Dayton : Featured Stories

Equity-based crowdfunding will allow everyone the opportunity to become a venture capitalist. But is this a good thing? Remember the dot-com bubble that burst in the 1990s? Yet while crowdfunding brings a certain amount of risk, even skeptics say that it has the potential to bring an important source of new capital to Ohio. The emerging phenomenon could also empower a new class of investors.

What's the best thing a city can do to achieve more economic success? Increase its number of college graduates. The most prosperous cities have the highest number of college grads. Read how the Talent Dividend calculates just how much college degrees add to a city's bottom line--think billions--and why cities from Cleveland to Cincinnati are among the 57 cities competing for the million dollar prize to boost college attainment.

While U.S. job growth overall may be stuck in neutral, IT professionals should be chomping at the bit. Experts say technology occupations will be at the leading edge of job growth for at least a decade. And three of the hottest cities for IT jobs right now are here in Ohio.

Bad Girl Ventures launched in Cincinnati last year as a unique form of micro lender: one focused not just on getting financing into the hands of women-owned startups, but also on providing the education and resources women need to build successful businesses. In the last year, BGV has attracted a lot of attention as it has grown in participation and geography, most recently announcing its expansion to Cleveland. hiVelocity caught up with Candace Klein, BGV's founder and CEO, to ask about the success of her non-profit.

Since its inception in 2009, the Dayton Region-Israel Trade Alliance has been working to build business relationships between aerospace and high-tech industries in Dayton and Israel. Uri Attir came aboard as DRITA's business development director in Israel in 2010. From his office in Haifa (Israel's third-largest city and one of its many centers of aerospace technology) Attir shares the key strategies that have led to DRITA's success -- and explains how Dayton is setting the trend for other mid-sized American cities by using global partnerships in technological development to enhance its local economy.

In the last year and a half, hiVelocity has showcased hundreds of smart, innovative entrepreneurs. In this issue, we're following up with three of them to see how business is going these days.

The Wright Brothers may have gotten things started, but over the last century thousands of players have quietly built an aerospace and aviation economy that may surprise you in its reach.