As we said in our 19 Startups to Watch in 2019, Cincinnati had a big year in 2018.
But that has come and gone, and we're interested in looking ahead. So, we spoke with a handful of area thought leaders to get their perspectives on what 2019 will bring for the startup and tech ecosystem in the Queen City.
While each individual had their own predictions, there certainly was consensus. Increased opportunities for women and minority founders. Increased resources at both a city- and region level. Increased focus and clarity for the ecosystem as a whole. In short? Increase all around.
Get their specific insights below, all in their own words — and make sure to share your own thoughts on #StartupCincy's 2019 with us @CincyInno on Twitter.
Nancy AIchHolz, President and CEO Aviatra Accelerators
2019 will be another strong year for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky tech and startup ecosystem. With big changes in leadership at Cintrifuse and a first-ever coordinated, statewide effort in Kentucky under the KY RISE program, resources will continue to be cutting-edge and accessible.
I am confident that we are in "The Decade of the Woman," not the year of the woman. Opportunities for women and minorities must continue to grow and be more accessible if we are to prosper as a region. Because I run an accelerator for women-owned businesses that is industry-agnostic, I see a lot of growth in traditional entrepreneurship and tech-enabled businesses, not just the "tech industry" as we have come to see it.
Our biggest opportunities in this region lie in the ability to connect and collaborate and put the entrepreneur in the driver's seat. We will still struggle a bit on the funding for small business and [on the] startup side of things, but I am optimistic that creative solutions exist if we all work together on behalf of the entrepreneurs.
Patrick Longo, President, HCDC
HCDC sees a number of positives in 2019. We see more companies leveraging our programming than in any previous year. Both Morning Mentoring and eKickStart are evolving to better serve the innovative and scaleable entrepreneur marketplace. We see companies graduating from HCDC Business Center to the Southwest Ohio region like General Nano, which will open up space for new clients to join and grow at our business incubation program. We see collaborations with UC, CincyTech, Queen City Angels, Cintrifuse and the 10 or so accelerators in the community continuing to bring us new start up ventures to work with, [and] we see a new light on the area of engineering and physical sciences in Greater Cincinnati with the move of CincyTech into the 1819 Building.
There will be new energy and new ideas that will surface this year due to the emergence of new leaders in the ecosystem at Cintrifuse, Main Street Ventures and HCDC. Change will be good for the ecosystem.
Plus, HCDC is very excited for the continued growth of our Office of Innovation and Creativity's work in the stage two-area of company growth. This will continue to be a point of emphasis for HCDC as we continue to see the maturation of the assets of the #StartUpCincy ecosystem and more companies coming forth from the network that will need assistance as they grow into the next generation of more than $1 million companies in Hamilton County.
2019 will be the year the opportunity zones get their start in our region and we hope to see capital flow into early stage companies from the change in tax laws. HCDC is on point to be a connector for investors and projects that might benefit from the opportunity zones.
And finally, we see inclusion playing an even more significant role in all of our programming as our community of entrepreneurs and on the whole continues to change.
Eric Weissmann, Vice President of Communication, Community and Economic Inclusion, Cintrifuse
I think what these startups are seeing is the unique diversity of assets (space, talent, longer runway, etc.) of the Midwest is an advantage. Provided a strong executive team on the ground and clear guidance/leadership from home base, it’s a huge advantage for scaling companies to scale in this area of the country WITHOUT having to pick up stakes completely. It’s a major advantage as we look to turn up the volume on recruiting established tech companies to set up shop in Greater Cincinnati. — Cintrifuse Leaders Reflect Back, Look Ahead to 2019
Madeline Martini, Co-founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Project
Ohio is revisiting its roots this year, with a rise in agriculture technology startups. Last year, 80 Acres Farm took off making headlines in the Washington Post and Forbes for being the first fully automated indoor form. Just a couple miles away, Plantalytics was creating digital tools to help keep farmers more organized. In the last 10 years, investments in agtech have grown by nearly 750 percent. While not exactly AgTech, Kroger launched the #ZeroHungerZeroWaste campaign to end all hunger in their communities by 2025. With the support of a BigCo, founders will begin building startups to attack this problem and partner with Kroger. AgTech is certainly an option to solve this problem. With the abundant farming expertise in the Greater Cincinnati area, new ideas and ventures will emerge as the need for innovation in agriculture increases.
