Lay of The Land copertina

Lay of The Land

Lay of The Land

Di: Jeffrey Stern
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 Telling the stories of entrepreneurship and builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. Every Thursday, Jeffrey Stern helps map the Cleveland/NEO business ecosystem by talking to founders, investors, and community builders to learn what makes Cleveland/NEO special.© 2024 Lay of The Land Economia Gestione e leadership Leadership
Episodi
  • #250 Chris Heivly - 250 Episodes Later — Reflections on Entrepreneurship, Community, Storytelling

    #250 Chris Heivly - 250 Episodes Later — Reflections on Entrepreneurship, Community, Storytelling
    Apr 30 2026
    This is the 250th episode of Lay of The Land, and to mark it, I wanted to do something a little different.Most episodes of this podcast are centered on founder stories — what drives someone to take the very difficult leap of trying to build a company, what problem they feel compelled enough to devote their life to solving, and what they learn along the way. But for this milestone episode, I wanted to step back and talk about the thing that ties these stories together… the community itself. And there was no one I’d rather have for that conversation than Chris Heivly.Chris is a serial entrepreneur, early-stage investor, startup community builder, and the founder of Build The Fort. He’s also was a co-founder of MapQuest, a bestselling author, a longtime writer and speaker on entrepreneurship and ecosystem development, and someone whose thinking had a real influence on the direction of Lay of The Land when I was starting it back in 2018… Chris came to Cleveland in 2018 and shared his assessment of our startup community through Techstars and at the City Club, and a lot of what he said stayed with me and this podcast became my own attempt to act on it.Over the last 250 episodes, Lay of The Land has grown into something much bigger than I originally imagined — not just a repository of entrepreneurial stories, but a kind of connective tissue for entrepreneurship in Cleveland: dozens of events, thousands of introductions, new friendships, mentorship relationships, hires, investments, co-founders, and I’m sure many second- and third-order effects I’ll never fully know about. So for this episode, it felt worth reflecting more directly on this whole journey and linger on how entrepreneurial communities actually form, what makes them stronger, what gets in their way, and what that has looked like here in Cleveland.In our conversation, Chris and I talk about what he saw when he first came to Cleveland, why density and storytelling mattered so much in his original assessment, why founders have to be at heart of it, why confidence is contagious, why you have to build upon your credible strengths…we talk about the Give First mentality, about mentorship, trust, meaningful connection, the limits of top-down ecosystem design, and how cities actually get better.Chris has spent years studying how startup communities form, evolve, and endure. I’m grateful to Chris for joining me, and grateful to all of you who’ve listened, shared, supported, and helped make 250 episodes possible and will help make the next 250 possible.00:00: Introduction07:40: Ecosystems13:02: Storytelling18:33: Give First24:34: Strengths in Community29:48: Meaningful Connections38:45: Human Complexity43:31: Mentorship48:51: The Role of Capital58:38: A Novel01:04:04: Reflections01:08:54 Outro-----LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisheivly/https://heivly.com/https://buildthefort.com/City Club Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc4zWbXURU8&t=2s-----SPONSOR:Cerity PartnersCerity Partners, a full-service investment and wealth management firm serving high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and business owners, is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. The firm has local roots in Cleveland and across Ohio, and like this podcast, Cerity Partners advisors specialize in serving the interests of local entrepreneurs and business leaders. The firm’s national presence means it can offer the resources and specialized knowledge of the largest institutions with the independence and service of a neighbor. The Cerity Partners Cleveland team understands the complexity that comes with wealth, and they adhere to fiduciary standards. Discover the financial lay of your land.Learn more at ceritypartners.com/NPR or call 216-464-6266.Roundstone InsuranceRoundstone Insurance is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. Founder and CEO, Michael Schroeder, has committed full-year support for the podcast, recognizing its alignment with the company’s passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and community leadership.Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone was founded in 2005 with a vision to deliver better healthcare outcomes at a more affordable cost. Over the past two decades, Roundstone has grown rapidly, creating nearly 200 jobs in Northeast Ohio. The company works closely with employers and benefits advisors to navigate the complexities of commercial health insurance and build custom plans that prioritize employee well-being over shareholder returns. By focusing on aligned incentives and better health outcomes, Roundstone is helping businesses save thousands in Per Employee Per Year healthcare costs. Roundstone Insurance — Built for entrepreneurs. Backed by innovation. Committed to Cleveland.Learn more at https://roundstoneinsurance.com/-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here: https://layoftheland.ck.page/5f0c1e28faConnect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/...
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    1 ora e 10 min
  • #249 Ken Sobel (Hyperframe) — Constructing The Future

