 Ohio is helping today's young entrepreneurs become the business success stories of tomorrow. Next on Ohio Means Business, how the state is embracing entrepreneurship and what that means for Ohio's economic future. Means Business on ONN, presented by the Ohio State University, Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, James Cancer Hospital, and Soloff Research Institute, and the Ohio State University Medical Center. Thanks for joining us for Ohio Means Business, I'm Mike Calmire. For many years, entrepreneurs would travel to the coast to turn their great ideas into businesses. But now, innovation and high growth entrepreneurship are starting to thrive here in Ohio. The Buckeye State has slowly built an infrastructure to support startups. And now this so-called entrepreneurial ecosystem is drawing more attention from investors beyond our state's borders. We begin with a special month-long look at entrepreneurship in Ohio and the role it will play in the state's economic future. On this episode, we take you behind the scenes of a new business accelerator program helping young entrepreneurs gain traction in Ohio. We'll hear from the key players, including Dr. Michael Kamp, Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio State's Fisher College of Business. Rich Langdale, Managing Partner at Columbus-based NCT Ventures, who has pledged to make a major investment into one of the teams at the end of the program. And Ben Lagaman, Risk Capital Program Manager for the Ohio Department of Development. He will be here to talk about Ohio's new Entrepreneurs Fund and the effort to draw new talent to the Buckeye State. While taking an idea and building a company around it is no easy task, that's why the state is giving young, bright entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn what it takes to start a business with high growth potential. These young entrepreneurs are eager to grow their high-tech ideas into new businesses. This boot camp is designed to accelerate that process. 10X was launched by the Ohio Third Frontier and Ohio State's Fisher College of Business. Ten selected teams are completing the intense 11-week program. Advisors, industry leaders and seasoned entrepreneurs are helping them develop successful business plans that they'll eventually pitch to investors. The goal? Jumpstart these ideas into commercially viable startups. It's also a chance to nurture potential game changers that could become the next big employers in Ohio. One of these potential game changers could help the retail industry reward customers better. One team is taking a swipe at their new solution that could benefit consumers and merchants. I was logging in to Mint.com one day, checked my Starbucks rewards card and then checked my credit card statement and I realized that we're generating a ton of information about ourselves every time we swipe our credit card and I realized that I can leverage that information to get deals and offers from merchants and merchants would die to have that kind of information. Then on the other side there's like every morning I wake up with dozens of emails from Groupon and all these daily deal sites and it's kind of overwhelming. Most of them are irrelevant like I don't need to go to a ball pen or get a massage every day. That's why Eric Kerr and Steve Gacca created RewardStirp, an automatic rewards platform that links directly to credit cards and provides consumers with targeted loyalty rewards based on spending habits. We've started building out the underlying technology that powers RewardStirp. But there's really three key things we need, consumers, technology and merchants and right now we're starting to approach the merchant side and then within a few weeks we'll launch a beta for consumer traction. These Ohio State students turned to the 10X program to help take their idea to the next level. We were definitely interested in the mentorship. We saw the list of mentors and they're all rock stars so we saw that and definitely thought they'd be able to help us out especially launching such a big undertaking as RewardStirp. Ray Shealy has been through this process many times as a serial entrepreneur. RewardStirp is doing a lot of things right. They have passion and energy, kind of that young mode of let's change the world and they have a great idea and when you kind of combine all of that it's a pretty good formula for success. His advice for the team is to keep listening and realize Plan A may turn into Plan B or C. So far it's paying off. So we have pretty regular presentations in front of these mentors and advisors and then afterward there's always like Q&A sessions of what have you thought about this, have you looked at this company that's kind of doing the same thing so it's kind of been a great feedback loop of advice that they can give and where they see potential pitfalls. That is cool. Eric and Steve met on campus at the Business Builder Club, a group that connects students interested in entrepreneurship. Well, joining us today to give us a view from the top of the 10X program, we welcome back to the program Dr. Michael Kamp, Executive Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Ohio State Fisher College of Business. Michael, thanks. Thank you. That's good stuff there and my favorite phrase is business boot camp. That's really what it is, isn't it? That's exactly what it is. It's about 11 weeks and we're going to march them all the way from concept to actual start of the existing company. So tell us exactly what's happening here. Rewardster is actually just one of the 10 teams, right? That's right. There are 10 teams that were selected out of 122 applicants that applied back in April. We selected those 10 through a very sophisticated process trying to narrow it down because there were a lot of great ideas, a lot of great teams in that pool, so it's tough to do. The end goal here, I guess, is fostering an idea and letting these kids, I call them kids, which they are, letting them run with their ideas, right? Well, not uncontrolled or not without bridal. The important part here is that we actually corral those ideas into what would be a workable solution to a specific problem that customers are facing in the business community. It's not just ideas run amok, but these