Additionally, Cincinnati is stacked with serial entrepreneurs, but over the past year, there’ve been a ton of new faces in the scene. This will continue to rise over the course of 2019 with local universities and initiatives encouraging students to turn their ideas into realities. In Fall 2018, University of Cincinnati launched the 1819 Innovation Hub, a space filled with resources for students to build their startups and collaborate with others. Meanwhile, Xavier University and Miami University’s top-ranked entrepreneurship programs continue to grow. From these initiatives and others, we’ll see new faces, meaning more diverse ventures and founders in Cincinnati.
James Nuveen, Co-founder, Young Entrepreneurs' Project
I'm starting to expect the incredible growth this area is experiencing year after year. It used to be a surprise that Cincinnati-NKY would cultivate such innovation, but the latest news tells us otherwise. Allos Ventures raises another $40 million fund, and CincyTech reaches a $1 billion regional impact. Kroger and other BigCos are introducing homegrown, cutting edge technology to the rest of the world.
But it's more than just venture capital and corporate innovation. Bootstrapped startups and creators are sprouting up all over the city and inspiring more and more young people at the area's high schools and universities to start their own businesses. Take a day off from the office and venture to one of Cincy's many coworking spaces or up to Miami University in Oxford. You'll see a ton of resilient entrepreneurs hustling and pursuing their dreams. The best way to encourage more growth is to create these alliances with this generation's young leaders, and #StartupCincy is doing just that.
I wouldn't expect anything different in 2019, but honestly, I don't really know what to expect. Cincinnati will continue to surprise me (in a good way).
JB Woodruff, Managing Director, UpTech
I see the beginning of clarity and focus for our region in 2019. This will come from the purposeful investment of time and dollars into industry-specific initiatives by our regional entrepreneurship leaders, as well as alignment and collaboration of the various programs in our region to optimize services and avoid duplication. The result will be more clarity for entrepreneurs of where they should go for help and how all partners (service providers) operate together in our region. This clarity will also benefit the mentors and investors in our region by better understanding where to invest their time and money.
2019 will begin the journey to defining what our region is good at (when it comes to creating and developing startups) and how that message/brand is then conveyed both internal and external to our region. We want to be the best region for entrepreneurship and that means we need to focus to drive better results.
Bill Baumel, Managing Director, Ohio Innovation Fund
In 2019, Ohio should begin to see two fundamental shifts that will advance the startup economy, making the region more competitive with the major coastal venture capital markets.
First, Ohio investors will change the way they measure startup success. Metrics such as dollars invested or the number of jobs created used to be the go-to evaluation of success, but those metrics don't reflect the true impact to the startup economy. A company that takes in $30 million and hires 100 people on its way from startup to shut-down has not achieved success. In the coming year, investors will start to look at true success metrics such as revenue growth, exit value and return on invested capital multiples. If you are growing revenues you add real, sustainable jobs; if you are making 5- to 10-plus on your successful investments, you are creating companies that VCs from the coasts will want to be a part of.
Second, I think many historical Ohio venture capital organizations will change their corporate structures to become more nimble and keep pace with the startup economy. Currently, many have hierarchical structures that are typical of Fortune 500 companies. Structuring VC firms that way slows response time and forces startups to get stuck in a morass of bureaucratic tape. In 2019, that will change; VC investment firms who flatten their structures and become nimble, to keep pace with the startup culture that has emerged, will break ahead of the pack. This will give them more hands-on time with their portfolio companies and the ability to help their companies make intelligent decisions quicker.
These shifts are necessary to keep up with skyrocketing growth we've seen in Midwest technology sectors such as SaaS, big data and others. In particular, I believe Ohio and Midwest med-tech will make significant strides in 2019. Ohio already has a realistic chance to become No. 2 in the sector behind Silicon Valley, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ohio med-tech grows to become as strong or stronger than heavyweights Boston, Minneapolis and San Diego in the coming few years.
