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Good afternoon and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's a beautiful day here in Cleveland, Ohio on this Friday, September 26th.

My name is Dan Hampu, and I'm the president and CEO of the Burton De Morgan Foundation.

And I'm pleased and honored to introduce today's forum, the Burton De Morgan Foundation Forum on Entrepreneurship.

These days, it seems like becoming an entrepreneur is both easier and riskier than ever.

Things are moving incredibly fast, and new technologies like artificial intelligence are disrupting everything.

You could say that today's entrepreneurial ecosystem is nothing like that of the past.

Our speaker today, Kumar Aurora, is an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and consultant behind many startups and businesses brands that you probably have heard of, including Future Land, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and numerous other fortune 500 companies.

His parent company, Aurora ventures, provides resources, investment and consulting services to early stage and mid-sized businesses.

Kumar is known for consistently pushing the envelope on design and innovation, and much of his work centers on the idea of creating novel products, building teams, and scaling brands.

His concentration lies in a variety of different industries, including consumer brands, entertainment, packaged goods, product development, marketing, and design.

A question to ponder today is what can we learn from those who know what it takes to build companies, take things to success and improve communities.

Leading this conversation will be Joe Black, senior program officer for place based community and economic development at the Cleveland Foundation.

Joe has spent his career as a deeply committed community organizer and philanthropy professional, with experience leveraging both public and private resources to the benefit of communities in Greater Cleveland.

A reminder for our live stream and radio audience.

If you have a question during our Q&A portion of the forum today, you can text it to (330)541-5794.

Again, (330)541-5794 and city Club staff will try to incorporate it into the program.

So now members and friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please help me and join welcoming Kumar, Aurora and Joe Black.

So Kumar, it's great to be here with you today.

Glad to be here.

I, I have the opportunity not just to come here as a professional, but I get to come here as your friend.

And so those of you who know me know that I am all about relationships.

I believe that proximity is the core to how we make change.

And while we're here to talk about entrepreneurship, both the good, the bad, the challenges in the future, we also know the relationships make a difference.

So knowing as a friend, I want to start with something completely out of bounds from what we'll traditionally talk about.

I'm going personal here real quick to kick us off.

Okay.

So let's get a chance to know Kumar.

Let's get a chance to dive a little deeper.

So your first question, the first thing that I want to know is you're here today, and we talk about childhood memories.

But what childhood memory stands out to you most clearly as a testament to who you are now?

So I only get to pick one.

Take as many as you want.

Is your day growing up in Little Italy?

Just a little Indian boy running around around Holy Rosary.

And that that whole street was such a unique experience for me.

My parents are, you know, have the the classic immigrant story coming here from nothing.

But for me, being able to see what my parents had to do to really thrive and really survive here in Cleveland, provided me such a great, humbling experience.

My my father was a scientist at Case Western.

My mom, went to art school in India.

So for me, I was doing a little bit of both left brain, right brain going, you know, with my dad to the lab while coming home to draw with my mom, you know, and little did they know, they probably didn't realize whether it's science or art, you're always creating.

So I think those are my earliest childhood memories with them.

And I think that's honestly where it how I ended up being an entrepreneur.

That's so amazing to hear.

I find so much value in the notion that you're able to merge creativity and business, and it's brought you a long way.

There's a number of things that you've done, and as we even shared in your introduction, is connected to you and the work that you're doing for our city.

But tell us a little bit more about your background.

What got you started as an entrepreneur?

There are certain milestones that got me to where I am as an entrepreneur, and some of the earliest memories that I have was early in college.

It was 2008 or during the recession.

I remember going to my advisor saying, I can't find a job anywhere.

It's the worst time.

And she said, if you can't find a job, you need to make one.

Little did I know, I was already had the puzzle pieces the time because I was, involved with graphic design.

I was supporting clients.

I was already relatively entrepreneurial, but we didn't see we didn't have YouTube at the time.

We didn't have, the resources.

Most colleges didn't even offer those programs, you know?

So for me, it was those early beginnings of the by product of, you know, what happened during the recession to say, you know, I have to create something.

And little did I know, I had my first exit with my agency.

In 2010, and I just never stopped building after that.

So not premed.

You you went the entrepreneur route.

That's what I look.

I look the part, but now I, I, switched from premed to to business.

Wonderful, wonderful.

So moving on.

I really want to dive deep into Aurora ventures.

Like, what inspired you to create that organization in business?

And what's the bigger picture of your work?

So Aurora ventures serves as my parent company.

It's where I get to play in my sandbox.

It serves as a mixture of, a venture studio where I can create and build my own brands and projects, but at the same time can invest in fellow entrepreneurs that I believe in.

Much of my work is built around building teams moments and experiences.

So whether it's my restaurant, Sora downtown, or my clothing brand LFI, it's all about creating those memorable moments through products and design.

