entrepreneurship : Innovation + Job News

LifeServe Innovations, which is developing a percutaneous tracheostomy introducer dilator, recently received $75,000 from the Lorain Innovation Fund. The device allows medical personnel to place a tracheotomy tube with greater ease and with fewer procedural complications than existing systems.
 
Co-founders Zach Bloom and Rick Arlow first came up with the idea as a class assignment while attending Lehigh University. “We were looking for problems to solve in emergency or critical care,” recalls Bloom. “We ultimately developed a safer and much more user-friendly approach.”
 
While they each went on to graduate school, they took their intellectual property and decided to bring their device to market. LifeServe Innovations was born in 2009. Bloom and Arlow chose Cleveland for its balance of medical and entrepreneurial support. “Cleveland is an entrepreneurial community and a medical community,” Bloom says.
 
The process of developing the dilator was one of trial and error. “It’s the nature of any startup -- the product you ultimately come up with is never the original,” says Bloom. “We kept designing products for surgical airways until we found something that met the need.”
 
LifeServe will use the grant money to manufacture and test their dilator. “We hope to have the product cleared for market by the end of second quarter,” says Bloom. While the company has volunteers helping them, Bloom hopes to hire two to three people in the near future. “As the growth begins to come and we see success in our investment, we want to bring income to Cleveland.”

 
Source: Zach Bloom
Writer: Karin Connelly

For nearly a decade, a quiet but dynamic partnership between the University of Cincinnati and Cincom software has grown in prominence, through a business plan competition that prepares the winner for the international stage.

The annual UC Center for Entrepreneurship Spirit of Enterprise Graduate Business Plan Competition kicks off Feb. 23, and is an intense 36-hour contest where graduate students from across the country and Canada have their business plans poked, prodded – and for the best – rewarded.

The top plan wins the $10,000 Cincom Spirit of Champion Award, and earns an automatic bid to the international 2012 Venture Labs Investment Competition, formerly the Moot Corp competition at The University of Texas at Austin.

This year teams from 16 universities will compete at the UC event, which will be held at Cincom Systems Cincinnati headquarters. In addition to UC students, teams from Brigham Young, Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon universities will compete as well, says Cincom Finance Director Dan Vogel.

Vogel, who has served as a competition judge in the past, says the contest is open to any type of business idea. Entries have been varied, from medical devices and software to a new liqueur. In recent years, more of the entries have focused on biotechnology and research-based medical devices.

“We get some partnering of MBA students and the medical research department testing out ideas to see if they are commercially viable,” Vogel says.

The plans represent a shift in Ohio’s economy, one that relied on traditional manufacturing jobs to one that increasingly is turning to innovation, technology and research in job creation.

“In the Midwest in particular we are evolving from an economy based on manufacturing to one that is more services and researched based, and when you look at the number of top research schools in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, a lot of time and money is being devoted to research,” he says. “The universities are fostering that environment and we are trying to jump on board.”

In addition to the Grand Prize, the competition awards $3,000 the first runner up, $2,000 to the second runner up (sponsored by Queen City Angels First Fund) and a $1,000 to the third runner up.  

The team with the top plan will move on to the Venture Labs Investment Competition in May where they will pitch to potential investors from across the globe and compete for a a prize package worth $135,000. The students will compete against 40 teams from more than 12 countries including Thailand, Norway and Brazil.


Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Dan Vogel

As part of a global environmental concern about trash, a University of Cincinnati team proposed the “Renew Trash Compactor,” a new product and service that reduces trash, increases recycling, improves sanitation and generates income for the Padli Gujar village in India.
 
Mark Schutte, Carmen Ostermann, Morgen Schroeder and Autumn Utley, all University of Cincinnati students, headed to Minnesota to present their compactor in the next round of the Acara Challenge.
 
The competition is organized by the Acara Institute and administered by the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, with the mission to mold students into a new generation of leaders by providing them with insight into global issues and how to influence change.
 
The environmental challenge given to students came through “Take The Challenge for Sustainable Design and Development,” a multidisciplinary course offered as part of the University Honors Program at UC. The course is taught by Rajan Kamath, associate professor of management, and Ratee Apana, associate professor-educator of management/international business.
 
“The course encourages students to think boldly and break with convention and rules,” Apana says.
 
