Lay of The Land

Laura Bennett and Alex Krooglik, co-founders of Embrace Pet Insurance, which was sold in 2023 for $1.5 billion to JAB Holding Company.

The duo founded Embrace Pet Insurance after graduating from Penn’…

Dan Nitowsky, Chair of TIGER 21 Cleveland.

Dan, like me is a native New Yorker who has made Cleveland his home & has spent 30 years here in Cleveland as a highly accomplished executive with a proven h…

Fred DiSanto, Chairman and CEO of Ancora — the Cleveland-based investment firm with nearly $10B in assets under management and over 100 employees — which he’s led since 2006!

Before Ancora, Fred had a…

Taylor Evans — Founder and President of Rust Belt Recruiting, a leading local manufacturing recruiting agency, which also hosts a kindred-spirit podcast to Lay Of The Land, called Rust Belt Rundowns,…

My guests this week are my friends and partners over at Impact Architects —who many of you will note are the longest-time supporters of Lay of The Land and the community building work we’re doing tog…

Sandor Gyerman and Jared Anderson, the dynamic co-founders of Andor Creative.

Founded in 2018 when they were Sophomores at Cleveland State University, Andor Creative was born to find more innovative w…

Joshua Edmonds, CEO of DigitalC.

The digital divide — this gap between people who have access to the internet and those who do not — is something you may have heard me bring up a few times before on t…

Mike Malley, President and CEO of Malley's Chocolates.

If you grew up in northeast Ohio it’s very likely you know of Malley’s Chocolates, a staple of this community, providing delicious chocolate cand…

Craig Hassall, CEO of Playhouse Square

Craig is a mainstay in the international theater community, with decades of experience operating and curating the most prestigious venues across Europe and Austr…

Keith Gerchak and Marisa Guterman — Founders @ Double G Films

This is a truly special episode — I always love exploring the parallels between entrepreneurship and art and in our conversation today, we…

Mitchell Vargo, Partner at Forward Hospitality Group.

Since its founding in 2015, the Cleveland-based Hospitality Group has built out unique entertainment, bar, and restaurant experiences locally and …

Ian Maurer — Chief Technology Officer at GenomOncology and co-lead of the Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers’ AI working group.

With over two decades of software experience, Ian has led GenomOncolo…

Umberto P. Fedeli —  Founder, President, and CEO of The Fedeli Group

I first had the opportunity to speak with Umberto on this podcast just over a year ago! At the time, our conversation extended far …

Matt Buder Shapiro — Chief Marketing Officer at Vytalize Health, Previously Founder at MedPilot (Acquired)

I first spoke to Matt on this podcast 3 years ago. At the time, as a co-founder and chief mar…

Aaron Slodov — CEO of Atomic Industries, a company he co-founded back in 2019 and has raised over $20 million from leading investors like Toyota Ventures, Impatient Ventures, Narya Capital, 8090 Indu…

Darren Small, co-founder and CEO of Oko.

With over a decade of experience on Wall Street, Darren’s analytical background from the world of investment banking, stocks, and data, equipped him with a kee…

John Kempf — founder of Advancing Eco Agriculture (AEA), a regenerative agronomy company started back in 2006 to share the knowledge, tools, and systems that regenerate farm profitability, soil healt…

Adam Graybill, co-founder and CEO of Journey Biosciences.

With a robust 20-year tenure in the diabetes market, Adam has been at the forefront of assembling purpose-driven teams and forging impactful s…

Phil Londrico, Founder & CEO of JaTango — an interactive broadcasting and e-commerce platform that gives individuals the power to host their own live shopping channel anywhere.

For many years now, we’…

Dr. James Kenyon, Director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio

The road to the Moon goes through Cleveland. With a budget of approximately $900 million, a staff of more than 3,200 civil…