I've been fortunate to now have done this for about 20 years.

Officially.

It took a long time to get here.

Tell us more.

So when you think about those moments, what what memories stand out about what were those times where you got over a hump or overcame a challenge?

Tell us about those memories that allowed you to take those very different business opportunities, but all very meaningful and connected to you.

I'm one that likes to invest and build and things are very disruptive.

I think that's kind of the nature of who I am.

It's part of my DNA, is to try to prove people wrong in some ways, and at the same time, when it comes to those those memories, right.

Entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey, right?

And I think over time, I've learned that it doesn't always have to be lonely.

It doesn't always have to be built on basement.

You could do with your friends.

You could do with your communities.

You can do it in such a way where it's about building teams.

And I think that's what's been so memorable for me, is all the great people I've met along the way and the impact we been able to do, whether it's job creation, supporting our communities or just giving back.

Okay, that's really amazing to hear all those different nuances to the work that you do.

So you talk about Cleveland, I know you're completely committed to our community.

You've spent some time away.

You came back.

Why is it important for you to tie your work and investment into our city?

Like, what is it about Cleveland that allows you to really plant your flag here?

You know, when I look at Cleveland, I truly believe and going back to the story of Little Italy, Cleveland raised me.

It raised all of us.

And I think that for for that, you know, origin story of of how we've all came here, how we're all together, even in this room.

For me, I feel that whether it's, building something here in your backyard or finding ways to give back, that is super, super important.

It's not just about building a business to make money, but it's about building a business that can really support the community around you.

And I think that's been kind of the backbone of a lot of my investments.

And just, you know what?

What I'm passionate about one.

So I want to get into the weeds a bit.

We got to talk tactics.

We got to talk some of your experiences.

We have young members in the audience who can really learn from your experiences as an entrepreneur.

So can you share some of your most recent investments and walk us through your thought process for evaluating those opportunities?

Yes.

So some of my more recent investments within Aurora ventures, I backed, Cleveland Kitchen, great, phenomenal founders through a mac Anderson.

I loved everything they were doing.

They brought manufacturing back to Cleveland.

They've got the number one kimchi kimchi in the in grocery right now.

For me, that is exactly who I am as I'm looking to find those entrepreneurs that I can support and back and really find a way to get them to scale, you know, and for us as, a community, when we support those entrepreneurs and we build with them, it's it's an opportunity to not necessarily just, again, do it for your own gain.

But how can we foster that, you know, community around it to gotcha, gotcha.

So again I'm going to push here.

I'm looking to understand like tactics.

Talk to me about what do you use, what tactics do you use to create a successful business.

For example, do you prefer to look at the bigger picture, or do you spend more time early on focusing on the details?

So I walk us through some of your early thinking and approaches to to being an entrepreneur.

You know, there's there's an opportunity to look at the macro or the micro.

And I often tell people when they're thinking about a business plan or they're thinking about just taking that leap of faith.

You know, you want to focus on the macro first, because if you get caught in the details, you might not ever launch.

So I tend to find myself thinking about the bigger picture, right?

The market, the business plan, how it's going to happen.

But then as you start to build, you get into the micro, the weeds.

Right?

And I think that's the best approach.

If you go into the details first, you can't sometimes always see up top the aerial view.

I hear you talking to me in fourth grade when I thought I was going to start a business and I said, oh yeah, I'm going to sell candy.

And my big picture was to be rich.

But I didn't get into the detail.

So it needs the money.

Will come later.

Okay.

Okay, okay.

I'm better at it now, but my fourth grade self needed to hear that.

So it's really amazing to think about success.

And I know that's a part of your journey and what you wanted to speak on today.

But we know what we really learn is some of the things that we learn from our failures.

And so I want to spend a little time talking about like, what have you learned over this journey?

Because I'm sure not every business has been successful.

Oh no, I'm sure there's been bumps along the road.

So what's been the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?

There are so many, right.

That's that's part of entrepreneurship.

It's those battle scars that you carry in hopes that you can get right back up and and get back into that fight.

I brought some, some, tokens, my graveyard with me of past businesses that have failed.

You know, if you ask me about 6 or 7 years ago about my past, I probably wouldn't want to talk about it.

But I think that, as I've grown as an entrepreneur, it's it's an opportunity to reflect.

It's an opportunity to be vulnerable, to say, you know, not everything always works.

But it's there's life lessons with each one to only become better.

In the case of some of my examples, I brought, a failed project called Trust Foods, which was a cereal I worked on.

During Covid, it was completely made out of egg whites, dehydrated egg whites.

I was I had this vision that we could start, you know, live a healthier lifestyle because of the pandemic.

So I created a product that had only nine ingredients right on the front of the box, and we went into retail.

But the avian flu happened, and I could not control it.

