A New Chapter — The O.H.I.O. Fund

The most common question I’ve heard throughout my 8 years in Cleveland — from my start with Venture for America to co-founding Axuall to amplifying the stories of local entrepreneurship via Lay of The Land — is why?  

From NYers and Clevelanders alike — why are you in Cleveland? What is a NYC boy doing in Ohio? 

Well, I’ll tell you — I came to find very early on, continuously reinforced over my time here, that the perception of this place is not reflective of its reality; travel is fatal to bias and prejudice (h/t Mark Twain).

Caleb Atwater (an Ohio politician) noted in 1838 that Ohio is peculiarly felicitous as to soil, climate, and productions, that it will be Ohio’s fault if they are not the happiest people in the Union … What if I told you I quickly came to see his point? I had never been more pleasantly surprised — by the people, by the nature, by the ethos. I came to deeply appreciate the excellence latent here and recognize there exists a generational opportunity to tap into this potential. 

In the span of a single lifetime, Ohio underwent a remarkable transformation. From natural wilderness, it emerged as an industrial force, riding successive waves of technological innovation, each reshaping the state’s economic landscape. The early 1800s saw the rise of steam-powered canal navigation, only to be swiftly jettisoned, rendered obsolete by the railroads of the 1840s and 1850s, which in turn ushered in an era of unprecedented manufacturing might. Ohio emerged as a global crucible of industry and builder of things — the epicenter of oil, home to the world’s greatest iron port, producer of roughly half of the world’s rubber, and a formidable leader in steel. 

Today, we witness the stirrings of a new industrial renaissance, harkening to the spirit of the industrial revolution that powered Ohio and much of the Midwest’s transformation. This movement, galvanized in the wake of COVID, stems from a renewed appreciation of our know-how and capacity to build tangible things better, faster, and cheaper (h/t ephemeralization — Buckminster Fuller) and an acknowledgment that deglobalization may be as much a strategic initiative as it is a trend. 

When I think about technological trends of the day —  

• the desire for domestic, secure, and robust supply chains, 

• the infusion of software and automation into hardware, 

• The precipitously rising demand for energy storage and usage tied to the exponential growth of AI and the exponential decline of the cost of computing, 

• the falling cost of electricity production, the increasingly competitive positioning of renewables, and the visibility of Nuclear within the Overton Window,  

• the rise of EVs,  

• the economic incentives of The IRA and Chips Act to re-shore and develop these manufacturing competencies locally,  

• the growing importance of climate-resilient geographies and natural resources like water, 

— I see how Ohio — across manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics, biotechnology, real estate, and more — as Atwater noted, is peculiarly apt to ride this wave once again, lead in reindustrialization, and realize that potential. 

Embedded in that sentiment is my optimism. Anyone who knows me knows I am an optimist. I believe optimism is a creative force seeking to realize the positive future it envisions as possible.  

I feel grounded in my optimism about this future in Ohio because it is tethered to the hundreds of entrepreneurs I’ve met who are building it. In my time here as a founder, there is not a group of people I’ve been more inspired by, and it is why I’m so excited to embark on this new chapter — to invest in and support those making it happen in Cleveland and across Ohio! 

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Principal with the founding team — Jill Meyer, Mike Venerable, Mark Kvamme, and Ray Leach — of The O.H.I.O. Fund off the back of our $108 million first close. 

With gratitude & alacrity,

Jeffrey