Dreaming of blue skies and big waters? SmithFly has just the gear you need.
The Troy-based startup specializes in outdoors products, or gear “for people who love to be outside,” founder Ethan Smith said.
His company is particularly known for its Big Shoals Raft, designed for fly fishermen & women, and the Shoal Tent, a floating tent that allows you to camp on the water. Video of the tent has gone viral online multiple times, racking up more than 200M views across the globe. SmithFly also recently released a Cabana party raft.
“Even when I was a kid I was drawing doodle of inventions and things like that,” he recalled. “All through college, I had ideas similar to these for outdoorsy products.”
Ethan founded SmithFly as side project in 2011, then took it full-time in Dec. 2015. The company’s revenues have roughly doubled every year since.
“We’ve got boats all around the country and all around the world,” including Montana, Texas, South America, Patagonia & Ireland, he said. “We’ve got some of the best guides in the world working out of our rafts and helping us refine and improve and really make the best product we can at the best value.”
Ethan has been self-funded so far and owns 100 percent of his business, which is on track to surpass $1M in revenue next year. He’s looking for an investment partner to help him grow the company while remaining in the Dayton region. He pitched the company at our November 2019 Early Risers.
“The labor pool and expertise right here in Miami Valley, as far as machining and metal working, is as good as anywhere in the world,” he said.
“The days people spend in our rafts are some of their favorite days of the year,” he added. “Being a part of that & playing a small role in people’s happy place is really what gets me up in the morning.”
By Raeann Calcutta, The ONEIL Center
Looking for a new, innovative gaming experience? Zeius’s interactive drone technology might be just what you need to level up.
Zeius’s integrated system connects players via a social networking platform where they can challenge local friends with drones to various mini-games and competitions. The platform also enables users to share photos and videos of their gameplay within a global community.
Max Gilson, founder of Zeius LLC, pitched the startup at our November 2019 Early Risers competition.
“Many drones are just expensive flying cameras,” Gilson said. “By gamifying the experience, we offer more value for this kind of technology.”
With his unique interactive experience, Gilson aims to attract younger, tech-savvy audiences to the drone market.
Gilson workshopped his initial business idea through Launch Dayton’s Early Risers Academy pre-accelerator program.
“I knew that I wanted to start a drone company, but I noticed that the drone I started building was pretty much the same as all of the other drones on the market today,” Gilson recalled.
He realized that social networking and gaming would be a key feature to make drones more engaging and enjoyable. Through Zeius, he hopes to revolutionize the way we think about drones and the video game scene.
Zeius has a working prototype. Gilson is currently looking for mentorship, advisors, and other support to move the project forward. To get involved, email Gilson at [email protected].
Does your company offer third-party software to your clients? Nebula HQ might be just what you need to cultivate your brand experience, cofounders Bryan Hunter and Paul Schwab say.
Bryan founded his payroll firm, 937 Payroll, a little over two years ago. He offers third-party accounting, HR and time tracking software.
But even though all of that software is white labeled as a 937 Payroll offering, a client who uses all of those services has to log in to three different sites.
“It was a creating a disjointed client experience,” he recalled.
As it turns out, Bryan’s son & Paul’s daughter go to pre-school together, so on a field trip to the zoo, Bryan found himself making small talk with his soon-to-be developer partner.
“I’m the hacker — I just want to develop code and work on it,” Paul said. “I’m not into selling, marketing, but that’s what Bryan’s into. So as he was talking, I was thinking, this could work!”
Bryan and Paul are looking for beta users to test the Nebula HQ platform. They pitched the startup at our October 2019 Early Risers.
“The more people we can get using, and the more candid, honest real feedback we can get, the faster we can create something people really like,” Bryan said.
Reach him at [email protected].
Elizabeth Presher, founder of Grit & Grace Digital Marketing, describes herself as a ‘small business cheerleader.’
In her digital marketing agency, she loves to work with small businesses, especially those in the retail space where her own entrepreneur journey began.
Her new product, Omni Loyalty, takes that mission a step further — the proprietary software taps Facebook Messenger and mobile wallet to create a digital stamp card loyalty program that helps small business owners with physical and digital storefronts pull in more customers.
While organic reach on social media is typically between 2 & 6 percent, Facebook Messenger marketing sees open rates between 80 & 90 percent, Elizabeth shared.
