Appalachia/Southeast Ohio : Featured Stories

Country singer Jeff Best cuts a unique figure among Ohio's start-up entrepreneurs. Rather than sporting horn-rimmed glasses and a MacBook, the founder of CountryMusicRadio.com is just as likely to walk into his Youngstown Business Incubator office carrying a guitar and rocking a cowboy hat.

Craig Zamary's first foray into entrepreneurship began at his kitchen table in 1998. He was 24. He started his second company, Green Energy TV, at age 31. Today, the Youngstown native is teaching other young entrepreneurs about building businesses.

While northeast Ohio's "Polymer Valley" is home to 45 percent of Ohio's polymer production sites, a cluster of companies has built its own power base in the state's southeastern corner.

There are family businesses, and then there are family businesses. See how the owners of Athens-based Ancient Roots view what they do in the context of the community and their children.

It's said that most startups fail within five years. Still, the possibility -- or experience -- of failure doesn't stop thousands of Ohioans from starting new businesses every year. hiVelocity talked to some successful Ohio entrepreneurs whose ingenuity and nimbleness led them to change direction or shelve ideas that weren't working. All three have different stories, but all recognized when it was time to change course and move on to new ideas.

Josh LaBonte can make a claim few graduating college students can these days: When he walks through Lorain County Community College's commencement later this month, he has two jobs waiting.

Since its formation in 1983, Ohio University's Innovation Center has nurtured more than 80 companies, creating more than 1,000 jobs. The university itself has helped develop nine spinoff companies from university-invented technology. And faculty and staff are responsible for the startup of another 27 companies. Today, the OU Innovation Center -- the state's first university-small business incubator -- is home to 13 startups with big plans for the future. hiVelocity recently caught up with Center Director Jennifer Simon to find out what gives southeastern Ohio its entrepreneurial chemistry.

The distance between the Ohio River Valley and California's Silicon Valley is getting smaller all the time. That's because Shawnee State University, in Portsmouth � the Scioto County riverside town with a neighborhood known as Boneyfiddle and a downtown spot honoring Roy Rogers -- is closing the gap.