CBF Archives

The client wanted the impossible: Give a robot all the skills of a human welder.

Five years ago a custom automotive and marine supplier in Cleveland asked what was then an engineering consulting firm to help him with a labor shortage, and Path Robotics Inc. was born.

"The tolerances are incredibly tight, that you have to keep with welding," co-founder and CEO Andy Lonsberry said. "And if the gaps (between pieces of sheet metal) change from 0 to 4 millimeters, you have to be able to make adjustments on the fly, seeing what's coming, move to a weave, go up onto a lift, weld in.

"And these, again, are things that come very easily for a trained human welder. But for a robot, it's just impossible."

Except now it's possible.

Path Robotics has since moved to Columbus, and last year launched its first commercial robotics system based on the prototype built by two brothers and a fellow engineer in that factory basement, as Lonsberry told us as the latest guest in Columbus Business First's Newsmakers podcast.

We talk about how the Path team solved its impossible problem, what it's like to work in cramped quarters with your brother, and why at first Lonsberry told Drive Capital, "Go away."

The interview was recorded shortly after the company landed a $56 million venture capital round to expand sales and manufacturing of its AI-powered system. The round was led by VC firm Addition along with returning investors, Columbus-based Drive Capital LLC and California's Basis Set Ventures and Lemnos Lab.

Lonsberry founded the company with his brother, Alex Lonsberry, and fellow engineer Matt Klein. The fourth founder is Ken Lonsberry, their father, on the business side – he didn't have to work in the basement. Today Path has more than 100 employees and could top 160 by year's end.

Welding jargon like "weave" above makes sense in context, but a few terms in the interview might be unfamiliar: Tier One automotive are the very large suppliers to automakers, mass producing the same part. And in welding the "puddle" is the molten metal forming during the weld, which quickly hardens to join the parts.

It’s almost hard to believe there was a time when good coffee just wasn’t a thing.

But it wasn’t that long ago.

Greg Ubert was working in computer software in the late 1980s, but what really captured his imagination was coffee — real, good coffee; the art and science of roasting.

And, of course, the potential for business.

“Good coffee just wasn’t widely available,” he said. “It wasn’t around. It wasn’t accessible.”

When he started Crimson Cup Coffee and Tea in 1991, local-based Stauf’s had been open just a few years, but industry giant Starbucks was still years away from stand-alone Columbus shops.

Ubert started not with a plan to seed the city, state or country with shops, but rather to be a resource — a wholesaler of beans and other supplies and consultant to those who wanted to run shops of their own.

Its customers are those who serve the end customers. That’s still the heart of the business today with hundreds of clients in 40 states plus a franchisee in Bangladesh, but Crimson Cup is gradually building up name recognition of its own with industry awards and a slow rollout of its own stores, including the newest unit at Easton Town Center.

Ubert sat down with Columbus Business First for our Newsmakers podcast. He shared not just the history of the brand and how its evolved in the past 30 years, but also the impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on the business — he shares his personal record for consecutive days wearing sweatpants to work — and his hopes for the future.

“People enjoy having a great drink,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to change.”

Count North Country Charcuterie among those businesses that are wiser and more efficient at this point in the pandemic.

The Columbus-based maker and processor of salami, fresh sausage and other products has used new offerings to make a better-balanced business and refigured production space to better maximize its use.

The moves create more consistent cash flow and buy them more time in their current facility before they need to consider an expansion.

In this episode of Newsmakers, Columbus Business First’s podcast with Central Ohio leaders and entrepreneurs, co-owners and brothers Duncan Forbes and James Forbes (who started the business in 2014 with mother Jane Forbes), share their company’s history, some of the ins-and-outs of meat product production and why adding products like fresh sausage is important for more reasons than just additional sales.

How long can North Country Charcuterie stay in its current facility? What new products are they developing and dreaming up? And why does production have to occur within very specific hours?

The Forbes brothers discuss that and more.

Harley Blakeman's LinkedIn profile is one of a kind, but he's working to change that.

The founder of Columbus tech company Honest Jobs LLC lists one prior job and the book he wrote, then drops this attention grabber: "Drug dealer, January 2009 - November 2010."

"Started with $500 and grew the business to over $8,000/month in revenue," reads the description for the self-employed role. "Met and exceeded customer expectations. Successfully managed multiple suppliers. ... Closed down operations after being arrested and sentenced to prison."

The hilarious, blunt satirization of resume-speak helps explain the inspiration for his startup.