Omni Loyalty reaches customers through messenger — which can push notifications to a lock screen — then creates a custom-designed loyalty card that can sit in an individual’s mobile wallet. It’s less clunky than an app, and the mobile wallet passes, which customers can use to purchase online or in-store, are rarely deleted, she said.
“One of our boutiques, within two weeks, said they swore their sales had doubled because customers wanted to spend more to reach that next reward level,” Elizabeth shared.
As well as e-commerce stores & brick & mortar boutiques, Omni Loyalty can be a great fit for coffee shops, breweries and small restaurants, she added.
Elizabeth pitched the platform at our October 2019 Early Risers.
“I love this is an app to help businesses grow in an area that has really become a struggle, bu giving them multiple lines of communication,” she said. “I love being a cheerleader for small businesses, so this is a really fun spot for me to be.”
When Elise Weltge was traveling through the U.K., she kept seeing little piaggios pulled over on the side of the road, serving champagne.
“My husband and I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I thought, we have to figure out how to do this in the U.S,” she recalled with a laugh.
Fast forward to this summer — Elise launched Fizzy Trucks, Ohio’s first mobile champagne tuk tuk.
“We can also serve beer, wine — anything fizzy in a keg,” she said. She has served beverages at private backyard parties & wedding receptions. She had her eye on corporate happy hours and holiday parties, too.
The company is Dayton-born, and proud of it, but Elise is also looking reach fabulous folk in Cincinnati, Columbus & Indianapolis.
“I would love to see it grow,” she said. “I love what I do because it always involves celebration. Anytime you’re getting people together for a celebration, think of us.”
Elise pitched Fizzy Trucks at our October 2019 Early Risers.
Read more of Elise’s story in recent coverage by the Dayton Business Journal.
A Dayton startup is working to make the rental experience smoother for both tenants and landlords.
Kane Pickrel, a Dayton-based engineer, and Ketul Patel, a pharmacist & property owner, met at a Startup Weekend in Cleveland. Ketul wanted a better way to manage out-of-state properties, and Kane wanted to do more work in the realm of machine learning.
Mogul was born.
“We’re taking a completely different approach to traditional property management,” Kane said. “Our goal his to leverage new technology and AI and machine learning to automate basic pain points that day-to-day landlords and tenants run into.”
These pain points could include an appliance going out, or a tenant asking for info that is buried in a lease.
The app would include a chat bot who could pull answers quickly from a lease, and over time, learn what questions tenants were asking most often so a property manager could plug in the needed answers ahead of time so a tenant could receive an immediate reply.
Future goals for the app include a way to monitor appliances, so they could be upgraded before they go out and cause unplanned frustration.
Kane & Ketul point to national trends — home ownership goals are shifting, & more than half of the Millennials that make up the largest segment of the rental market prefer interactions that are portal-based interactions and utilize social networks.
Currently, more than 250K property owners across the world use property management software, and the market for property management software is expected to hit $12.8B by 2025, Kane when the cofounders pitched at our September 2019 Early Risers.
Very long-term, Kane sees the potential to tackle systemic housing issues through an automated property management app.
“I have a passion for social issues,” he said. “A good vision for this company would be tackling local housing problems. There are a lot of key issues we could explore through an app like this.”
On Jan. 1, 2020, the Modern African Diaspora Experience will go live.
The online museum is the brainchild of Sinclair professor Joyce Barnes & her cofounders, Karol Brown, Kathy Banks, and Esu Ma’at.
“MADE is an online platform for people interested in the Atlanta Diaspora,” she said. “We’re always aware of disasters, unrest in the Caribbean, South America, North America. This platform will celebrate what’s dope — what’s going on with artists, business owners, everyday people, students.”
The Atlanta Diaspora comprises 30+ countries in the Atlantic region with a significant African descendant population, Joyce explained.
MADE seeks to educate and connect people across those countries through online media, affiliate marketing and travel.
“We see experience as defined by travel, festivals, other kinds of events, and through applications online,” she said. “There’s this ignorance we all have and are comfortable with, and I want to help dispel that and bring out and celebrate the joy and soul and people and history and culture,” she said.
Joyce and her cofounders will also be part of Co-Op Dayton’s first social enterprise incubator, which will kick off in January 2020. She was invited to apply after pitching MADE at our September 2019 Early Risers.
Check out the online museum and sign up for the grand launch in March at www.mademuseum.com.
MuseumQuest, a mobile app that works to gamify the museum-going experience, is designed to “help museums preserve their relevance to a younger generation in the midst of the largest communication shift in 500 years,” LifeQuest Studios founder Bob Lair said.
