0ngrats, Charlynda!
Rachel Blanks’ Butter, Bakin’, and Bacon pound cakes were added, by the slice to the Texas Beef & Cattle Company menu. Congrats, Rachel!
Juicy Melt Supreme hot sauce landed on the shelves at Whole Foods. Congrats, Jeff & Tracy!
Something or someone we missed? Tell us! We need your help rounding up this good news so we can celebrate our entrepreneurs together. Thank you in advance!
After dabbling in the world of seller-fulfilled Amazon Prime, Ella Bella GF founder Mandy Groszko made the jump this year to Amazon-fulfilled Prime for her top-selling lactation cookie mix.
Wondering if you should also make the switch? Read Mandy’s thoughts on the pros & cons below.
The following Q&A interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Q: Why did you decide to switch to Amazon-fulfilled Prime from seller-fulfilled Prime?
Mandy: With seller-fulfilled Prime, you have to meet strict criteria, including maintaining a 99 percent approval rating & getting your product to the customer within two days.It was becoming a lot of work, jumping every time my phone dinged and getting to the post office regularly.
Also, my product is heavier, so I was only able to offer seller-fulfilled Prime to customers in states adjacent to Ohio. So even though I offer free shipping to everyone, not everyone would see it the same way, because some people search by Prime-only.
Q: What did you actually have to do to make the switch to Amazon-fulfilled Prime versus seller-fulfilled?
Mandy: I made 48 bags of mixes, then I followed Amazon’s own tutorials on how to prep and ship product to them. They really do step you through the process — they’re very customer-oriented, so they want products getting to customers quickly. They allow you to use their shipping prices, which makes it affordable to ship to their distribution facilities.
Q: Have you seen a difference yet in your sales since making the switch?
Mandy: I sold 21 mixes in January 2020, compared to 13 mixes in January 2019, a 62% increase in sales, and that’s without doing any marketing. It’s on me to keep track of my sales & know when to restock. But I can already see that I’m selling and shipping to more states than I did before.
Q: So do you recommend Amazon-fulfilled sales over seller-fulfilled sales?
Mandy: If you’re unsure if a product is going to sell, start with seller-fulfilled Prime because the fees are less, and that 99.9% approval rating is a real, hard limit. But if you can, go for Amazon-fulfilled Prime. I have so much time back. But know that you will still have to be promoting your product. Amazon won’t be marketing for you — it just happens to be the platform shipping the product.
Lady Leaders, a new community for female founders & entrepreneurs in the Dayton region, will host its inaugural event next month.
Lady Leaders Day will run 8:30a to 3:30p on Thursday, Feb. 18 at LORE, 116 W. 5th St. in downtown Dayton. It will create space for female business owners across the region to come together for introspection, reflection and strategy for 2020.
The event will include a guided three-hour workshop on creating a life designed with intention, as well as opportunities to network, eat & work out together.
Lady Leaders Day is the brainchild of two female founders — Elizabeth Beil of Beil Nutrition and Meghann Naveau of Es and Joe Communication. Meghann and Elizabeth met through Dayton’s startup community, and after swapping business stories and advice for several months, they saw the opportunity to engage a wider community of female founders and entrepreneurs in Dayton.
“When I was starting my business, the Dayton startup community welcomed me with open arms. There are people of all industries and backgrounds doing really amazing work in our gem city,” Meghann said. “The more I met with other entrepreneurs, and especially with other women entrepreneurs, I heard the same challenges echoed back to me; we all have a lot of common ground.”
Female-powered companies like Owl & Key, LORE, Top Knot Kitchen, Space Three Dayton and Sydney Lynn Creative are also part of the event.
“Dayton was the place where I knew I wanted to start and grow my business. I know the community is super supportive of small business, and attending events like Dayton Startup Week fueled my drive to pursue my dream,” Elizabeth said. “I’ve found so many like-minded founders — and it’s empowering!”
Lady Leaders Day is designed to be a safe space for women founders to shares ideas and challenges faced in both professional and personal lives, she added.
For the full Lady Leaders Day agenda, click here. To register, click here. Both half- and full-day options are available for $150 & $175, respectively.
Registration is limited to the first 30 attendees and closes Feb. 6.
Meghann and Elizabeth hope to host additional Lady Leaders events throughout the year, depending on attendee response and feedback.
Want to hire a diverse group of summer interns for your tech needs?
Or, want to build your resume at a cutting-edge company this summer break?
Ohio Third Frontier’s Diversity & Inclusion Technology Internship Program reimburses companies two thirds of an intern’s salary, up to $10,000. Qualifying companies may hire up to three interns. Internships pay at least $15 per hour.