Blakeman turned his life around after his 14-month sentence in Georgia, moving to Columbus at the invitation of relatives who hooked him up with his first job. He described his journey from couch-surfing homeless teen to startup founder in the latest episode of Columbus Business First's Newsmakers podcast.

Despite earning top grades at Ohio State University, Blakeman couldn't land an internship and had trouble finding a job because of his record. He did eventually land a supervisory role at a manufacturer, but he knew the struggle was worse for many more entering the job market after incarceration – no matter their skill level.

"And I was just obsessing over it, I couldn't sleep at night, I was thinking about: This is what I should be doing with my time," he said. "This is my calling, I think, helping people overcome this problem."

Blakeman answered that calling by starting Honest Jobs, and pivoting the business from job-hunt training services to a full tech platform that matches candidates with employers.

But the best possible outcome, he said, is eventually to put himself out of business.

Comune will reopen for business, but that was never a sure thing.

Co-owner Joe Galati said he met with his accountant in November. The accountant asked him what Galati believed his chances of going bankrupt were.

Galati said 20%.

The accountant said 90%

“That hit the hardest,” Galati said. “There’s a very good chance this is all going away. … That lights a fire. That’s not going to happen. What are we going to do?”

The situation is better today.

Galati explains why he is more optimistic now than he was a few months ago in this episode of Crisis Management, Columbus Business First’s podcast about doing business amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He took a more conservative approach to business in the past year than many peers in the industry. He always expected this to be a long event, not just a few weeks.

Though the entire restaurant industry was challenged, Comune was among the establishments facing added difficulties. It was never built to have a thriving carryout business and the dine-in space was too small to reopen in any meaningful way. It’s still closed today.

But there were bright spots. The Parable Coffee pop-up has done well. There was some success with planned dinner events.

A return to some of the restaurant’s earliest dishes like crispy rice and its walnut-mushroom Bolognese is helping drive sales now.

“You can only hunker down so much,” he said. “At some point a business has to make its numbers.”

Business in times of struggle often talk of getting back to their roots.

Not North High Brewing.

Like many breweries and other businesses, the last year was one of big changes in the face of challenges, but the North High of today doesn’t resemble the one first dreamed up by co-founders Gavin Meyers and Tim Ward a decade ago.

They didn’t want to run any brewpub. Today they have four and could be in double digits by the end of the year.

They didn’t have aspirations beyond Columbus but soon will be in multiple states.

They only barely wanted to brew their own beer — the initial hook for the business was as a brew-your-own operation. North High’s own beers would be secondary to the experience of inviting customers in, showing them a book of recipes and letting them loose (with professional guidance) on the brewing system.

That brew-your-own option diminished over time as the founders realized being a traditional brewery made more sense.

It officially ended last year.

“That was the reason for being. That was the point of differentiation back when we thought the seventh brewery in Columbus was going to really crowd the industry,” Meyers said.

There are dozens of craft brewers around Central Ohio today and hundreds in the state.

North High is poised to rise in those ranks.

Meyers chatted with Columbus Business First for an episode of Crisis Management, a podcast about businesses operating amid the coronavirus pandemic.

He talked about the challenges of the past year — declining sales, laying off staff — but also the promise of the future. Thanks to its relationship with Columbus-based coworking space developers and operators CoHatch, North High’s reach is moving beyond its original Short North taproom.

Through that partnership, North High now has operations in Dublin, Springfield and Cincinnati, with additional units lined up in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Florida.

Meyers explains how that relationship developed, how it works and how it’s allowing North High to expand at “a fraction of the cost” they would incur if striking out on their own.

The startup he co-founded based on his original idea was running out of money, and he'd long since left day-to-day operations, but Chris Sauerzopf couldn't let go of the growing wire fraud problem it was trying to solve.

SafeWire is back in business and growing, after investor and adviser Pete Kight – the CheckFree Corp. founder – took the assets of the former business as collateral for paying off its debts and brought back Sauerzopf as CEO. They incorporated SCSV Holdings LLC at the end of 2019 and registered SafeWire as its trade name in early 2020, targeting more than $220 million and growing annual real estate scams.

"This problem scares the crap out of me," said Sauerzopf, who also owns a title company in Westerville. "Where this problem was first on my radar was in 2016, where someone had sent me an email who had just lost his entire life savings in a wire fraud loss. A title company had sent his proceeds to the wrong place."

Sauerzopf had started the former SafeChain Financial with original CEO Tony Franco and Rob Zwink, who was CEO from Franco's departure until the startup shut down. SafeChain had won the Columbus pitch event for Steve Case's Rise of the Rest seed funding tour, and later raised $3 million. But in late 2019 expenses still outstripped growing revenue, and Kight said other investors did not want to put in more capital.

