As a brand, design and strategy expert, Troy Allen knows how to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. Throughout his career, Troy has successfully led transformative creative campaigns in a variety of industries for clients – McDonald’s, Coca Cola, VISIT FLORIDA, Harley Davidson, Cooper Tire, Mac Tools, Adena Health and Pier Foods. His love and excitement for brand development can also be seen on such brands as Bounty, Oil of Olay and Pringles.

Troy founded ELEVATE thinking in early 2009, a Brand Strategy firm focused on creating a deeper consumer engagement for its clients. After several successful years the company evolved to focus on developing and building its own brands. Now called Rise Brands, the organization has a focused mission to create and bring brands to market. 16-Bit Bar+Arcade, it’s first brand is currently in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati with two more markets in development. The second brand, Pins Mechanical Co. launched in downtown Columbus mid 2016 with Dublin and Cincinnati locations scheduled for 2017.

The 16-Bit and Pins experiences are a testament to Troy’s extensive brand strategy background, dedication to business development and passion for creating new segments in the market. Rise Brands is focused on creating unique social experiences and entertainment destinations with an aggressive plan for rapid market expansion.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 1/14/2019.

risebrands.com

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

Ilya Bodner, Founder & CEO, Bold Penguin

Ilya didn’t get into the insurance business because he found it particularly sexy, or exciting...or even because he loved It. (After all, it’s insurance) He got into it because he wanted to fundamentally change how it works from the inside out. And little by little, he and the “penguins” are making it happen. The focus of their startup is to significantly reduce the friction in the commercial insurance experience—a mission that, unsurprisingly, no one seems to argue with.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 12/10/2018.

 

boldpenguin.com

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

For nearly 30 years, David has been creating original programming, concerts and events that unite participants and audiences to give back to their communities.

He has an established reputation for creating collaborative, groundbreaking events that positively impact organizations and communities.

Since 2009, David has grown the Harmony Project into a national model redefining diversity and inclusion through performances, programming, and unique community service experiences.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 10/9/2018.

harmonyproject.com

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

 

Tara Marling Abraham, Chairman and Co-CEO of Accel, Inc., is one of the nation’s leading experts in contract packaging. A strategist and experienced entrepreneur, Ms. Abraham advances innovation throughout the businesses she has established and grown, as well as professional and industry groups to which she dedicates time. Her combined expertise in finance, marketing, relationship management, supplier diversity, and mergers & acquisitions has made her a leader within the retail and consumer packaged goods industries.

Ms. Abraham creates solutions, following personal experience with inferior packaged goods produced outside of the U.S., she established Accel in 1995 to provide quality controlled, domestic contract packaging services to the health, beauty, food, fashion, and technology industries. Accel a $25M company producing $480M wholesale value of goods with 1,100 associates at its 517,000 sq. ft. facility, has become known for its diversity and supplier best practices. Selected clients include Abbott Nutrition, Bath & Body Works, Beechnut, Express, Honeywell, NetJets (a Berkshire Hathaway company), Tween Brands and Victoria’s Secret, among others. Prior to Accel, she was a Brand Manager for Biolage Haircare at Bristol Myers Squibb and earlier a Brand Manager and Assistant Buyer of Fine and Home Fragrances for Bath & Body Works a division of Limited Brands.

 

This is the audio recording from the live event on 9/10/2018.

accel-inc.com

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

 

Andrew feels that bios written in the third person by the author are strange.

I (Andrew) co-founded and successfully exited TeamDynamix after surviving many of the entrepreneurial mistakes you are about to make. My experiences may help you avoid some of them.

We drove TeamDynamix to overnight success (15+ years to grow and exit). The path to success was easy often allowing 4 hours of sleep per night. Through it all I have remained a youthful 63 years old as calculated by health.com’s real age calculator (I’m 42). Even with constant computer use I have better than 20/20 vision when wearing bifocals.

In all seriousness I believe that success comes through very hard work paired with closely aligning the needs of customers, team members, the market, and the company. I also place extreme value in hiring the most intelligent and well-adjusted team members, not necessarily the most experienced. It’s amazing what happens when you are surrounded by brilliant minds. When you look around your business and you’re the dumbest one in the room you’re doing something right.

When I’m not swinging a pick in the TeamDynamix mine as Chief Product Strategist I enjoy spending time with my spouse, irony, our dog, making fun of friends, being made fun of by friends, laughing, cheese, exercise, sleep, mountain biking, learning, boating, traveling, charity, foreign languages, life experiences and I LOVE snow skiing.

I started my career at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting after graduating from Ohio University with a degree in Management Information Systems.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 8/6/2018.