Applications for companies wishing to participate opened today, Jan. 21. Companies that wish to hire interns through the program should apply by Feb. 14.
Tech companies, or simply companies with a tech need, are eligible for the program.
It’s a great opportunity for students to get paid work experience at a cutting-edge company and for tech companies to shake up their usual intern pool to increase the mix of voices in their projects.
For more information, visit techintern.development.ohio.gov or email Diversity_inclusion_internship
@development.ohio.gov.
Students in any degree program are eligible. Interested students should apply by between Feb. 3 & Feb. 28.
We’re excited at the lineup of entrepreneurs slated for this Friday’s Early Risers!
Pitches will start promptly at 8a in the BarryStaff Community Room, 230 Webster St, Dayton.
You’ll meet:
Kourtney Terry, founder of Taste-T-Love Baby Food, a baby food startup with fresh and frozen offerings;
Bill Perdue, founder of Your Ride Home, a ride-sharing app that will make sure you and your vehicle make it home at the end of the night;
& Josh Reid, founder of Inphlu, an automated social media marketing tool.
Our January edition of Early Risers is sponsored by Miranda McKinney, health & life insurance agent and founder of MNM Bookkeeping Services. She’ll bring the coffee and treats to kick off the 8a event.
Early Risers is a morning pitch series that connects entrepreneurs to the things they need most, like first customers, key employees, mentors, funding, and more. Each startup gets 10 minutes to pitch, then the audience gets 5 minutes for Q&A.
In the last two years, 90% of startups have gotten their ask granted through a connection made at Early Risers. So grab a cup of coffee & a donut and find a place you can plug into Dayton’s startup community!
Let us know you’re coming! Register here.
Want to pitch? Click here: http://bit.ly/pitchEarlyRisers
Want to sponsor (and get two minutes in front of the audience)? Click here: http://bit.ly/sponsorEarlyRisers
Hope to see you at BarryStaff on Friday!
Dayton startup Marxent, the leader in 3D commerce and the top 3D visualization platform for furniture and kitchens, recently announced a notice of allowance from the US Patent & Trademark office for a key 3D commerce patent for Marxent® 3D Cloud.
“This patent is the culmination of years of effort dedicated to understanding the 3D design and purchase consideration process from the perspective of shoppers and retailers alike,” said Beck Besecker, CEO and Co-Founder of Marxent. “For the first time, designing in 3D is so easy that a consumer with no catalog knowledge can design a whole kitchen or furniture layout and easily buy it online. This tech unlocks high consideration home categories such as furniture and DIY for ecommerce.”
The now patent-protected IP includes the placement and configuration of 3D objects and assemblies in 3D space for facilitating ecommerce and in-store purchases. It forms the basis for the Marxent® 3D Cloud-powered 3D Room Planner, the beloved 3D customer experience selected by leading furniture retailers and kitchen cabinet manufacturers including La-Z-Boy, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Macy’s, John Lewis & Partners, and American Woodmark.
With the speed and efficiency of 5G driving new 3D applications and retail investment in 3D, the “reality technology” consumer market revenue will reach $34.1 billion in 2022 according to SuperData Research.
“We are ready for the near-future of shopping,” Besecker said. “By 2022, many retail and most ecommerce experiences will include 3D.”
For more information and to see a video of the Marxent 3D Room Planner in action, visit marxent.com/room-planner.
Dayton startup Cognovi Labs, a market leader in Emotion Artificial Intelligence, announced recently that its alternative data set is now available through Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point. With Cognovi Labs’ award-winning alternative data, investors now have access to daily insights for a large universe of US-traded consumer stocks. Clients can now test the data and integrate it into their own proprietary investment process.
“This is a completely new source of investment insights,” explains Beni Gradwohl, Co-Founder and CEO of Cognovi Labs. “By combining machine learning and behavioral psychology, we are able to go two steps beyond common sentiment analysis tools and dive into the decision making process and intent, thereby providing a new set of insights into company fundamentals.”
Cognovi Labs’ innovative Emotion AI combines machine learning with behavioral psychology to quantify how people make decisions and how it affects the outcome, from corporate sales to political events. Cognovi Labs underlying technology was originally developed at Wright State University’s Kno.e.sis Center, a globally recognized research center in semantic processing and AI.
Launched in September 2018, Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point is a web-based access point that allows Bloomberg Data License clients to discover and acquire reference, pricing, regulatory, historical and now alternative datasets. Clients can browse high quality data online, examine the metadata, sample datasets prior to acquisition, and immediately put them to use within their organization.