You know, and sometimes there are just things in this world, that can stop you in your tracks.

You know, that doesn't mean you need to give up.

You just need to rethink how you do it.

Another great example, old city soda.

I made that investment exactly almost ten years ago.

The manufacturer here in Cleveland.

And I love the story I did on a TV show called Cleveland Hustles.

It was on CNBC, and, it was one of LeBron's shows.

I was the shark on that show.

And, you know, that was that was a tough one, you know, to make an investment.

But it never got to see the light of day.

So when I look back on my graveyard, I think about not only how hard it was to get here, but I have to remember that this was my MBA to some degree into wrestling.

And I think failure plays such a unique role in the things that we want to accomplish.

So here's a little personal bit from me.

I know this is about you, but for those of you who take it away, should I take this?

Rah rah rah.

I just admire what it takes the resiliency to grow from these moments and really learn and build and change from mistakes.

So I'm curious, as you think about some of the things that either you couldn't control or they didn't get off the ground for one reason.

What did you learn?

Talk about what you learned, how that's changing, how you operate today?

You know, I think that with every failure, there's this time for reflection on yourself, and it's easy to blame yourself.

But at the same time, there's so many variables that come into play.

And what's really important is how you have the elasticity to bounce right back.

Right.

I think that, and we could talk about Michael Jordan, all the shots you didn't make.

Right.

But I think that's that's part of the journey.

We will always see the successes on Instagram.

We will see them at the end of the journey.

Right.

But it's so many of those battle scars that I refer to the failures.

Right.

That led us to that point.

And I think that's really important to acknowledge through the process because again, it is a learning lesson, but you have to make sure you can bounce right back.

If you can't, that's when you dwell too long.

And I think that's something I'm pretty good at.

I've gotten better at it is that I can't sit too long on the same place because I have to keep moving forward.

That's so.

Going back to some of your early comments.

You talk about, you know, your father being a scientist and your mother with the arts.

So there's this unique balance of creativity that you have.

I'm curious how you balance both of those things.

We talked about it a little bit, but I want to go a little deeper in balancing your creative side that may want to venture off and do all these magnificent things in your business side that wants to be really specific and strategic and have a plan with it.

Tell me about it.

So I'm going to call you out because I don't like that question.

I'm going to tell you why I don't like it.

Why does creativity and business have to be separated?

Why do we need to balance, and why can't they be together?

Right.

There's a, age old theory about being a polymath, right?

In some ways, in my case, as a serial entrepreneur, I never want to stop creating.

But to be a creator, you have to be creative, right?

In some ways, I also have to commercialize it.

If you look back at history during the industrial age, we were trying to just manufacture the same thing and create repetition.

I don't believe in that at all.

I believe that we need to think on all that we can be doing right.

So it's okay to design, manufacture, do sales.

I, I'm a believer that we can do more than one thing.

And if you go back to the industrial age and even keep going our colleges.

No offense to those who here are, on behalf of a college, we are telling people that you need to be a specialist and only do one thing right.

I mean, even going back to that, growing up, all of us easily heard the phrase, what do you want to be when you grow up?

I don't believe in that at all.

The true answer I'm gonna repeat a couple times is what all can you be while you're growing up?

Right?

What all can you be while you're growing up?

When I talk about this subject to a few folks, they're like, this is crazy.

You know, you're supposed to just do one thing.

You're supposed to get your 10,000 hours, right?

But I believe that we should be living a life full of learning, full of everything to mix creative and business.

Right.

And we can see this in clear examples, right.

Leonardo da Vinci, going from a painter sculptor to inventing the helicopter.

Right.

Or so many examples of philanthropists who can also do business too.

And I believe that we should all lead that kind of lifestyle.

That's the most fulfilling way to, you know, live a great life.

I think that you can be a chef and a chemist, much like my dad.

Right?

You you still need to work with ingredients.

You can be a videographer, but also have the love for They both require rhythm.

You could be an attorney, but you can also be a great mother.

You still gotta lay down the law, right?

So there are still principles between all of them, right?

I think that when you lead a life like that, it is so much more fulfilling.

So to you, back to your question.

Creativity and business don't have to be balanced separately.

They can be together.

Wonderful.

Thank you for that.

I think that's an amazing answer.

And it leans into like some of the things that guide your business practices.

And so I want to dive into that for a minute.

When you when you think about yourself as a young entrepreneur and you're trying to give both yourself advice in the past and those who are in this audience, what beliefs kind of guide your decision making as an entrepreneur?

You know, I think that, there's this really great, that when Steve Jobs was he spoke at a commencement, he said, stay foolish, right?

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

And I love that phrase.

And I look up to the work that he has done.

But I think that we have now entered a new, a new timeline with AI and all that stuff.

And I think now it's about staying focused and staying creative.

Right.