Zwink insisted that Kight and Sauerzopf start talking, the two said in an interview for Columbus Business First's Newsmakers podcast.

"(Sauerzopf) met my criteria for an entrepreneur that you want to back," Kight said via videoconference from his ranch in Colorado. "He knows this industry, I mean, to the point where you got to be careful if you’re going to go out for a beer with Chris, because you’re going to talk about real estate."

The investment also is attractive because the entire mortgage process is "messy," Kight said. SafeWire is focused on the problem of wire fraud during the mortgage closing, but eventually can take on more aspects of a burdensome paper-piling process. The startup has more than 100 customers including title companies and real estate brokerages.

Zwink is now a CTO with a Minneapolis tech company. Franco declined an interview request but said via email: “Wire fraud is a complicated problem and opportunity. I’m happy Chris and the team are pursuing the vision for a solution.”

The interview tells the story of the revival, why Kight doesn't lose sleep over being the only investor willing to give the company another shot, and how SafeWire is similar to the early days of CheckFree, which launched digital banking.

What's a company known for providing free daily staff lunches do when everyone has been sent to work from home?

At CoverMyMeds, the culinary staff wrote a cookbook, which was mailed to employees and business contacts over the holidays. But mostly they're busy planning how to move into a new Franklinton headquarters and at least at first shift to contactless grab and go meals instead of cafeteria style.

"They have done some some amazing things for us around virtual cooking classes, and sharing weekly menus that the staff can make themselves, recipes," said Veronica Knuth, vice president of talent. "We're excited to see our culinary team again."

Knuth, who joined the Columbus health IT company shortly after McKesson Corp. acquired it three years ago, is the latest guest on Columbus Business First's Crisis Management podcast on navigating the coronavirus pandemic.

The first of two buildings in the new Franklinton headquarters will be ready on time in April – but it's far from clear when the Central Ohio staff can move in to a space designed for communing and collaborating. A lot will depend on vaccine supply.

CoverMyMeds made more than 300 hires and 350 promotions throughout the year, all while on teleconference. It now has more than 1,500 employees between Columbus, Cleveland and remote workforce.

While anticipation is running high for the new building, software maker has worked to maintain its award-winning culture in the virtual world, Knuth said.

"Our employees in the business as a whole adapted with the same agility that they did every day, and they haven't missed a beat," she said. "We are continually checking in to see how they're doing, how can we best support them and whatever they might need, either personally or professionally."

In the interview, Knuth mentions that CoverMyMeds uses the teleconference platform Bluejeans – so she's not referring to denim.

"It has been so fun to have kids and spouses; to be able to be part of people's lives in a different way has been so incredible," she said. "I look for bright spots in this in this terrible pandemic."

By the same token, when work is always in the home, she makes sure to counsel people on work-life balance – like making sure they take available paid time off.

"It's easy just to say, 'OK, I've got my laptop here, I'm in my living room, I can watch TV and I can work,'" she said. "But you need that down time."

John Brooks knows how to throw a party.

As managing partner of BTTS Holdings, he runs some of the city's biggest events venues that you've likely visited for work or leisure including The Estate at New Albany; Brookshire, in Delaware; and WatersEdge in Hillard. But the pandemic was a buzzkill – 120 of 130 weddings and other events were cancelled or rescheduled virtually overnight.

In this episode of Crisis Management, Brooks talks about how events-oriented businesses were forced to adapt to the nearly disastrous impacts of Covid-19, and how the biggest events and celebrations will be different when people can come back together.

"Some people were not comfortable having their event, which we certainly understood," Brooks said.

But the venues survived the outbreak, and now Brooks is expanding – during the pandemic it opened a smaller venue in the Short North called the Fig Room. This year it'll open another new one, the Edison, in Italian Village.

"A lot of empathy for our clients who maybe had planned a wedding for a year and then couldn't have it," Brooks said. "People still wanted to get married, right? Our focus really became ... what can you do? How can we do it safely, instead of what can't we do."

Covid-19 has pushed us all to work from home. So naturally, people are thinking about where they live, too.

The housing market is exploding in Central Ohio as people rush to move to larger spaces, be they homes or apartments. And that's meant a change of business for Jonathan and Jamie Wilcox, of apartment developer and manager Wilcox Communities.

In this episode of Crisis Management, they discuss how Covid-19 has led their company to adapt where people live, and the kinds of homes they're building for the long haul.