are literally students that are focused early in their process on do we have a compelling solution to an existing problem that is a problem that could be solved and that they're the ones that they think that they can do it. From an idea to actually having a startup, and the goal here is a startup company, from the idea to that, what are the challenges to get to that point? Well, quite a few challenges. One, the inexperience that any entrepreneur, in this case she's younger entrepreneurs bring to the mix, means that they have to tap into some expertise. We bring a very rich mentor base and a lot of community support to give them the kind of accessibility to the live markets as well as the kind of real world perspective to say is it's just a good idea or if we really tapped into something that's a potential business that can make profit and turn a return on investment. Another thing from that story that kind of struck me was the line turning plan A into plan B and then plan C. It's ever evolving, isn't it? It is. It will be even after they launch, even after they're done with the 10X program, but in this program we go through three, maybe four iterations where they're face to face with their customers, pitching them on the concepts and solutions that they think are addressing specifically the problems that those customers have to a point where the customers would actually be willing to pay for the solution. They have to develop a functional prototype. They have to sit in front of these live customers and try to get a paid beta installation with these customers and lastly raise follow on capital that demonstrates that they can create the kind of traction a real world business would do. We use that term accelerator. We have a couple times so far. What does that mean to you? Well, accelerator means if it's just typical without assistance and without contact to live customers you have the risk of actually pursuing solutions that don't really meet the needs and you could take months and years and burn a lot of cash to actually get there. We accelerate that process by bringing the experienced mentors to bear and to help these teams and coach them and also get them interfacing directly with the live customers in a much quicker fashion. We open those doors. We provide that accessibility. We give them that direct feedback and from that experience they may iterate three or four times in a 10, 12 week period that would typically take maybe 10 or 12 months. As always, Fisher does it better than anybody. Oh, thank you. Why do you do it better than anybody and how does Ohio compare with the rest of the nation? There's other programs like this out there. Oh, there are quite a few. Actually, a lot of great programs around the country that we could look at and model. Actually, Ohio has a couple accelerators already throughout the state that we were able to look at their programs and see what we might be able to learn from them and the things we could do. But you know, Fisher brings a lot of great resources to bear, not only from Ohio State University and Fisher College specifically, but it's reputation and connections into the business community. The community, I can't say enough about how they've responded and it's one thing to respond to Fisher College of Business, but when you day in and day out roll up your sleeves working with these startup companies, these young entrepreneurs, coaching them through these very difficult decisions, it's the hats off to them. Our entrepreneurial community is very vibrant and very active and been supportive beyond what we could have asked. And a testament to how popular this thing is, would you say 120 applications? We had 122 applications. We took 10, right? We could only take 10, it's just the best we could do. So I assume the success of this is good. Yeah, success is great. I know the programs around the country are getting a lot of great traction, a lot of great success. We anticipate that ours will be every bit as good once we can get a few classes under our belt and learn the ropes ourselves. All right, as far as the contest goes, what's next for the teams now? Well, next we're winding it down to be honest with you. It sounds hard to say or odd to say, given we're only six weeks into it and we're starting to wind it down. They've got four weeks to get through early stage beta customer identification and get ready to actually pitch investors on September 1st showcase day. In fact, the part of the interesting thing is 0109 has been our motto all along as we're getting to September 1 when they're going to have to stand in front of 200 plus investors and make their case. All right, I think the bottom line, and you mentioned this, is not just having the idea, but the getting to the customers because it's the crux of the matter. That is, yeah, you know, there's three important seas of every business and it's customers, customers, customers, and that's the motto. We all, we preach it over and over and the teams have been pushed pretty hard to get in front of live customers and those that don't are going to find it very difficult to survive at all much less in a program like this, an accelerated program. Michael Kamp from Fisher College of Business. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. Coming up on Ohio Means Business, a venture capital firm invests in Ohio's newest strategy to attract and support young entrepreneurs and later, the bottom line in the state's entrepreneurial ecosystem and its impact on Ohio's economy. And welcome back to Ohio Means Business. The 10X Accelerator program provides young entrepreneurs a platform to introduce new technologies. And at the end of the 11 week boot camp, they'll pitch their ideas to investors. One Columbus based venture capital firm will be paying close attention. NCT Ventures has already committed $200,000 in follow on funding to one of the teams of its choice. And joining us now to go inside the research is Rich Langdale, founder and managing partner of the NCT Ventures. Rich, thanks for your time. Yeah, thanks for having me. You've been called an entrepreneurial guru. Is that fair to say? Well, I think it might be an overstatement, but I do enjoy entrepreneurship. I love, I love any gurus on the show. You're an OSU grad and I want a