I think that that's something I want to give back to every entrepreneur, is that we have to be much more focused than ever.

There are more distractions in this world that we didn't have.

When he said that at that commencement speech.

But more importantly, we have to stay creative.

I think that that's been a lost art to some degree.

Again, the industrial age has really pushed away creativity.

But when I look at the greatest entrepreneurs today, they are so creative, right?

We need to empower that.

So stay creative, stay focused.

Is there a way to practice creativity?

I think so, you know, creativity comes in all forms.

You know, I think even being a great storyteller or a poet, right, could could be applicable to business.

I think that engineers can start thinking about how art is used in their craft.

I think that's an important, segue into finding a way to be creative.

And when you think about the time of the Renaissance, we encourage philosophy, science, art and math all intertwined in one.

And at some point it just became more normal to just stick to one thing.

So I think that when it comes to creativity, find what's passionate to you, find the things that you enjoy and unleash it because it will compliment all that you do.

And I'm fortunate that I get to do that on a daily basis.

There are times where I'm saying in Photoshop, graphic designing, and I've been doing that for 30 years.

I still get to do that today for the packaging and the the projects that I work on.

But at the same time, I still get to weave those designs into an Excel file or into a pitch stack.

So we've talked about this in a number of scenarios, and I just wanted to bring it back to this conversation.

We know that there is in this world of AI and technology, there's also a lot of concerns about your information being stolen.

Your idea is being stolen.

Can you give us some some of your thinking about how do you protect your ideas?

How do you protect your creativity and your your business strategies?

That's important.

You know, we don't talk about, protection with IP and the work that we do.

Enough.

I actually just led a workshop a couple of weeks ago for a project.

I was one of the lead artists for a project called Transformative Arts Fund here in Cleveland.

And I did a, seminar workshop when did some more.

And our focus was on how we can protect our artists and how we can mobilize them to start thinking about protecting their work and having it live on beyond them.

It's super important to think about slogans, trademarks, protecting getting your domains early that that is now a new part of how we protect our work when it comes to even finding business partners or pitching your project, you want to make sure that you are protected before you start.

In my case, you know, I, I'm so grateful that I've learned to utilize how, attorneys can support you, you know, and I think that you want to make sure you're doing the due diligence ahead of time.

No different from how you would be working on a business plan.

So as you look at your businesses, what's next for Kumar?

Let's let's talk about some of the things that you're able to share, at least what's what's on the horizon.

What are some of the things you're looking forward to?

You know, oftentimes I think business gets a bad rap because it's all about greed and money.

But I think that the one thing that I really want to push for the next decade is that social entrepreneurship, social impact can be intertwined with business.

It's not just about the work that I'm doing to give back to my community, but how can we mobilize more entrepreneurs to think about that right?

Building in your backyard, supporting your community, but also finding ways to create things that can benefit all the the idea of what I have at Aurora ventures is I'm just planting the seeds for one day they will become flowers and hopefully trees that the next generation can lean on.

So yeah, clapping up on.

So I got a couple more questions before we transition to the audience, because I want to give people the opportunity to, you know, really pick your brain.

Sure.

So leadership is an ongoing skill.

It takes ongoing development and growth.

What what books are on yourself are begging to be read right now.

So I've got two, two good ones for you guys.

One that I've not finished.

I've been trying the hardest.

And it's, it's in my kitchen.

It's called The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky.

He is the creator of Behance.

He ended up selling that company to Adobe.

And I think now he is the chief program officer at Adobe.

Phenomenal book.

And he talks about the messy middle.

It is so much fun to talk about the grand opening when a company IPO was the beginning and the end.

Right.

The exit.

But we don't talk about the messy middle.

I'd like to say I'm in the messy middle right now, but that's an important topic on how you can think through where you need to go.

We've all seen that graph in entrepreneurship, where it's that line that goes all over the place.

It's that part of the middle that's actually the most important.

That's where you get the battle scars.

That's where you learn about all the real things that we don't get to talk about or publicize, you know?

So to me, that's a great book so far, I love it.

Another great book that I actually give to all of my staff and employees.

It's, the Book of Five Rings.

It's by Miyamoto Musashi.

It's a book that I got, early on in high school, and I've kind of found this book along a long time.

But it's it's a book on, Miyamoto's, strategy on how to wield a sword.

Right.

And this is written in the 1400s.

But it is the thesis, to some degree, of how I live my life.

It's also how every business man should think through strategy, timing.

It's very poetic to some degree, because it doesn't actually talk about business, but it talks about philosophies that are so similar.

So I think in my past life, maybe I was a samurai because that book keeps coming back to me.

And, it's something that I give to every employee that I'm in with one.

All right.

And so that's where preparing to close and get ready for audience questions.

What's something you would like to do more of?

Time is so valuable.