First-round winners from all competing universities are fine-tuning business plans in the second-round of the competition, where four winning teams will be awarded a $5,000 scholarship and the opportunity to attend the University of Minnesota Acara Summer Institute in Bangalore, India.
 
The UC team, one of six in the country from colleges such as Duke University, Cornell University, Arizona State University, is paired with industry mentors to create business plans for their ideas.
 
“The compactor was designed to be simple and affordable,” Utley says.“The waste collection service, which accompanies the compactor, will generate 29 well-paying jobs for the community and additional household income.”
 
If the team makes it to the summer institute in India, members will meet with top entrepreneurs and capitalists to further develop their idea and help secure funding.


Source: Ratee Apana, Autumn Utley
Writer: Evan Wallis

Women entrepreneurs have been really shaking things up in the Greater Cincinnati area. Twice during the past three years--both in 2009 and again in 2011--women have won  all of the prestigious SCORE-Greater Cincinnati annual Client of the Year Awards.

SCORE is the volunteer counseling arm of the Small Business Administration, offering free workshops and mentoring to its clients.

“Over the past few years, about 40 to 50 percent of our clients and workshop participants have been women,” explains Rick Johnston, chairman of SCORE-Greater Cincinnati. “We’re definitely seeing a trend of more local women becoming entrepreneurs and also SCORE clients, which we think is great.”

Landing a coveted Client of the Year Award isn’t easy, according to Bob Wiwi, marketing chair. “Candidates must complete an extensive application process on all aspects of their business, including the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and how their SCORE counselor helped them.” Candidates’ counselors then provide a letter of recommendation describing their client’s work and progress. “The judges have a lot to consider when deciding on the winners,” Wiwi notes.

The Cincinnati chapter named four winners in November 2011: Connie Abirached, InkyDinkTs; Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe Salon; Candace Klein, Bad Girl Ventures; and Shannon Adams, My Flower Service.

“These women are creating jobs, and that’s terrific for our region,” notes Johnston.

Winner Connie Abirached says, “I learned long ago that, as a woman, success is achievable but also is harder to achieve unless you work hard, are deeply dedicated, and have ambition and guts.” Winner Lisa Gear remarks, “I feel so blessed and honored to be part of this amazing group of women. SCORE was so helpful to me on my journey, and I highly recommend them to anyone.”   

By Lynne Meyer


Sources:  Rick Johnston & Bob Wiwi, SCORE
                 Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe
               Connie Abirached, InkyDink Ts

To spur economic development and create jobs in their communities, several Ohio cities have created new, hyperlocal funds that offer attractive financing to entrepreneurs that may have the next great business idea, yet lack the actual cash to implement it. The catch? They must be willing to put down roots and grow their businesses locally.

One example of a growing Ohio business that recently took advantage of such hometown love is ManuscriptTracker, a Wooster-based firm that sells web-based software that automates the peer review process for academic journals. Co-founder Brian Boyer says a $35,000 deferred-payment loan from the Wooster Opportunities Loan Fund made it possible for him to bring his product to market last year.

“We saw lots of potential to grow our business, but funding is very hard to come by for start-up software companies,” says Boyer, a Wooster native. “Thanks to receiving funding last year, we were able to develop a market version of our software, as well as sales resources such as a database, marketing collateral and potential client list.”

ManuscriptTracker’s software organizes and automates peer review tracking for busy academics that don’t have the time or resources to manage the process themselves. The stringent nature of the peer review process, particularly with scientific journals, often necessitates involving as many as 20 individuals in a single review.

“To be published in an academic journal, your work must be vetted by the research of your peers, but that means asking top researchers to set aside their time,” explains Boyer. “We simplify and organize the process and provide helpful reporting forms. We also help academics to track who in their network is quick and knowledgeable.”

With the assistance of the economic development nonprofit Jumpstart, similar hyperlocal funds have also been created in Barberton, Canton and Mansfield.

As the New Year kicked off, ManuscriptTracker had already secured one new client, and Boyer says he’s hopeful that the new software will attract additional clients soon.


By Lee Chilcote

Michael Goldberg might be the most multi-talented Cleveland entrepreneur you’ll ever want to know. Not only did he co-found a company that invests in Israeli medical device companies connected to the region’s thriving health care economy, but now he’s moving to Vietnam after receiving a Fulbright to teach entrepreneurship there.

This January, the brains behind Bridge Investment Fund will try to convey what he’s learned in two decades of international business experience to students half a world away, where many may see venture capital as an intriguing, new concept.  

