Ohio (WKBN) — The Youngstown Business Incubator’s Seventh Annual Shark Tank event took place Thursday night, and it attracted its biggest crowd yet
750 people crowded into Mr. Anthony’s in Boardman to watch YBI CEO Barb Ewing be introduced in a boxing robe, because as Ewing said, entrepreneurship is a contact sport.
The Shark Tank event is YBI’s major fundraiser of the year, and this year it raised $350,000. Ewing says it’s one of the largest fundraisers in the Mahoning Valley.
“It really is a movement. I mean, we have created such brand recognition with it. It’s really mission-driven. So, we’ve been able to raise the level of awareness of our programs and visibility on the value of entrepreneurship and how it impacts the community to have people starting new business,” Ewing said.
The four companies competing this year were Homello, Vitruvian, Daisy Makes, and Orhont Magnetics. The Shark’s Choice Award, worth $10,000, was given to Orhont Magnetics, and the Audience Award, worth $5,000, was given to Daisy Makes.
Orhont Magnetics, based in Pittsburgh, designs electrical drive systems for defense, maritime and emerging mobility platforms. Its ongoing Nacy SBIR Phase II program focuses on achieving higher propulsion output from compact form factors using electromagnetic and thermal design strategies.
Daisy Makes is a Kent-based company that makes cake pop tools. It created the patented Original Popper System, which helps makers create clean, consistent cake pop shapes.
Homello is a Mahoning County-based company, described as the backend operating system for residential real estate — the software that runs everything after the contract is signed. It uses AI to automate the closing process. It’s available on the App Store for $99 a month.
Vitruvian is based in Athens and designs and builds robotic construction printers, formulates cementitious mixes, prints homes and infrastructure and credentials the people who operate the equipment.
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