What is something if you had unlimited time or could do something differently, what would you do more of?

My wife will agree to this.

I have this problem where I'm a futurist, so my mind is a year ahead of my body and they're often very separated.

So when I'm here, I'm thinking about something in the future, I have to find a way to get back to the present, because I'm always kind of either worried or working towards something.

But sometimes it's okay just to be in the present, in the moment.

Agree.

So I need to do more of that.

All right.

If we could give a round of applause for Kumar as he's shared his stories.

We're about to begin the audience Q&A.

For those of you just joining us for our live stream and for our radio audience, I'm Dan Moulthrop and the chief executive here at the City Club.

I'm so glad all of you were here with us today.

As you heard, we're joined by Kumar Aurora, entrepreneur and investor.

He's here as part of the Burton De Morgan Forum on Entrepreneurship.

Moderating our conversation today is Joseph Black, senior program officer for place based community and economic development at the Cleveland Foundation.

We welcome questions from everyone City Club members, guests, and especially students and those of you joining us via our live stream at City club.org, or a live radio broadcast at 89.7 KSU ideas stream public media.

If you'd like to text a question for Kumar, please text it to 3305715415794.

That's (330)541-5794.

We'll try to work it into the program on your behalf.

May we have our first question, please, sir?

Kumar, Rich Rivera of Midtown Tech and Digital C you've been there in panel discussions.

First thing is, I want to address the digital CS mission.

When I saw dream it, build it, grow it all, we built a citywide network for the city of Cleveland, $18 a month.

Internet for our scholars, and to schools completely free.

We also, grew it.

We have over 6000 now subscribers coming up on 7000.

And you know, my dream and and you being from India or your parents is, there's still a lot of disparities and a lot of our, neighborhoods, especially on the East side, which, we love community of children that really don't get to dream.

Because you said everything is about energy, right?

And creativity starts with, you know, the first, first seven years of your life.

Imagine theta State.

So you're downloading programs.

So we feel in communities that we haven't invested in.

And what are they downloading and how do you try to give back.

Because it takes everyone here to really change the city.

It's not just me.

I serve people.

That's my title.

I serve anybody.

But the East Side needs to be served.

And so you have a restaurant.

And my question to you is, I believe that everything is energy.

So on to quantum physics.

Quantum mechanics, what you get, the universe reciprocates back in your life, right?

The highest laws, divine love.

We have many city leaders that I feel are more self-interest instead of community.

How do you find a way to give back to say, the working with the least of people?

Because that's the work that digital see, we're in neighborhoods that probably no one go into, but we're there with our heart and with our.

So how do you find a way to give back and to fulfill your your journey?

First of all, I'm actually very familiar with Digital Sea.

I was involved with the 6000 subscribers.

We we love some care packages for those folks.

So amazing work that you guys are doing.

It's very integral and important to our city.

I think when it comes to having a business that serves your community, but also finding ways to, be have that self-interest is just important for all entrepreneurs to be reminded that we got here for a reason, and we have to make sure we're recycling back to the community, right?

In my case, on not all businesses can have, that they could be a social enterprise, but they cannot.

They have not they cannot allow themselves to get caught into a silo.

Right.

So when you're when you're pursuing business and this applies to entrepreneurs, just think about how you can support your community, whether that's your consumer or your your your local neighborhoods.

And in the case of what I've been able to do this past year in the Huff neighbor in a few different places was we worked on various murals and supporting artists through the Transform Arts Fund, and I'm very fortunate that 85% of the funds that we were that we received went right back to artists hands and, small businesses this year, giving back is really critical.

Yeah.

I Kumar, Hardik Desai with, Jumpstart Ventures.

In your entrepreneurial Ventures journey, what has been your experience engaging with the business and the corporate community, and what more would you like to see from them?

That's a great question.

I think that now that I've been back for the last few years, post-pandemic, the biggest thing that I've noticed since I've left in, you know, mid, 2000 was that, collaboration is important, right?

We need to support our local startup founders the same way we support our local athletes and our local coffee shops.

Right?

We have to love them the same way, right?

We need to know who they are.

And I say this about artists.

I said about creatives.

I see entrepreneurs.

We need to know who they are and we need to, to some degree, put them on a pedestal because if we don't, they'll move away like I did.

And it was very unfortunate I had to move, move away.

But I do think that that's something we all can change.

Corporate companies, nonprofits, various organizations can be supporting this ecosystem of entrepreneurs because that's how innovation will thrive.

And that's the same way that community can actually help, you know, again, build in our backyard.

Hi, Calma.

Hi, Renee Rashad, president and CEO of Corporate College, a division of Tri-C.

One, thank you so much for all you do for the entrepreneurs in the city.

It's amazing the way you give back.

So thank you for that.