Goldberg has taught courses on both entrepreneurial finance and the economic impact of immigrant entrepreneurs as an Adjunct Professor at Case Western Reserve University. He will move to Hanoi, Vietnam for five months with his wife and three children to teach at the National Economic University there thanks to the Fulbright award. He plans to lecture on expanding access to early stage capital to Vietnamese companies. He is also hoping to work with leading venture capital funds and entrepreneurs in Vietnam to build networks there.

“The Fulbright will enable me to better connect my students, portfolio companies and network in Cleveland to expanding opportunities in Asia,” says Goldberg. 

Goldberg was also recently appointed as a Senior Advisor to Kaiwu Capital, a China-based venture capital fund. He plans to continue to work for Bridge Investments and Kaiwu Capital abroad, and says his work may lead to new opportunities at home.

“I’ve already had companies in Cleveland ask me to keep an eye out for business opportunities while I’m there,” says Goldberg, who adds that Ohio-based companies that are doing business in emerging markets are helping to fuel domestic growth.

If Goldberg needs further credence cities as disparate as Cleveland and Hanoi are increasingly interconnected, he has to look no farther than his daughter’s new cello teacher. She was referred by a Hanoi doctor who trained at the Cleveland Clinic.

“I’ve already been introduced to several people from Cleveland,” says Goldberg with a chuckle. “I like to call this the ‘Cleveland diaspora’ – we are everywhere. ”

It was April of 2001 and dot-coms were imploding like far-away stars in Deep Space 9. But not for Marc Resnik. He had a dream. Sort of.
 
“It wasn’t a dream, just an idea in my head,” said Resnik. “I literally woke up laughing with an unusual idea for a business.”
 
After “throwing” some ideas around with the family, Resnik said he went downstairs and registered the domain ThrowThings.com for his Ravenna-based company.
 
The business model combines the concept of “throwing” with a number of loosely related departments. “Things To Throw” has toys and games, like baseball and such. The “Throw Your Voice” category features ventriloquist dummies (big sellers, apparently), puppets and marionettes. The most popular section, in terms of overall revenue, is the “Throw Your Name Around” category which offers customized promotional products. There’s also “Throw Backs,” “Throw A Party,” “ThrowThings Things” (this is not a typo) and, of course, “Throw Up.” You can even “Throw Your Money Away.” We’re not kidding. For $3.50 plus shipping and handling, the buyer gets a certificate verifying that he did, indeed, throw his money away.
 
Resnik says the five full-time staff company continues to evolve and grow and enjoyed consistent year-over-year growth until the economic downturn in 2008.
 
“With the downturn in the economy we took a hit but have been back on the growth track since then,” he said. “When things slowed down the company used the time to refocus, to become more efficient, and to complete some of the things on our ‘We really should do this but there just doesn’t seem to be time’ list.”

“Unlike most businesses, ours is relatively scalable in that we have the ability to increase business levels based on our [existing] staff. Because of this we are always looking for people that could be a strong addition but we are never pressured to bring someone in.”

Edison Ventures, a New Jersey-based venture capital firm that specializes in helping innovative, established companies grow, has a new Ohio office up north that has made a mark in the Buckeye state by dropping its first $6.5 million Ohio investment into the Columbus-based software company Call Copy.

“We'd been tracking Call Copy since 2007 and were impressed by its growth and leadership,” says Michael Kopelman, partner at Edison Ventures, of the company’s growth from a simple software development company for call centers to a multi-purpose company that also provides in-house support for that software as well as the job process involved in using it. “There is a trend of many companies moving to Voice Over IP technologies, and they are more open to looking at other call center solutions.”

Call Copy develops innovative contact center software for dozens of industries from banking and healthcare to energy and insurance. This summer it was named to Inc. 500's list of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., with three-year sales growth of 831 percent.

“They make products that are very intuitive in an industry where there is a lot of turnover,” says Kopelman, and “quick training is absolutely critical.”

Edison Ventures, founded in 1986, is firmly committed to making continued Midwest investments following its expansion in to D.C., New England and New York. It opened its newest office in Cleveland in February. Chris Sklarin, who helped found JumpStart in Cleveland, heads the Edison Midwest office.

“We think this is an undeserved market,” says Michael Kopelman, partner at Edison Ventures. “We've done 44 deals in Pennsylvania, and in its close neighbor Ohio we see a great opportunity.”

