Featured Stories

After ten straight years of decline, Ohio manufacturing employment increased for the second straight year in 2012. Part of the reason is the emerging trend to bring production back to the U.S. from overseas facilities.

Back in 2011, our sister publication Fresh Water Cleveland ran a feature about Ohio's newly instituted Film Production Tax Credit, which helped attract big-budget productions like "The Avengers" and "Alex Cross," plus smaller films like "Take Shelter" and "Fun Size." Fresh Water decided to revisit the topic to see how it's working out for Cleveland, and Ohio.

With 84 percent of Kickstarter's top projects shipped late, is this crowdfunding tool really all it's cracked up to be? Successful designer Chris Hawker examines whether Kickstarter is right for inventors and finds that the product development process often doesn't line up with crowdfunding deadlines. Inventors should go into the process with eyes wide open to get the best results.

Two new hackerspaces have just joined a host of shops across the state. hiVelocity took a peek inside these quirky garage shops and found everything we didn't expect, from kettles of brewing beer to pinball machines. But nothing was more inviting than the hackers themselves.

The Cintrifuse venture capital team is already working on supporting the region's entrepreneurial ecosystem. Now, it's time to see how The Rainmaker, The Money Man, The Go Getter, The Teacher, The Connector, The Youngster and The Magician Behind the Curtain plan to get down to business.

Laura Chenault transformed an abandoned garage into a space for filming music videos and indie documentaries and hosting cooking classes and dance parties. Springboard, a nine-week course that teaches artists to run businesses, helped turn her dream into a reality.

Ohio's technology start-up landscape has grown in leaps from the virtual wasteland it was a decade ago, with brainy go-getters from across the state pushing the upsurge. Find out how these entrepreneurs were able to get a toehold in the space and just how Ohio is growing its new economic garden.

As the founders of Ecolibrium Solar, Coupsmart and other startups can attest, pre-seed funding is helping Ohio companies find their footing when their founders don’t have the financial resources to get started on their own.