I thought it was really interesting that you brought props from your businesses that weren't successful, because we definitely need to learn from those mistakes and be able to be proud that we kept going after we had these mistakes.

So I heard you say about the product with the eggs, that timing was a problem in that the avian flu, a bird flu or whatever caused that.

So I wonder with projects that didn't succeed at the moment, in the moment, is there an opportunity to revisit those products?

Have you thought about that or how to do we just say once we failed on something, it's gone and we're never coming back to that again?

I'd like to say I'm still early enough in my entrepreneur career to go back to the drawing drawing board and look at my past to see if something could be revived.

But, you know, I definitely think that you can take parts of the past to, to rebuild for the future.

I would love to find ways to, think through the market and if they can come back, they will for sure.

And I think maybe costs might change or an environment may change.

But I also have to ask myself, am I ready to try again on the same thing that, you know, was considered a battle scar?

I have not done that yet.

But that's not that's not too far fetched to say, and I encourage anyone to, to consider that, you know, you don't always have to let something go completely, but maybe the parts can become the future in the case of CPG or, or products.

I definitely think that they can that that knowledge is important, that stays with you, even if the business may falter.

I think that can be, you know, use for the future.

Hi.

I'm Karis from Cleveland Early College high School.

You mentioned, failure earlier, and I wanted to know, like, because you were saying, like, it's something like that always happens, like, so what was your motivation to keep going?

Because a lot of people, they fail and they're like, never again.

And then they like, go and they end up dying without pursuing their actual dreams in their goals.

So what was the motivation or the, drive to keep trying and trying and trying?

Yeah.

I think I'm Kirst.

I think, sure.

Entrepreneurs are curse.

I think that we cannot stop thinking about what's the next thing to build or create.

For me, I think that it's one of those things I have to find a way to turn off at times, but I think that's what it is.

That's something that I. I just have in me.

I think that human nature is built that way, is that we're always trying to move forward, or we're constantly thinking we are.

We have that that gift to be able to continue, thinking.

And I think that for me, every time there is a failure, I want to get back up and see how I can tinker again and try again.

That's an important aspect to think about because, you know, you've got a long way to go, right?

So you don't want to dwell too long on, on, on a failure.

In fact, you should assume that I will fail.

But the question is, how will I get back up?

I, Kumar, Scott Spicer with PNC Bank, what you just said I should kind of a segue into what I was going to ask you.

I was with Kumar, during leadership.

Cleveland now sitting right next to him, and he got a text and, it was a social media post that he saw that was being critical of you.

And you read it to me.

And it was I thought it was just a completely ridiculous comment, especially given all you've done to help people give back to the community.

But, I mean, that stuff's out there, especially in this day and age.

I mean, how does that kind of stuff, motivate you, or does it help you teach others?

I mean, how did how does that help you or how do you react to that kind of stuff?

I think, you know, in my work, in my line of work, I at least through CNBC and, I've been in the media, I've been in the public.

So, you know, there's often comments and whatnot.

I think it's just one of those things that you have to just take it and either look at it as something that's real or something that's just feedback.

Right.

And that could even be an upset customer.

Right.

In any, in any facet.

So for me, I can't again dwell on it too long because if I do, I might get caught up in things that aren't necessarily important.

We will all face criticisms.

In fact, entrepreneurs will always face the most criticism because we are the ones that are crazy.

And that's okay.

I'm all right with it.

I think that again, going back to why I might be cursed, it is what I'm here to do in this world.

I'm Azaria from, Cleveland Early College.

What was the most difficult thing that you had to, like, achieve?

Like, while making your business?

Most people will assume that achievement is is a monetary number or a certain goal.

You must me and I don't look at it that way.

I look at is the people that I get to work with and the dreams that I have.

I think that for me, I'm still working towards that, and I have to remind myself that I've got a long journey to go, hopefully in there 20, 30 years of business and entrepreneurship, especially in again going back to, community work.

And I think for me, I'm just trying to work towards the guy I want to become, much like many of you, you know, work towards your future self.

That is to me what I'm striving for.

And that to me is like the goal for achievement.

Hi, I'm Adrian Steam and I'm with Stage Light Company.

Tomorrow.

I had a question.

We spent a little bit of time on what you can learn from failure, but you can also learn a lot from success.

So what are some things you've learned from your successes, and how do you define success?

As somebody who's been successful, often that's a good one.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, we often keep our heads down right.

We are so deep in our work, building something, creating a moment.

It's really hard sometimes to look up and see what you've done.

I have to do a better job of acknowledging those milestones, but I get those moments through that journey right.

We recently just did MSK today, which was a charity festival.

Colson is a great friend of ours, and I've been able to watch his career going from small shows of 50 people now to stadiums of 30,000.

When I get to see that journey along the way and then that milestone, that is how I feel that fulfillment to keep going, right?