Edison invests in established companies that have proved successful, but are looking to scale their products or services across the United States or internationally. Since its founding, Edison has made 180 investments, that have resulted in 110 exits and is in its seventh fund, Kopelman says. Edison's generally invests in fast-growing companies doing $5 million to $20 million in revenue and will invest from $5 million to $10 million.

IG Studio, a collaboration between Cincinnati-based design firm GBBN Architects, Inc. and Kentucky-based Chinese firm IPPR International Engineering Corporation, won its first Chinese government contract this year designing the Sanya Cardiovascular Rehab Resort on Sanya Island. The win kicks off the two companies' plans of entering eight competitions annually over the next 10 years in the hopes of making IG Studio self-sufficient in three and internationally competitive in six.
 
Through IG Studio, the two companies are working to capture a piece of the exploding Chinese economy by designing 600- to 1,000-bed hospitals in large Chinese cities. Five hundred hospitals are planned across the country in the next 10 years. IG Studio, located in Beijing, has a staff of eight and is a 50-50 partnership between the two companies.
 
"(IG Studio) came together after a three-year collaboration on healthcare design projects," between GBBN and IPPN, says Greg Otis, director of Arts and Education for GBBN. "(IPPN) was looking for a western healthcare design influence to augment their designs. And we've been very successful in that work. But we wanted to get our brand out there in design and healthcare, and IPPR wanted to internationalize their business."
 
Because of the two companies similar goals, a meeting between the two giants earlier this year during a tour of the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Ky., led to what both companies hope will be a successful joint venture designing large hospitals across China. Companies vie to design these hospitals through invitation-only competitions held by the Chinese government, Otis explains.
 
GBBN is an international design firm with offices in Cincinnati, Lexington and Louisville, Ky., Pittsburgh and Beijing. The firm specializes in large scale building design in the healthcare, education, housing, community and cultural sectors. Local projects include the Newport Aquarium, Great American Ballpark, the Bank of Kentucky Center at NKU and UC's Tangeman University Center.

In a world were banks charge you to receive paper statements and stores ask for your email to send you a receipt, a programmer from Columbus decided to change the way receipts are used.

After a few months of sitting at the Brandery with two monitors and bottle of single malt scotch at his desk, Kevin Pfefferfle created Receept, a website geared toward both customers and merchants.

The idea is to give customers a place to store receipts easily with simple export tools so that you can print them you need for expense reports or taxes. While other similar services exist, many of them charge fees. Pfefferfle wouldn't pay for that service as a consumer, so Receept will be free for consumers.

Merchants that have partnerships with Receept will be able to send a receipt directly to a user-created Receept account. If a customer doesn't have an account created, an email will be sent with information to sign up. For merchants that don't have a partnership with Receept, customers will be able to snap a photo of a receipt or forward an email receipt to their account, which will then be stored and organized. You will also be able to share receipts with specific people. You can categorize and share all personal purchases with a spouse, or all business purchases with your boss with a simple click.

To keep the service free for cutomers, Pfefferfle is working with merchants to give them consumer data. While specific data on what and how much a customer buys will not be shared, visiting habits and numbers will be. It will give merchants true data. In other words, when a customer fills out a survey or answers questions, vendors get an idea of spending habits, but Receept will be able to give merchants exact habits.

"We could tell Kroger, 'People who shop at your store once a month also tend to shop at these other types of places,' " Pfefferfle says. "We can say that in a general sense and not violate anyone's privacy."

Receept is also working with the computer science department at Ohio State University to eventually be able to scan receipts for character recognition and create pie charts and graphs to see how and where you spend your money.

The next step for Pfefferfle is to partner with merchants, which he may be able to do at the iMedia Breakthrough Summit in Las Vegas this week. Receept is one of nine finalists at the summit that is recognized as a innovative conference for what's next in the digital marketplace. Pfefferfle has confirmed meetings with representatives from Coca-Cola and American Express, among others.

Source: Kevin Pfefferfle, Receept
Writer: Evan Wallis

This story originally appeared in sister publication Soapbox.

The seeds for Quasimoto Interactive were planted when Christopher Gerding was a student at Wake Forest University. His fraternity's PlayStation 1 system had been stolen, and Gerding set out to find a replacement.