    #249 Ken Sobel (Hyperframe) — Constructing The Future
    Apr 24 2026
    Ken Sobel — Co-founder and CEO of Hyperframe.Ken is an engineer and repeat founder whose entrepreneurial path started early — out of college he launched a fingerprint payments company that predated Apple Pay, which he took through Y Combinator and ultimately was acquired by Visa in 2016.Ken grew up in construction though… recalling memories being in his father’s workshop as a kid — and his longstanding passion for construction coupled with his love of engineering and problem-solving has culminated in an entrepreneurial desire to rethinking of one of the most fundamental parts of construction — steel framing.Through Hyperframe, Ken has taken traditional metal framing process that’s been slow, manual, and largely unchanged for decades, and re-imagined it as a system that’s faster, safer, and far more efficient. Hyperframe’s snap-together framing system, paired with a full-stack software and manufacturing platform, is enabling construction crews all over the world to build walls dramatically faster, with less labor and less strain.What started as a conversation about reindustrialization coupled with a desire and need to massively scale his operations, Ken made the bold decision to move Hyperframe from California to Ohio, where the company is now headquartered and where they are building out their first large-scale manufacturing facility.In our conversation, we talk about Ken’s path into construction, the early insights behind Hyperframe, and what it actually takes to rebuild a physical industry from the ground up. We get into the realities of scaling a hard tech company, earning trust in construction, why he decided to move his whole company and family from California to Ohio, and why Ohio is such an advantageous place to build physical companies.So please enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Ken Sobel.00:00 — Building for Builders00:54 — Origin Story05:41 — Construction’s Realities06:35 — California to Ohio10:41 — Hard Tech Lessons20:22 — Pain Points32:17 — Innovating the Metal Framing27:11 — Gaining Trust 36:23 — Scaling Up41:47 — Real World Adoption44:08 — Hardest Lessons46:15 — Reflection49:08 — Being in Ohio52:27 — Wrap Up & Ways to Connect-----LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-sobelhttps://www.hyperframe.com/-----SPONSOR:Cerity PartnersCerity Partners, a full-service investment and wealth management firm serving high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and business owners, is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. The firm has local roots in Cleveland and across Ohio, and like this podcast, Cerity Partners advisors specialize in serving the interests of local entrepreneurs and business leaders. They understand how to manage the total picture of wealth, both personal and professional. Cerity Partners has a unified team of specialists who collaborate on almost every aspect of a client’s financial life, including business ownership. The firm’s national presence means it can offer the resources and specialized knowledge of the largest institutions with the independence and service of a neighbor. The Cerity Partners Cleveland team understands the complexity that comes with wealth, and they adhere to fiduciary standards. Discover the financial lay of your land.Learn more at ceritypartners.com/NPR or call 216-464-6266.Roundstone InsuranceRoundstone Insurance is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. Founder and CEO, Michael Schroeder, has committed full-year support for the podcast, recognizing its alignment with the company’s passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and community leadership.Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone was founded in 2005 with a vision to deliver better healthcare outcomes at a more affordable cost. To bring that vision to life, the company pioneered the group medical captive model — a self-funded health insurance solution that provides small and mid-sized businesses with greater control and significant savings.Over the past two decades, Roundstone has grown rapidly, creating nearly 200 jobs in Northeast Ohio. The company works closely with employers and benefits advisors to navigate the complexities of commercial health insurance and build custom plans that prioritize employee well-being over shareholder returns. By focusing on aligned incentives and better health outcomes, Roundstone is helping businesses save thousands in Per Employee Per Year healthcare costs. Roundstone Insurance — Built for entrepreneurs. Backed by innovation. Committed to Cleveland.Learn more at https://roundstoneinsurance.com/-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here: https://layoftheland.ck.page/5f0c1e28faConnect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/
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    54 min
  • #248 Dave Stack — Riches in Niches and Marketplace Development

