Ohio (WOIO) – 19 News Anchor Brian Duffy sits down with Todd Federman, managing director of North Coast Ventures, in the latest episode of “19 Newsmakers.” The episode airs Monday at 6:30 p.m
North Coast Ventures is a Cleveland-based and centric early-stage venture capital fund. The company is the largest single member led fund in the United States, with $100 million in capital working across 100 different startups
North Coast Ventures has 500 investors. Federman said most of them are from Northeast Ohio. The investors put their own money into the startups and make themselves available as sounding boards to offer advice to entrepreneurs.
Federman said Cleveland has a history of turning small startups into big companies.
“One of the advantages, I think one of the under appreciated advantages is just the history and the culture that we have in Cleveland,” Federman said. “A small localized paint distributor became Sherwin Williams, the largest paint and coating company in the world, Charles Brush well before Thomas Edison got his lightbulb to work lit up Public Square and more recently companies like Progressive and Goodyear have become global leaders.”
In the conversation, Federman lays out the formula it takes to grow these companies and the support they are getting from the business community. That includes members of the business community who understand that as small businesses grow, larger businesses benefit from having suppliers they know and can count on.
The full conversation airs Monday at 6:30 p.m. on “19 Newsmakers.”
New episodes of “19 Newsmakers” are available weekly wherever you find podcasts. Streaming every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on 19 News platforms.
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