To launch a startup, you need an idea. You need some expertise to make it happen. You’re probably going to need funding, outside your own bank account. You need the right equipment to bring it to fruition. And if what you’re trying to make is a physical product, that equipment can be large, and complex, and expensive.
In Northeast Ohio, at least, there’s a still-growing ecosystem of business incubators and accelerators working to connect future manufacturers with the resources they need to, eventually, make it on their own.
Petra Power in Solon is one such manufacturer. The company is developing reversible solid oxide fuel cell systems, which include both fuel cells and electrolyzers. The former converts fuel directly to electricity without the need to burn it, while the latter converts electricity to fuel, said Aaron Goodman, CEO and co-founder. Goodman declined to share the specific markets his company planned to target but said similar technologies have been used in applications like small forklifts.
The technology behind Petra Power was originally developed at NASA Glenn. Goodman and company CTO and co-founder Phillip Clift were part of an initiative designed to help the agency connect with people who could commercialize some of its developments.
BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren reached out to the pair and pitched them on the importance of setting the company up in Northeast Ohio, Goodman said, promoting the incubator’s own services, as well as the region’s energy and manufacturing ecosystem.
It was a good fit.
“That turned out to be one of the best decisions that we have made so far as an organization,” Goodman said. “BRITE has been everything they pitched and more.”
Petra Power operated out of BRITE’s facility for the first five or so years of its operation, moving to an independent site in Solon last year. BRITE connected the growing company with resources like job recruiters and local manufacturing organizations, he said. But it went beyond that.
Many incubators or accelerators primarily offer resources in exchange for equity, Goodman said. That works for software companies, but manufacturing or hardware startups have different needs.
“In hardware, you need to build stuff. You need physical space. You need capital to acquire raw materials. You need labor to assemble it. And you need connections to test it and fill in the gaps you can’t possibly fill in by building a full team,” he said.
Octet Scientific in Cleveland also called BRITE home for a brief time, but it was a far drive for CEO and founder Onas Bolton. The early stage chemical company is working on large-scale energy storage solutions, specifically in water-based battery technologies. The goal is to help create a safer alternative than lithium ion batteries for big applications like the energy grid. Octet is working to create the chemicals to go inside the batteries.
Octet needed physical resources, like wet labs and fume hoods, to get its start, Bolton said. The company had a National Science Foundation grant, which offered some initial funding, but it needed a place to do research and development, as well as production.
Enter MAGNET. At the time, MAGNET – the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network – had incubator space in its Cleveland headquarters. Octet moved from Warren during 2018 and left in 2022, when MAGNET moved to its new location in the city and stopped offering space for in-building tenants.
For companies making a physical product, “space to build, store, test your products is essential,” Bolton said. There’s a lot of old manufacturing facilities that open up from time to time, he said, but adapting one would be a “substantial” cost, especially for an early stage company. Even if a building had housed a manufacturing company previously, most would need significant investment to renovate and equip.
“So having incubator space like MAGNET, like BRITE, where you can work on physical products is transformative,” Bolton said.
Even after leaving its MAGNET space, Octet wasn’t quite ready for a building of its own, Bolton said. The company relocated to the Baker Electric Building on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, where they are still surrounded by other startups in an incubator setting. But it’s continuing to grow and figuring out if it can do so in its current space.
Petra Power realized it was time to move out of its incubator space when its electric needs began to outpace BRITE’s capacity, and it started to run out of office space. It was also basically taking over the entire lab at BRITE, Goodman said. Since moving, the company has started to grow its operations and pick up productivity. And the space they chose is designed to grow with them.
Incubators like BRITE, which offer physical space and equipment for production and testing, fill a critical need for those startups looking to make a tangible product. Goodman doesn’t think Petra Power could have gotten off the ground without BRITE or an incubator like it.
“We would have had no space to make progress. We wouldn’t have had access to some critical pieces of equipment that we couldn’t have purchased on our own yet,” he said. “And we wouldn’t have had connections to some of those resources in the region that said, yeah, you know, we’ll help you out, we’ll let you run tests here, we’ll get you a smaller order quantity of the chemicals that you need that we normally require.”
Building that network is another critical part of entrepreneurship. People like startups, Bolton said, and they generally want to help. Let them, he said, by telling them what you’re looking for; it’s never too early to look for that next step.
Kelly Franko, founder and president of Seraphina Safety Apparel in Cortland in Trumbull County, knows the value of a good network.
Franko’s entrepreneurial journey started back in 2008 when she opened an undergarment boutique for women. A decade later, a friend working in the welding industry asked Franko if she was able to make a flame-resistant bra.
Though the ideas came quickly, Franko soon realized she needed to delve into research and development and into network building. She started going to safety shows, taking classes and introducing herself to everyone she could. She soon connected with MAGNET and Cleveland-based venture development organization JumpStart, which, in turn, connected her to others.
In 2022, she took part in MAGNET’s pitch contest, winning the marketing award. Through that, she was connected with someone who helped her get her website off the ground and give her direction on marketing efforts. JumpStart has connected her with mentors experienced in manufacturing and sales. And the Youngstown Business Incubator helped her with the process of getting certified as a woman-owned business.
By mid-2022, Seraphina Safety Apparel was putting product out in the market.
Franko doesn’t think she would have been successful without the state’s strong network of accelerators and other entrepreneurship-focused programs.
“Sometimes I’m asking myself, am I failing, or is this scaling? Because this is new to me. I’ve not been a manufacturer before,” she said. “I’ve been a retailer, and I’ve been a distributor, but I’ve never been the manufacturer.”
Talking to people who have been there has helped her find her own path. One piece of advice that she’s received again and again is to find someone who can do what you’re not good at or what you don’t like to do. As a startup who relies on manufacturing contractors, that hits home.
“Being an entrepreneur doesn’t mean you have to do everything on your own,” she said.