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Small business resources | SoCap Accelerate | Explosive growth for Gensuite

“Colleagues are a wonderful thing – but mentors, that’s where the real work gets done.” — Junot Diaz, professor at MIT

 

Today’s issue:

  • Small business help from HCDC
  • SoCap Accelerate accepting applications
  • Ready to code?
  • Resources that need to be on your radar
  • Gensuite lands on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list
  • Know your City!

September 1, 2020

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GAME CHANGERS

HCDC: Free market research for smaller companies

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Photo: HCDC

 

Leads are the lifeblood of any business, but many small- to medium-sized businesses don’t have the resources or research assets they need to fill their sales funnel with ease.  HCDC, Inc. (i.e. - Hamilton County Development Co. Inc.) has a solution that makes growing your business easier: the Office of Innovation + Creativity.

 

Hamilton County companies with revenues of roughly $0.5 million to $50 million can apply for free technical assistance, thanks to a partnership with the National Center for Economic Gardening (NCEG) and funding from the county government.

 

Through the program, NCEG’s expert researchers devote 36 hours to exploring two to three key questions the participating company has about its sales and marketing efforts. The program, which began in 2018, is accepting applicants through September 18.

 

To learn more, Cincinnati Future spoke with Paul Fisher, Director of Innovation for HCDC’s Office of Innovation + Creativity.

 

What’s the profile of the companies you’re serving?

 

Fisher: Businesses looking for an extra set of hands to help them grow. Some have plateaued. Some are still growing, but they’re looking a year or two years out. Maybe they’ve plateaued on their base product, but they have two or three other products they’re thinking about, and they need help doing market research. Or maybe they’re thinking about expanding into other industries and need some help identifying which ones and compiling a list of qualified sales leads.

 

Why does the program focus on sales and marketing?

 

Fisher: Cincinnati has a wonderful startup ecosystem. There’s a strong collection of talented people, public and private organizations, and companies working together to fuel prosperity in our region.  Cincy’s startup ecosystem does a great job at offering support to entrepreneurs along their journey.  Leveraging marketing to provide a continuous source of new sales opportunities is an elemental need of any business.  Businesses in our network routinely tell us that they need help identifying new sales leads. 

 

Why focus on small- to medium-sized companies?

 

Fisher: It depends on the region, but they represent about 15% of the businesses, plus or minus, and they employ about 30% of the workers. When they grow, they add jobs disproportionately. That comes from research by the National Center for Economic Gardening.

 

What resources does NCEG provide?

 

Fisher: Market researchers with 15, 20, 25 years of experience. Plus, they have access to high-powered corporate databases, tools that [large] companies can afford more easily, like LexisNexis and Euromonitor, big market-research products that are paid sources.

 

How much time does the participating company have to commit?

 

Fisher: It only takes the actual company up to 12 hours. There’s an hour or so for an application and about two hours to do a discovery call with the market research group to home in on the top two to three sales and marketing questions they have and finalize a scope of work. The other nine hours are dedicated to reviewing core deliverables including market research reports, qualified sales lists, and digital analytics recommendations. Most of the time spent is focused on rolling up their sleeves and doing the work for the company.

 

Any idea what the dollar value of the service is?

 

Fisher: If you were to go and pay for this all yourself, it would cost you anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 for the databases and then call it $100 to $200 an hour for the service. An engagement is probably worth $25K.

 

And participating companies spend how much?

 

Fisher: It doesn’t cost them anything.

 

For more information, and to read success stories from program alumni, visit https://hcdc.com/oic/.

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SoCap healthcare startup accelerator accepting applications

There's an accelerator for that! If healthcare is your entrepreneurial focus, check this out: St. Elizabeth Healthcare and Northern Kentucky University have joined forces to help create the next leaders in health innovation. 

 

Innovative breakthroughs in healthcare are solving some of the world’s most urgent challenges, whether it’s to improve quality of care, advance diagnostics and treatment, or enhance the patient and provider experience.

 

SoCap Accelerate is currently accepting applications for its first cohort—five healthcare-related startups to participate in an intensive five-week program. The program will help startups make connections with healthcare professionals in real scenarios to test, refine, and optimize their innovations in real time.

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Kable Academy brings classes to 1819 Innovation Hub

The 1819 Innovation Hub, the heart of the innovation district at the UC, welcomes a new variety of students this month.

 

Cincinnati Bell is partnering with Kable Academy, an education startup providing cybersecurity and web development courses. 12 week full-time and 24 week part-time programs are available.

 

The partnership's core goal is closing the tech gap and fulfilling the estimated 3,500 tech job openings in Greater Cincinnati.

 

"It is critical that organizations partner to develop a pipeline of talent that will support the growing demand for skilled IT resources in Greater Cincinnati and beyond," Kevin Murray, senior vice president, and CIO at Cincinnati Bell told us.

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ON OUR RADAR

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Hit the accelerator

Speaking of accelerators and resources to help budding entrepreneurs, below are just a few organizations that should be on your radar. They're certainly on our Cincinnati Innovation Radar. 

 

Wait...there is a Cincinnati Innovation Radar? Yes! This rapidly growing database identifies the most innovative local organizations and the people behind them. We will continue to share additions and interesting trends. You can also explore the radar and add your company if it's not already included.

 

Just a few resources for emerging startups:

  • Aviatra Accelerators is a nonprofit that empowers women to start and sustain businesses. Their EXPLORE Accelerator Program starts September 9. Click here for more details.
  • Cintrifuse has no shortage of programs and events to help local startups. You can check out their calendar here.
  • Hillman Accelerator is a four-month program focused on discovering and launching innovative ventures from minority and women founders. The accelerator sources teams nationally, bringing scalable, venture backable companies from around the country to Cincinnati.
  • OCEAN accelerates startup growth by focusing on the purpose that drives founders and their companies.
  • The Brandery is a nationally ranked accelerator focused on five verticals: digitally native vertical brands, consumer packaged goods, marketing tech, retail tech, and ad tech.
  • MORTAR enables historically marginalized entrepreneurs to access the resources needed to start and run successful businesses. Their Entrepreneurship Academy is a fifteen-week course designed for those who are starting or growing their businesses.

Click here to see details on 16 accelerators and other helpful startup programs.

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SPOTLIGHT

Cincy-based Gensuite makes Inc. 5000 list

Cincinnati-based Gensuite has landed on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America. The company offers a cloud-based software system that helps companies comply with environment, health, and safety regulations, as well as quality management. 


A late ‘90s spinout of General Electric, Gensuite has been privately held since 2008 and launched its SaaS suite in 2010. It’s grown rapidly since then, including a whopping 83% rate of growth since 2017.

 

Today the company serves 300 companies in 120 countries and has 400 employees worldwide. 

 

In upcoming issues, we will spotlight the other Cincinnati companies that make the Inc. 5000 list for 2020. 

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KNOW YOUR CITY

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Have you checked your "Cincy-Q" recently?

  1. On May 24, 1935, Cincinnati Reds owner Powel Crosley debuted a special promotion that forever changed Major League Baseball. What was the promotion?
  2. After several unsuccessful businesses, a thirty-nine-year-old, 8th-grade dropout launched a legendary Cincinnati record label that music historians say helped create rock and roll. Who was he?
  3. Cincinnati is the hometown of Hollywood’s first female sex symbol, the original "vamp" and star of more than 35 movies. Who was she?

Click here to see answers.

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Cincinnati Future2020-08-30T17:11:13-04:00September 1st, 2020|

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