Instead, he went one better -- he built a cabinet and integrated the parts needed to construct the first-ever console-based arcade kiosk.

That insight -- that home console games could be transformed into arcade gaming systems -- launched Quasimoto in 1998 as a consumer-based company and led to an enterprise that, between 2008 and 2010 grew sales by 240 percent, says Jessica Fuller, Quasimoto's CEO and Gerding's wife.

Today the Sharon Center-based specialty designer and manufacturer of high-end game cabinets and electronics no longer sells to the consumer market, but to commercial enterprises. It has even branched out to manufacture systems for other customers, including candy-dispensing systems for Sweet Amanda's, a candy kiosk company based in Roslyn Heights, N.Y., Fuller says.

Ironically, the real growth didn't occur until after a 2001 accident claimed Gerding's right leg. Much of the $65,000 accidental death and dismemberment payment was put into the company to begin marketing the company's products. At the time, Gerding was running Quasimoto by day and selling aluminum siding by telephone at night, Fuller says.

The company's first branded product was Quasicade with three products: Quasicade Jr., Quasicade 2 and Quasicade Pro.

"The product line opened doors to Sam's Club, Costco, Best Buy and earned OEM business from Disney and others," Fuller says.

Last year, the company introduced Game Gate VU -- a universal console arcade machine licensed for the public --  leading to a second business: product design and development. The new subsidiary, called Advantage Design and Manufacturing Group, now provides product development, concept development, industrial design, 3-D solid modeling, rapid prototyping and a variety of other services for customers.

Quasimoto, which Fuller says received invaluable assistance from SCORE, has grown from four employees in 2008 to 20 today, and Fuller says the company is hiring. It recently moved from an 8,000 square foot warehouse to a 93,000-foot facility.

Source: Jessica Fuller, Quasimoto
Writer: Gene Monteith

When Greg Clement was involved in real estate sales, he was, by his own admission, disorganized.

“We were a small business operating with papers and folders everywhere and lots of sticky notes,” he recalls. “Trying to keep track of all the moving parts of a real estate transaction was making us crazy. It was completely inefficient, and we wasted a lot of time trying to find stuff when we needed it.”

Clement realized that he needed a system, but discovered that the only effective way to manage things was to “cobble a bunch of different programs together and hope for the best,” he notes.

To salvage the situation, he developed a software system for small business management and hired a programmer to write it.

“It ended up being so helpful to us that we wanted to offer it to others in the real estate industry,” he explains.

He established Realeflow in 2007 to offer the software, which he named OpenRoad.

“OpenRoad is web-based software that provides a comprehensive business management system for people in real estate,” Clement says. “It helps them attract new customers, manage those customers and ensure repeat purchases by those customers.”

The software program is available in both a standard and a professional version, which provides assistance in conducting marketing campaigns, creating legal forms, generating leads, and handling rehab projects.

“As a business management system, OpenRoad pulls everything together -- email, website, social media and video -- and has morphed into one-easy-to-use marketing automation platform,” Clement explains. ”It’s like putting your business on steroids, but without the nasty side effects.”

Realeflow, based in Parma Heights, has grown from just Clement and an assistant to 32 employees.

“As we’ve become proficient at Internet marketing, we’re offering webinars on what we’ve learned,” he says. The company offers on-line courses on “Facebook Domination” and “Smart Internet Marketing Solutions.”

Clement now wants to help businesses beyond the real estate field create order out of chaos.

“We’ll be branching out in 2012 and creating organizational software products for different industries, like restaurants, mortgage companies, small retail stores and construction,” he reports.

Source: Greg Clement, Realeflow
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

When Preston Harrison was playing football for the Ohio State Buckeyes in the mid-1990s, he wished that he had a sport drink that could hydrate and nourish him without sugar and caffeine.

Since he couldn't find such a drink,  he and his friend Tom Jackson decided to create one.  Last month, OXYwater, their brand of oxygen enhanced mineral water, began selling in select Columbus retailers.  The beverage will be available statewide in about three stores by the end of September, says Russell Pinto, marketing manager for OXYwater.

Pinto says Harrison and Jackson first came up with the idea for OXYwater back in their football playing days. 

"They felt there was nothing good out there for muscle cramping," he says.  "They also wanted a drink with no sugar."

While Pinto says that OXYwater doesn't proclaim any medical benefits, it does claim to offer the same antioxidant values of five servings of fruits and vegetables due to its heightened oxygen content.  The drink's website also claims that the increased oxygen can make the flavored water taste naturally sweeter.

