CBF Archives

The client wanted the impossible: Give a robot all the skills of a human welder.

Five years ago a custom automotive and marine supplier in Cleveland asked what was then an engineering consulting firm to help him with a labor shortage, and Path Robotics Inc. was born.

"The tolerances are incredibly tight, that you have to keep with welding," co-founder and CEO Andy Lonsberry said. "And if the gaps (between pieces of sheet metal) cha...

It’s almost hard to believe there was a time when good coffee just wasn’t a thing.

But it wasn’t that long ago.

Greg Ubert was working in computer software in the late 1980s, but what really captured his imagination was coffee — real, good coffee; the art and science of roasting.

And, of course, the potential for business.

“Good coffee just wasn’t widely available,” he said. “It wasn’t around. It wasn’t accessible.”

When he started C...

Count North Country Charcuterie among those businesses that are wiser and more efficient at this point in the pandemic.

The Columbus-based maker and processor of salami, fresh sausage and other products has used new offerings to make a better-balanced business and refigured production space to better maximize its use.

The moves create more consistent cash flow and buy them more time in their current facility before they need to cons...

Harley Blakeman's LinkedIn profile is one of a kind, but he's working to change that.

The founder of Columbus tech company Honest Jobs LLC lists one prior job and the book he wrote, then drops this attention grabber: "Drug dealer, January 2009 - November 2010."

"Started with $500 and grew the business to over $8,000/month in revenue," reads the description for the self-employed role. "Met and exceeded customer expectations. Successfu...

Comune will reopen for business, but that was never a sure thing.

Co-owner Joe Galati said he met with his accountant in November. The accountant asked him what Galati believed his chances of going bankrupt were.

Galati said 20%.

The accountant said 90%

“That hit the hardest,” Galati said. “There’s a very good chance this is all going away. … That lights a fire. That’s not going to happen. What are we going to do?”

The situation is bett...

Business in times of struggle often talk of getting back to their roots.

Not North High Brewing.

Like many breweries and other businesses, the last year was one of big changes in the face of challenges, but the North High of today doesn’t resemble the one first dreamed up by co-founders Gavin Meyers and Tim Ward a decade ago.

They didn’t want to run any brewpub. Today they have four and could be in double digits by the end of the yea...

The startup he co-founded based on his original idea was running out of money, and he'd long since left day-to-day operations, but Chris Sauerzopf couldn't let go of the growing wire fraud problem it was trying to solve.

SafeWire is back in business and growing, after investor and adviser Pete Kight – the CheckFree Corp. founder – took the assets of the former business as collateral for paying off its debts and brought back Sauerzop...

What's a company known for providing free daily staff lunches do when everyone has been sent to work from home?

At CoverMyMeds, the culinary staff wrote a cookbook, which was mailed to employees and business contacts over the holidays. But mostly they're busy planning how to move into a new Franklinton headquarters and at least at first shift to contactless grab and go meals instead of cafeteria style.

"They have done some some amazi...

John Brooks knows how to throw a party.

As managing partner of BTTS Holdings, he runs some of the city's biggest events venues that you've likely visited for work or leisure including The Estate at New Albany; Brookshire, in Delaware; and WatersEdge in Hillard. But the pandemic was a buzzkill – 120 of 130 weddings and other events were cancelled or rescheduled virtually overnight.

In this episode of Crisis Management, Brooks talks a...

Covid-19 has pushed us all to work from home. So naturally, people are thinking about where they live, too.

The housing market is exploding in Central Ohio as people rush to move to larger spaces, be they homes or apartments. And that's meant a change of business for Jonathan and Jamie Wilcox, of apartment developer and manager Wilcox Communities.

In this episode of Crisis Management, they discuss how Covid-19 has led their company t...

Capital University’s interim president Dave Kaufman doesn’t have a background in higher education, but the former Encova Insurance CEO is leading the university during one of the toughest periods for colleges and universities: the Covid-19 crisis.

Kaufman, who talked with Columbus Business First for the latest edition of our Crisis Management podcast, said his nontraditional background has allowed him to take the best of the busines...

Can meat move from pasture grazed to lab raised?

That’s a problem Dublin-based Matrix Meats is helping companies around the world try to solve.

The Dublin-based start-up received some seed-stage backing late last year and is growing, adding staff and looking for new opportunities.

CEO Eric Jenkusky said the business’ partners already include about 25% of the companies in the nascent cultivated meat segment around the world. That inc...

Even before starting construction on a $100 million facility, a biotech affiliate of Nationwide Children's Hospital had to adapt to two huge changes simultaneously: Switching into for-profit mindset and securing safety in a pandemic.

Andelyn Biosciences Inc. is building a 185,000-square-foot manufacturing facility for the genetic materials used in gene therapy research and treatments. Eventually the factory could double in size if i...

As of January, Nikola Labs Inc. was headed for its best year ever. By April, like many businesses shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, the startup was in "the fog of war."

In the latest episode of Crisis Management, Columbus Business First's podcast about steering a business through the pandemic, Nikola co-founder Will Zell and CEO Brian Graham discuss how Graham succeeded Zell mid-pandemic after two years as COO.

After a more than...

Simple Times Mixers’ big problem prior to 2020 was space.

Its first two years of business were spent building its brand and then trying to keep up with demand as it used rental kitchen space.

Last year it finally moved into a home of its own, not just giving it a retail storefront and space for events, but also quadrupling its production size with plenty of space to grow.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit this spring and knocked out 75% ...

Cameron Mitchell wasn’t sure he restaurant company would still be around.

The founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants was just as scared as anyone in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic that the event might lead to the end of the company he’s spent nearly three decades building.

Now seven months in, the self-described optimist feels more confident in his business’ survival and hopeful the worst has already occurred. But t...

Columbus Food Adventures thought its business was done when Ohio shut down dine-in restaurants in March.

After all its business was based on going into restaurants. In groups. That’s two things that couldn’t be done then and are still limited today months later.

“In a sense, we were starting from scratch,” said co-owner Andy Dehus. “We just had to completely re-configure everything.”

A business built around tours taking people to foo...

Benji Ballmer would like nothing more than to put himself out of business.

That’s how he’ll know he did a good job.

The founder of Yellowbird Foodshed started his produce and food delivery business in 2014 connecting a handful of Ohio growers with a couple hundred customers.

Today the company is working with 150 growers and food producers in the state and serving 1,500 customers, predominately in Central Ohio.

But his ultimate goal isn...