I grew up here, and for a long time that meant apologizing for it. To investors, to candidates, to founders who needed convincing. That’s changed. The last decade has been a bold transformation.  What was steel mills and farmland is becoming a genuine tech and life sciences destination. Biotech put Ohio on maps it was never on before. The talent is here, the companies are staying, and the skepticism I used to walk into has softened into something that feels a lot like FOMO. We’re early in something real, and early is exactly where you want to be.

I’m a Cleveland native who left for school and came back, on purpose. I grew up in a family business, so I learned early what it means to take real ownership of something. That foundation means I evaluate our portfolio companies from the inside out, not the outside in. Many of the companies here are family businesses with untapped growth potential, more than even they could realize themselves. We are here to help open their eyes to the potential and support them to enable their growth.

I’ve also spent time working with investors and founders on the coasts, and I know what they expect, from unit economics to growth trajectory to operational discipline. I bring that same standard of expectation to the companies we back here. Ohio founders are talented and driven, and someone in their corner pushing them to think bigger, build discipline early, and scale operations with intentionality will only further their success. Sustainable growth doesn’t happen by accident, it gets built into the DNA of a company from the beginning, and that’s the work I care about.

I’ve sat across from skeptical investors and made the Ohio case from scratch. I’ve recruited people here who didn’t think they wanted to come and watched them stay. Being a true believer before it was fashionable gives me a lens on this state that you can’t get from a term sheet.

Ohio has the momentum.  What it needs is capital that’s committed to staying. The O.H.I.O. Fund exists to make sure that companies built here don’t have to leave to grow. The wealth we help create should recirculate into the next generation of founders and the next wave of companies. Ohio has gone through transformations before; from farmland to steel to manufacturing; and we’re in the middle of another one right now. I want us to be the firm that best on Ohio early, across all industries and strategies, and helped write what comes next.