    #248 Dave Stack — Riches in Niches and Marketplace Development
    Apr 16 2026
    Dave Stack. Dave is an internet entrepreneur and the founder of MusicStack, one of the early online marketplaces for rare and out-of-print music, which he began building out of his dorm room at Ohio State 30 years ago in the early days of the commercial internet. Over the years, he has gone on to build a portfolio of niche vertical marketplaces under the banner of Vertical Commerce, including MusicStack, Bear Pile, Reborns, and BJD Collectors — which has grown to facilitate tens of million in gross merchandise sales.In our conversation, Dave and I explore how a love of music, coding, and selling turned into one of the internet’s early marketplace businesses, and how he kept following overlooked opportunities into passionate collector and creator communities that most people would never think to serve, like lifelike baby dolls and handmade teddybears. We talk about why niche markets can be so powerful, how trust and community become part of the product, the leverage that automation and AI now afford a solo founder, and why Dave chose an intentionally lean and independent path rather than the conventional startup playbook of scale. More than anything, this is a conversation about building durable internet businesses, staying authentic to yourself, and designing a life around work you genuinely love. Dave is thoughtful, unconventional, and deeply true to his own path, and I really enjoyed our conversation — please enjoy.00:00 Exploring Hidden Opportunities in Niche Markets11:32 The Longevity of Online Businesses16:33 Building Trust and Community in Niche Marketplaces22:55 Automation and Efficiency in Solo Entrepreneurship28:01 Navigating the Chicken and Egg Problem in Marketplaces32:13 Understanding Marketplace Scale and Growth36:42 Authenticity in Entrepreneurship40:57 Community Engagement and Personal Connections51:24 Reflections on Cleveland and Personal Journey56:15 Outro-----LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidjstack/https://www.davestack.com/press.cgi-----SPONSOR:Cerity PartnersCerity Partners, a full-service investment and wealth management firm serving high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, and business owners, is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. The firm has local roots in Cleveland and across Ohio, and like this podcast, Cerity Partners advisors specialize in serving the interests of local entrepreneurs and business leaders. They understand how to manage the total picture of wealth, both personal and professional. Cerity Partners has a unified team of specialists who collaborate on almost every aspect of a client’s financial life, including business ownership. The firm’s national presence means it can offer the resources and specialized knowledge of the largest institutions with the independence and service of a neighbor. The Cerity Partners Cleveland team understands the complexity that comes with wealth, and they adhere to fiduciary standards. Discover the financial lay of your land.Learn more at ceritypartners.com/NPR or call 216-464-6266.Roundstone InsuranceRoundstone Insurance is proud to sponsor Lay of The Land. Founder and CEO, Michael Schroeder, has committed full-year support for the podcast, recognizing its alignment with the company’s passion for entrepreneurship, innovation, and community leadership.Headquartered in Rocky River, Ohio, Roundstone was founded in 2005 with a vision to deliver better healthcare outcomes at a more affordable cost. To bring that vision to life, the company pioneered the group medical captive model — a self-funded health insurance solution that provides small and mid-sized businesses with greater control and significant savings.Over the past two decades, Roundstone has grown rapidly, creating nearly 200 jobs in Northeast Ohio. The company works closely with employers and benefits advisors to navigate the complexities of commercial health insurance and build custom plans that prioritize employee well-being over shareholder returns. By focusing on aligned incentives and better health outcomes, Roundstone is helping businesses save thousands in Per Employee Per Year healthcare costs. Roundstone Insurance — Built for entrepreneurs. Backed by innovation. Committed to Cleveland.Learn more at https://roundstoneinsurance.com/-----Stay up to date by signing up for Lay of The Land's weekly newsletter — sign up here: https://layoftheland.ck.page/5f0c1e28faConnect with Jeffrey Stern on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreypstern/Follow Lay of The Land on X @podlayofthelandhttps://www.jeffreys.page/
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    58 min
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