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

rev1ventures.com

Amelia is the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Nationwide’s ventures team. Previously, she was a member of two corporate innovations teams within GE where she contributed to product development efforts ranging from novel home appliances to industrial inspection technologies. She also managed an evergreen startup seed fund in Louisville, Kentucky. She is former professional ballerina and actively serves on various boards in support of dance and visual art in the region. Amelia earned a Finance Certificate from Cornell University and BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 7/9/2018.

startupgrind.com/columbus

awh.net

rev1ventures.com

Ruth Milligan is an executive communication coach and trainer. She works primarily with leaders delivering consequential communications and trains in content framing, storytelling, public speaking and executive presence.

She is also one of the longest running TEDx organizers in the world with Nancy Kramer, having organized and curated TEDxColumbus since 2009. Along with her team at Articulation, her current practice, they have coached over 400 TEDx and TED-style talks. They are known for their work in science, research and data fields, helping researchers, scientists and analysts making their insights accessible to lay audiences.

As for startups: In college she began a campus wide service network connecting residence halls, the greek system and student organizations toward a coordinated approach to deliver community service. That carried over into her first job out of college in the Governor’s Office where she was assigned the job of starting up Americorps, the national service program, for Ohio, before she became the press secretary and speechwriter for Janet Voinovich, Ohio’s First Lady. In 2000 she joined a growing marketing firm to start up a Public Relations division which closed abruptly after the dot-com bubble burst, at which time she chose to start her own business, Milligan Communications. After 7 years of running the traditional PR and Marketing solo practice she started TEDxColumbus (which is now in its 10 year) which also prompted her to narrow her focus on her practice only on executive communication coaching and training which is the business she also founded now runs, Articulation.

She is a graduate of Miami University, a native of Columbus and a resident of Clintonville with her husband and two very active teenagers.

This is the audio recording from the live event on 6/11/2018. 

https://www.articulationinc.com/

https://www.startupgrind.com/columbus/

http://awh.net/

As the Chief Operating Officer at Wiretap, Greg Moran has a unique talent for asking the people around him to go beyond the limits they see for themselves – a standard he also adheres to, as he turned down multiple enterprise CIO jobs to join Jeff Schumann at this venture-backed software start-up. Greg leverages his extensive background in technology, strategy and digital transformation to scale the company, with a focus on sales and operations. A far cry from the jungle of Zambia where he grew up, Greg launched his career as an IT consultant in Columbus, Ohio, advising clients on strategy and process. It was after joining Bank One (now JP Morgan Chase), though, that Greg really started leaving his mark. As Enterprise Chief Technology Officer, Greg designed and implemented the integration strategy to convert the bank to a single, unified application platform – a platform that still runs JP Morgan Chase today. When he transitioned to Ford Motor Company, Greg’s path to success really took off. He led Ford’s efforts to build high-scale application delivery capability in every major market – across the Americas, the European Union and the Asia Pacific – overseeing a team of 5,000. Later, Greg worked closely with the Ford family to lead corporate strategy at a pivotal time in Ford’s history, leaving behind a corporate legacy well-documented in Bryce Hoffman’s book American Icon. Greg was then recruited by the CEO of Nationwide Mutual Insurance to create the Business Transformation function – a key role to propel Nationwide’s transition from a house of brands to a branded house approach. He later took over as SVP and CIO for IT infrastructure and operations, overseeing a team of 2,000 and the buildout and commissioning of one of the few Tier 4 data centers in the U.S. While working at Nationwide, Greg met Jeff Schumann, kicking off the great relationship that the pair now uses to build and run Wiretap. At Wiretap, and throughout his career, Greg creates an environment that inspires great leaders to emerge and thrive. A natural mentor, he believes in transparency and a gentle candor. This is also evidenced by Greg’s commitment to Junior Achievement, where he is a current board member and past chair. Greg is also an executive fellow on the Ohio University College of Business faculty and sits on the board and advisory board of Koios Medical and MyAgData, respectively. Greg is a graduate of Cedarville University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Accounting and MIS. A proud Pelotonia advocate, and member of the inaugural team, Greg enjoys cycling, as well as adventure, travel, motorcycling and fishing. He and his wife, Sharon, have three children (2 of whom will be Buckeyes this fall). This is the audio recording from the live event on 4/9/2018. https://wiretap.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com

Zach Weprin is the Co-founder and CEO of FUSIAN, a fresh-casual sushi rolls and bowls concept that operates 10 restaurants in Ohio. In 2008, after graduating with a finance degree from THE Ohio State University, he moved to Aspen, Colorado to become a bellman (aka ski bum), and it was there he learned the value of a healthy lifestyle and authentic hospitality. In 2009 the business plan for Soho Sushi was written as a customer-centric sushi experience which later became the origin of FUSIAN. In 2010 he moved to Cincinnati, partnered with his brother Josh & childhood friend Stephan Harman, and together they opened their first restaurant at the age of 24. This is the audio recording from the live event on 3/12/2018. http://fusian.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com