little bit of your background because I heard you sold your car for $5,000 to invest in your first company. Is that true? That's correct. My Honda Prelude. I love that car, but decided to start a business and needed some capital and it's a lot more motivating when you don't have a car to work. So it worked out very well for me. Since then you have founded eight companies. Yeah, there was about eight companies that through the kind of late 80s, early 90s that I was the founder of. And since then we've invested in and founded dozens more together with other entrepreneurs through our venture capital company. So you know what it takes to bring something from the idea stage to reality. That's what a lot of these kids are doing. I call them kids, but the college students at Fisher and in Ohio State, how satisfying is it for you now to give back and be a part of this for the young entrepreneurs? It's so much fun. It's actually a lot more fun than building the business because building a business, you have so many more stressful moments. It's a lot more fun to go in and say, hey, you should try this and then step back and let them actually try it. How's it going so far? How tough is this competition? What do you think of the teams? I think it's been amazing and better than I think we could have imagined. The vetting process really helped. We had over a hundred companies that applied to participate. So getting it down to 10 was was hard in and of itself. But the 10 that we've selected, there are a lot of quality people and a lot of quality ideas. And the way they're approaching it has been very exciting to see. Are you one of the judges? Yes. And there's, judging is kind of loose work. It tells how it works. So the original judging was to look at the ideas and say in 11 weeks, could this plan become a real business? Could it reach out to customers, find interest and potentially even start a business within just that 11 week period? And we had to look at the pool of mentors. So our ability to help. So I have technology company experience. So I specifically looked at technology company experience. But we also had people that understood medical products or other types of businesses that helped. And that selects that helped us with the selection process. And then once we got it down to 10, we've now been trying to help those companies wherever we can. Doing this at 11 weeks is hard enough for an experienced person. Right? Yeah. Much less college students. Yeah. But you know, sometimes you make the project fit the time you have. And I think having 11 weeks and having a very focused set of processes that we'd like them to accomplish, which Michael Camp has done an amazing job with his Center for Entrepreneurship, helping detail what needs to be done. And it helps them focus on what's most important. So for the winner, $200,000 is committed to at least one of the teams. Is that right? Yeah. And winner may be a little misnomer because no one actually stands out on top per se. Each of the companies will be exposed to venture capitalists like myself. Angel investors like, you know, a few dozen different mentors are angel investors. So many of them will likely receive capital from us. But we've made a commitment to put at least $200,000 a follow on capital into these businesses. And we were able to do that just because we invest in the area. And we knew that there were great opportunities already. And this just helped us focus into the best of those opportunities. Yeah. And you'll be naming one winner, but there certainly can be more than one winner because five, six, eight companies could get some capital. Yes, correct. What do you think about fostering entrepreneurs? What's the biggest challenge in getting past the idea stage? Yeah, we have a lot of discussions around the academic calls about can you can you teach entrepreneurship? And I think a lot of it's a little inherent in your personality. But that biggest leap forward is really the comfort or the confidence of reaching out to customers. Explaining what you're going to do and trying to get really valid feedback on is this worth what I think it is to you? And that intellectual honesty to say maybe it isn't as good as I thought it was, what do I need? What do I need to retool about this to make it truly valuable to my potential customers? Because an idea there's a lot of great ideas out there. It's just a how to bring it from here to there. Yeah, I would suppose you can't get stuck in your ways either. Can you? You have to constantly change through the process. You have to have lots of flexibility. When we talk about it in the venture world, we often say ideas are worth nothing. It's all about execution and execution is really getting in front of the customers and understanding their true needs. Well, you've had great success and it's not just college kids. There's a lot of older people out there as well trying to do startups. What's your best advice for them? Follow something you're passionate about to start with. And if you find something you're passionate about that you can translate into a business vision and then from a business vision move to a mission, which is how do I apply this to an industry and then drill it down to a strategic plan and finally a financial plan and building all that out in advance with feedback from your customers and testing that and bootstrapping it, which is the concept of trying to have the partners of your business finance it as opposed to just trying to find capital and hoping your business idea was a good one. So it was a big answer, but there's lots of pieces to it. No, great advice. Rich Langdale from NCT Ventures. Rich, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. Appreciate it. Coming up on Ohio Means Business, why entrepreneurship is thriving in Ohio and what that means for job creation in the future. That's no secret that Ohio faces many challenges, keeping the best and brightest minds here in the state. That's why the state of Ohio has created the One Fund, a newly formed grant sponsored by the Ohio Third Frontier Program. It's the fuel behind the 10X Accelerator Program. And joining us now for the bottom line is Ben Logerman, Risk Capital Program Manager for the Ohio Department of Development. Ben, thanks for your time. We