With careers in the nutrition supplement business, Harrison and Jackson had some background in how to market a new nutritional sport beverage.

OXYwater has agreements with Whole Foods to carry the drink in its Ohio stores, as well as GNC retailers, Walgreens and some convenience markets.  By later this fall, Pinto says the product should also be available at retailers in neighboring states and throughout the country by the end of 2012.

The 20-ounce plastic bottle in three flavors sells for roughly $2.79.  First year sales are expected to reach up to $12 million, says Pinto.

The water is manufactured and bottled in Wisconsin, but all distribution is handled through the company's warehouse and headquarters in Westerville.  OXYwater has 20 employees now, and plans to hire at least 15 more by the end of its first year, says Pinto.

Source: Russell Pinto, OXYwater
Writer: Val Prevish

Christopher Che formed Che International Group, LLC in 2005 with the goal of acquiring and growing subsidiary companies from diverse industries.

Since then, Che's first acquisition -- Hooven Dayton Corp., which he purchased in 2007 -- has doubled its revenues (from $10 million in 2007 to $20 million in 2010) and made an acquisition of its own -- Benchmark Graphics of Richmond, Ind.

On June 27, Che International made its second acquisition -- Akron-based Digital Color Imaging, which was promptly renamed Digital Color International, Che says. Altogether, Che International now employs about 150 and primarily serves Fortune 1,000 customers, Che says.

The acquisition of Digital Color, which provides digital, offset and wide format printing as well as direct mail, warehousing and fulfillment services, complements Hooven Dayton, a Dayton-based provider of high quality prime product labels, flexible packaging, promotional coupons and specialty printing solutions, Che says.

"Our goal is for the Che International Group to have subsidiary companies across industry lines but serving the same customer base," he explains.

Che's success as a small-business leader during a slow economy has been noticed not just in west central Ohio but by the White House. In May, he was asked to host a "listening session" of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. In June, Che was appointed to the council itself. 

"They felt I could bring my expertise to the council as a small business," he says "and help explain what it takes to grow during tough times and what some of our issues are."

How has he been able to grow?

"We focused on really training our people and we did not cut down on marketing budgets," he says."And we developed a very highly impactful value proposition to take to customers -- a value proposition that would make a difference to their bottom line."

Che, who came to the United States from Camaroon in 1980 to attend college, says Ohio has been "a beautiful place for me. It's proven to be very supportive. Whenever I needed them they were there to help me with low-interest loans or training and so forth."

Meanwhile, Che International Group is working on additional acquisitions as well as companies that might merge with Digital Color, Che says.

Source: Christopher Che, Che International Group
Writer: Gene Monteith



 

After a career in marketing, Linwood mother Rachel DesRochers decided to stay home full-time after having her second child. Soon, she got the itch to work and create.

"I needed something to do," she says. "When you finally don't have a job, you get bored. You can only clean the house so much."

DesRochers turned to baking last year, specifically graham cookies and snacks. She started sharing them with friends and family and her tasty treats were a hit. That's when she decided to sell them.

"People loved them. So I thought, 'I'm going to do it," she says.

She unveiled Grateful Grahams, home-made, vegan graham snacks, at this year's Earth Day event at Sawyer Point. She developed and perfected the recipes for the snacks. The soft, square snacks currently come in two flavors, cinnamon and sugar, and chocolate. Snack packs retail for $4 and large bags for $6.

"I did research on grahams. I started playing around with ingredients and made a recipe that worked. It was important to me to use simple, green ingredients," she says.

You can find Grateful Grahams at a number of local stores including Picnic and Pantry, Park +Vine, and Joseph Beth and Blue Manatee bookstores. You can also find them at local Whole Foods stores.

DesRochers plans to expand her offerings with a pie crust and a line of holiday flavors.

She bakes in a commercial kitchen that she shares with a local bakery. She recently had a third child, and Grateful Grahams allows her to do something she loves and spend time with her family, she says. Like her grahams, she is grateful.

"I don't want to work 80 hours a week. I want to be a mom, and show my kids that I have something I love do to. It can be hard juggling a family and a business, but I have a network that supports me and really that's from where the company is driven," she says.

Source: Rachel DesRochers, Grateful Grahams
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication Soapbox.