Besides providing this rich new dataset through Bloomberg Enterprise Access Point, Cognovi Labs also offers its Event Impact App on Bloomberg’s App Portal for Terminal subscribers. The app indicates in real time whether a corporate event could affect future sales.
Apply now for the Jan. 16, 2020 AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup Dayton PittStop and you could earn a shot at $50,000 for your early-stage hardware startup.
The AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup is a national pitch competition with semifinal rounds held in Pittsburgh, Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, Research Triangle (NC), and San Jose.
Dayton is one of eight cities within driving distance of Pittsburgh that will host an AlphaLab Gear Hardware PittStop. Six startups from the Dayton region will be selected to pitch on Jan. 16, 2020 at 5p at the Nucleus coworking space in the Kuhns Building, located at 15 W. 4th Street in downtown Dayton.
The PittStop winner will receive a travel stipend and two-night hotel stay in Pittsburgh, plus a chance to compete in the semifinal competition on Feb. 27, 2020. The winner of the semifinal will win $3,000 and a shot at the $50K AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup grand prize in May.
To be eligible, a startup must have at least one physical product component. These products range from manufactured products, IoT/connected devices or health/medical devices to consumer products, consumer electronics, food, fashion, robotics, etc.
The deadline to apply for the Dayton PittStop is Friday, Jan. 3, 2020. A panel of representatives from area entrepreneurial support organizations will select the top six startups to pitch on Jan. 16.
Each startup will have 3 minutes to pitch, followed by 3 minutes of Q&A from a panel of judges which will include a rep from the Pittsburgh Hardware Cup semifinal team.
The Dayton Hardware PittStop will be held during the Jan. 16 LaunchPad, a monthly event designed to connect and support the Launch Dayton community. LaunchPad events offer a series of workshops, meetups and networking opportunities for the region’s entrepreneurially-minded individuals, whether they’re launching a tech startup, a retail storefront, a new product line, a community project or a nonprofit.
Apply at: https://gust.com/programs/alpha-labgear-hardware-cup-pittstop
Learn more about the AlphaLab Gear Hardware Cup here: https://alphalabgear.org/hardwarecup/
For four years, we’ve been bringing you stories from and opportunities for Dayton’s startup community through our weekly newsletter, arriving each Tuesday over the lunch hour.
Over those four years, the Launch Dayton community has grown from primarily high-tech and defense-focused startups to include food & beverage founders, consumer product startups, creative entrepreneurs and a wide range of other small business owners.
As the community has grown, so has the variety of news stories — and we recognize that a valuable opportunity for an entrepreneur in one industry might just be clutter for an entrepreneur in a different industry.
So in 2020, we’re updating this Launch Dayton newsletter — & we’re giving you the power to determine which stories you want to read & when you want to read them.
On Jan. 7, 2020, we’ll begin sending our newsletter through Cerkl, a platform created by a Cincinnati startup that allows subscribers to opt in to receive stories that match the categories they care about. As you click through to read those stories that matter to you, Cerkl’s AI takes note and works to deliver more of the content you actually want.
Cerkl also allows you to choose your delivery times and frequency. Don’t want the newsletter every Tuesday at noon? Set yours up to arrive each Monday at 8a or every other Wednesday at 5p — whatever works best in your schedule.
Your welcome email will land in your inbox on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020. It will be your first opportunity to personalize your newsletter.
And as always, if there’s a story we’ve missed, reach out & let us know! Email [email protected] with your news tips.
Happy reading in the new year!
We’re celebrating milestones big and small with our entrepreneurs and founders! See what our awesome startups have been up to the last couple months, in no particular order:
Arcani Coil Care surpassed $1M in sales in 2019. Congrats, Jerricha!
Tae Winston held the grand opening of The Entrepreneur’s Marketplace. Congrats, Tae!
Amber Tipton, founder of Neighborhood Nest, was named the next adjunct teacher for Sinclair Community College’s dietetics department. Congrats, Amber!
NaAsiaha Simon & Associates bought a new office space. Congrats, Ny!
Reza’s Roast got a shoutout in Huffington Post. Congrats, Audria!
Conscious Connect was recognized as an honoree for the Library of Congress’ Literacy Awards. Congrats, Karlos & Moses!
Theia & Savorista made it to round two of University of Dayton’s Flyer Pitch business plan competition. Congrats Nicole, Bernard, Kait!
Ghostlight opened its second location at 800 S. Patterson Blvd. Congrats, Shane!
PIPE AG was named the winner of Springfield Hustles. Congrats, Roark!
Mutt’s Sauce launched sales on Amazon Prime. Congrats, Charlynda!
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