Similarly, a couple of years ago, I got a chance to go to the white House, to represent Cleveland and specifically Ohio, to meet with VP Kamala Harris.

And it was such an eye opening experience, but I didn't feel it until the day after.

Right.

Oftentimes, again, you will keep your head down building something right, but you don't know it until you see the aftermath or the the effects after.

So that is what I try to remind myself, is seeing those tangible videos or photos or just, you know, again, positive comments go a long way and I carry those memories.

And that to me is the most fulfilling thing in business.

I feel hi, Kumar.

Hi, Joe, it's great to see you both.

My name is Ruthie and I am new in my entrepreneurial journey, so I'm just curious, when you meet with people, potential businesses to invest in or just business partners, like, what are some green flags that you recognize?

Green flags.

That's a good one.

Everyone wants to know about the red flags, right?

Green flags, you know, at the time and even looking back at some of my investments, I often would look at the product.

Right.

Is that that I saw that I thought that was the light bulb is the product or the business is unique.

It's different.

It's, got legs to it.

But I've now begun to learn that it's not just the light bulb, but it's the person who turns it on.

The operator is just as important.

So for me, a green flag is does the operator carry the same values I do?

Do they want to help other people?

Do they want to help their community?

Will they be there?

You know, first one in the office, last one there too.

You know, those those values that you carry as an entrepreneur or a founder are so important because I know it might not work on this one, but we'll work on a future one.

And I think that's been a new learning, thing for me is that, again, not the light bulb, but the person who turns it on is very important.

Hi, my name is Elizabeth.

I had a bit of a different question.

You mentioned your college or university didn't have any serious focus on entrepreneurship, and I think that's still true today.

Like, very rarely do you find a university with like an entrepreneurship degree or anything like that.

Do you think there's value in pushing academic institutions to focus more on that, or should entrepreneurship kind of stay outside of the traditional k-through-12 higher learning path going forward?

That's a great question.

You know, we're entering this time where I think a lot of universities have to think through, how do we provide resources and education for this next generation of young folks?

I would love to see more entrepreneurship opportunities, but at the same time, it's not just about learning it from a book, but also application.

Right?

So I think that's equally as important as how can we find a way where entrepreneurs can be successful.

And during undergraduate, you know, their undergraduate career, and have the ability to use what they know because it's such a hands on, you know, business.

And I think that's, that's going to be the forefront of what we need to see colleges do Good afternoon.

My name is Chris House.

I am a serial entrepreneur as well.

And so thank you for coming.

I have a couple questions here.

And I'll make this brief.

One is, you know, you spoke about during your, fireside chat here that, you need to be creative, right?

And then I hear some thoughts as far as you need to be focused.

And then they bring up, you know, blue ocean strategies, right?

And so, I come from a culture where maybe, my uncle, he had a dry cleaner and didn't he did nail salon, maybe a massage and maybe copiers.

Right.

And so how do you hone in on all of those different creative ideas and strategies and hustles or businesses or whatever, and then create an ecosystem for that creative community that you talk about, especially in this region, you know, creativity and what you're pursuing, right?

That's a passion.

And I think that to some degree, when I go back to that analogy of what do you want to be when you grow up?

And that's how that's wrong.

It's what all can you be while you're growing up?

I think that as we get older, we change, right?

We can have more than one love in our life, right?

And I think that as we're growing up and as we're changing, we are thinking about new things that the community may need or that we need for our, say, our families.

And I think that as you kind of go to that journey, there are chapters, and we see that today, you know, you could be an actor singer and then you move into, you know, maybe real estate, you move into philanthropy.

I think that's okay to have those various chapters.

And we need to encourage that.

Right?

Maybe it didn't work in one of your examples, but I think that as time goes on, you're going to look back and be like, I led a much more fulfilling life, even if it wasn't how it panned out, because I learned so much from it.

And you will only see that after it's happened, not in the moment.

And I think that's really important.

And I think, again, what I why I'm here is that for Cleveland and for all of us, we need to encourage that kind of behavior of, again, being a polymath.

Hi.

I'm Samantha from Youth Opportunities Unlimited, and we work with a lot of young people trying to, create economic success for them.

What would be one word of advice that you could give to a young person?

In their early working career, when you're younger, it is so much easier to learn stuff.

I think as time goes on, it just becomes harder with life and taxes and kids.

It just becomes, more of a difficulty to just be obsessed with learning.

I look back on my time of 1314, you know, learning how to make websites, trying to build robots and all this fun stuff.

I was just always curious, right?

Again, we always say stay focused, stay curious.

I think that when I look at the next generation and, you know, the advent of AI and all these exciting things happening, get deep on this stuff.

Have fun.

This is no different from us 25 years ago.

Just learning how to start up AOL Instant Messenger and get your email address.

It was a very exciting time for us.