Museums recognize that smartphones are integral to the communication of both the Millennials and the iGens, that generation born between 1996 and 2014, Bob said.
That’s why they spend more than $3.5B annually to incorporate tech into their exhibits and offerings.
But it’s not enough to just copy and paste the text from the exhibit into an app — these younger museum-goers want an experience, he said.
That’s where MuseumQuest comes in.
MuseumQuest pulls users into online games and competitions with classmates that require them to actually engage with the real-life museum exhibits to find answers and complete challenges.
“We combined gamification, mobile tech and education techniques to help them engage with and explore exhibits themselves,” Bob said.
Bob and his wife, Debi, are museum fans, and they raised their son, a member of the iGen generation, in museums. So when he blew off their suggestion to visit a museum with some friends, they were surprised and concerned, he recalled.
So he dug into the research — the smartphone, he discovered, is heralding the largest shift in communication since the printing press, he said.
He teamed up with his wife, an elementary educator with 24+ years experience in the field, to build a mobile app that deployed proven educational strategies while still engaging the user.
It’s the first time they’ve partnered up on one of his development projects, he said.
MuseumQuest is designed to be customized for each museum. Bob estimates that between 4-5K of the country’s 30K museums would be candidates for the software, based on museum revenues and disciplines.
He built the first pilot quest for the National Museum of the United States Air Force. It received rave reviews from the pilot users — including his iGen son.
Bob pitched MuseumQuest at our September 2019 Early Risers. He is seeking connections to museum leaders.
“We dream forward, looking at what this will mean in future to make a living traveling to museums to help build content to help reach next generation,” he said.
Reach him at [email protected].
Looking for a place to sell your retail products without taking on your own storefront? The Entrepreneur’s Marketplace might be the space you’re looking for.
Tae Winston opened the new permanent popup shop — Dayton’s first — at 13 N. Williams St. in Dayton’s Wright Dunbar Business District. She was inspired to make the space for fellow budding entrepreneurs after tackling her own small business growth challenges over the last three years.
Tae is the founder of Fashion Remedy Boutique LLC, a fashion bus that sells sunglasses, clothing, purses and other accessories. She bought the bus because she couldn’t afford a storefront, but she built her business around its mobility, hosting fashion & food truck rallies at venues around the city.
Now she’s excited to put that money she spent renting other venues into her own space while she helps fellow business owners grow.
“I wanted to provide a place for startups to come and make money,” she said. “I saved & did my research, and I loved everything about Wright Dunbar.”
Space in the marketplace also comes with Tae’s assistance promoting their business and building their brand.
There are currently two tenants in the Marketplace — Loc’d N Scent, a fragrance retailer specializing in candles, and Simply Savory by Rachel, a line of handcrafted seasoning products. There is room for five more businesses.
The Entrepreneur’s Marketplace will be open Thursday to Saturday from 11a to 7p, and Sunday from 12-5p.
Interested in space? Reach Tae at [email protected]; call 937-540-5286; or message The Entrepreneur’s Marketplace on Facebook.
You can also read more from Tae in the Dayton Business Journal coverage of the grand opening.
Do you know a motivated entrepreneur running a business or organization with a community-minded mission?
Nominate them for a 2020 Spark Award from the Better Business Bureau Serving Dayton/Miami Valley.
The Spark Awards, Awards for Entrepreneurship, recognize business owners 35 years old or younger, or business owners of any age operating for less than three years, who demonstrate a higher level of character, generating a culture that is authentic about its mission and connects with community.
“Trustmakers are a special breed of entrepreneur,” said John North, president and CEO of BBB serving Dayton/Miami Valley. “This award an exclusive honor and just the beginning of the meaningful relationship that we will build with award winners.”
Judges will consider character, culture & community — leaders must be open to new ideas, cultivate an honest and transparent atmosphere, and reinvest or volunteer in their communities.
The inaugural class of 2019 included Catapult Creative, Goldfish Swim School and Scratch Bakery By Justin Tyler.
SOCHE is a sponsor of the 2020 honors.
Nominations must be submitted by Feb. 3, 2020. Nominated companies will then have until March 2 to complete their entries. Organizations may self-nominate. The recipients of the 2020 Spark Award will be announced on May 12, 2020 during the BBB’s Eclipse Integrity Awards.
Nominate & find more info here.
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