do appreciate it. Pleasure. Thank you for having me. One of the things that you guys have done so well of late is working with young people, particularly Fisher, which they do well. How's the partnership going? It's going fantastic. We're very excited about the momentum we have. And this is a pilot program. It's something new. It's something different we haven't done before. And it's turning out very well. Why do you think things need like this need to be done? Oh, you need to stay on the cutting edge. Other states are doing this. Other areas are doing accelerator programs. And we really believe this is the next great frontier for building companies, building entrepreneurs and really just focusing resources into areas that can provide jobs and innovation. Did you guys at the Department of Development look at other states and what other states are doing to become successful in other programs like this and then model it off of that? Or was it more of your own idea? Oh, absolutely. We always are looking at the environment. We're always, you know, calibrating what we're doing with what other people are doing. And this is really modeled after Y Combinator and Techstars, which are sort of the established accelerators in the area. We don't believe there's just one way to do it. We believe there's probably in lots of ways to succeed. And this is a flavor of that. And we're very happy with the implementation that the Center for Entrepreneurship at the Ohio State University official-called job business has done so far. Well, part of your job is bringing business into you and Mark Kwame and even Governor Kasich is bringing business into the state. This focuses on more of the young minds. What's your philosophy on that? Why is it the young people that are so important to you? Well, young people are where a lot of the innovation happens. And it's not necessarily because they're smarter or better. But in some cases, they're smarter. Yeah, a lot of times, yeah. But they're not constrained by, you know, their life choices. They don't have kids yet. They don't have all the, you know, build up of life. And they're able to devote their time, you know, 80 hours a day, you know, seven days a week to really starting companies and just having that passion that maybe we tend to lose over time. So we really believe it's important to really foster those young minds and foster those young entrepreneurs and seed them into Ohio. Some of these high tech industries and these high tech ideas, it's really the young mind that really latches on to that better than anybody. Oh, absolutely. They're on the cutting edge. They know what the next generation is going to want. They're not burdened by the, you know, the legacy technologies or legacy ideas. So they're able to really embrace the new innovative concepts and really deploy them. Well, mentioned Mark Kwame, Governor Kasich, also they have both preached this for about a year now, is that Ohio is open for business or that Ohio should be open for business. What does that mean to you at the Department of Development? At the Department of Development, that means that we're actively engaging companies, individuals, entrepreneurs, the finance industry, all the different components that are necessary to really create jobs, create innovation and really have that growth potential that really has kind of been lacking for a number of years now. Now, we've seen some successes in the past year, surely, but in all honesty, how's it going? Are you getting the results that you want or do you give it a B, do you give it an 80%, what? Well, we're making good progress. We definitely know where we want to go. We definitely see a long lead time in there, but this isn't the kind of thing you can do in one day or one year. We've been laying the seeds for innovation through the Ohio Third Front here in similar programs for over a decade now and we're starting to reap those rewards. We're starting to see these entrepreneurs, these companies and these technologies mature and achieve those growth targets, but now it's time to double down and reinforce those initiatives and we're really, really positive about the outlook right now. It's kind of like the domino effect. Oftentimes when you make the investment or start the idea, you don't see the payoff because it doesn't directly connect with what you did a year or so ago, right? Absolutely, so on occasion, we're able to see really quick turnarounds and really quick payoffs and those are the ones that a lot of people focus on, but a lot of the innovation economy is really about farming. You lay the seeds, you have to take time to nurture and grow and we've noticed in a lot of other states where they haven't had the long-term view, they've planted the seeds and then really just taken a quick look and killed programs while they're in their infancy. We view that we're maturing and it's time to adapt and grow our programs to suit the needs of the growing crops that are out there. At the Department of Development, what do you view as your biggest hurdle, your biggest challenge right now? Really the biggest challenge is the capital. We notice that there's definitely a capital deficit and a capital mismatch for the businesses. We have a lot of innovative businesses, we have a really good infrastructure. Ohio was one of the innovation centers of the world in the previous century, but we sort of lost our way and a lot of the capital formation that was necessary for those entrepreneurs and those startups really didn't develop here. In the meantime, we saw California, Boston, really sort of take on the venture model. And that's what we're seeing with the 10X program and what we're seeing with Third Frontier certainly is providing these startups with capital and getting the dominoes falling, as they say. Ben Lagman, thanks for your time. Pleasure, thank you. We do appreciate it. Thanks for joining us. Just a reminder, Ohio Means Business airs multiple times on ONN. Check us out Wednesdays at 7.30, Sundays at 10.30 and 7.30, and Mondays at 12.30. Episodes are also available on our website. You'll also find previews of upcoming shows. Just visit onntv.com and click on the Ohio Means Business link. I'm Mike Callmeyer. Thanks for joining us. We will see you next time on Ohio Means Business.