I think that kids these days really should, you know, dive in all the way because you are just so ready to learn.

And it does get tougher as time goes on.

I'm sure many of you now, Is there, like, something that stuck with you, like, whether it was a choice or just something that happened that you would change, or maybe you would have, like, added upon what that decision?

Yeah.

You know, I think that we often think about things that we may regret, but, you know, here I am bringing my graveyard for that reason is, I think, maybe the last decade or so, I would have been more, vocal, that, you know, these things happened, but I think, I can't take those away.

Right.

You need those, chapters in your life.

Not everyone can be a good chapter, right?

Because you have to look back on them, and you'll soon one day get to look back on your journey as well, you know, so you don't want to change your story, right?

So for me, I don't know if I'd want to, but I think I it's time to be more vocal about those things, and I will spend as much time talking about the failures more than the wind, because that's something we all need to talk about.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yeah.

It's 2030.

Have this small company.

I have this idea.

What is it that you're going to invest in?

That, again, is 2030.

Is 2030 all right.

Five years out now.

All right.

So what is it you're going to invest in?

That's a great question.

You know, right now much of my work has been focused around, you know, building brands, things that you can consume, eat, wear, touch, attend.

Right.

But I think that I'm, I start to pull back on those things.

I think that past investments are really important right now.

And, you know, I'm really curious about all the work that Cleveland Clinic is doing.

And, like, I think that it's time maybe we start thinking about, startups and investments in the health space, you know, we I say this a lot.

We are the medical capital of the world, right?

I'll say that again.

We are the medical capital of the world.

So where are our startups and where our businesses support that?

Right?

How can we be doing more in that space?

So that is definitely something that, you know, makes me curious.

I think my my parents will be very proud if I move in that space, but that's something I'm definitely curious about in the next decade or so.

All right.

Thank you.

Josh, for seeing Jump Start Ventures.

This somewhat relates to this last question here.

Just as you look at the next few chapters of your life and what you want to accomplish, how do you how do you look to balance maybe the social impact missions that you may have going forward with more of the traditional high growth expectations of of creating a business?

Yeah, I mean, I think that when it comes to social entrepreneurship and thinking about growth, sometimes they can't be hand at hand.

Right?

Because at one aspect, you're thinking about how this business can support a local community, right?

At the same time, how can you scale for growth?

I think that they can kind of, again, be intertwined.

Perfect example.

We have a clothing brand called LV stands for.

I'd love to help you.

That's the acronym.

Our job is to make sure that through the community, donations from the apparel, it's not just about wearing good, but it's about feeling good.

I believe that model can be scaled far beyond Ohio and can be utilized across, our country.

And we've able to do that with partnerships with Atlanta Hawks, Cheez-It, and a lot of great national brands.

I think that social entrepreneurship is still relatively young in our founders, I think, should adopt that early on, because I think that's how you effectively build communities and to some degree, that cult following that you need.

Hello.

We have a text question.

Could you talk more specifically about what role you take on in these companies?

Your restaurant, the clothing company?

Are you an investor or advisor, executive fundraiser?

You know, my portfolio is pretty wide and varied.

And some that I'm much more active in the case of more of my local investments with future land and health.

I'm much more hands on and more active, but I do have a passive portfolio as well.

It really just comes, you know, comes into play of what I need to work on at the moment.

There are times where I've got great CEOs in operating partners.

Other times I, you know, take the take the helm.

And I think that it's been kind of fun to play both sides through entrepreneurship has kind of led me into that path of being an advisor, or a consultant.

But my work overall has been being in the weeds.

Being an entrepreneur at all times.

So whether I'm a entrepreneur or a strategic partners always about finding ways to still keep that mindset of of being an entrepreneur.

My name is designer.

And what resources do you have to become an entrepreneur?

What resources do I have?

You know, I think that Cleveland still has a long way to go when it comes to fostering and, you know, building our, you know, local entrepreneurial system.

We've got great groups like Jumpstart who are here, Burton De Morgan.

There's a lot of great, organizations that are here to support.

Cozy is another great one.

I didn't know that in my early 20s.

You know, I had to again be not only self-taught, but also do it, alone.

And I think that nowadays I'm really encouraging entrepreneurs to venture out, meet new people and network, find those grants, find those opportunities, because that's exactly how you can expose yourself to, again, build things with teams.

We have another text question.

Let's talk AI.

How are you making use of it?

Gosh, how am I not taking advantage of?

I think at this point we're all using it to some degree.

Especially on the commercial side with your design and messaging, right, as a learning model.

But, you know, I'm really curious about where things are going to go.

I think to some degree, we all don't know where it's going to go, and that's exciting for us.

We need to embrace it.

But I'm using it in a variety of ways from, you know, graphic design to Firefly to, obviously the basics with ChatGPT.

I've been playing around with 11 labs on, you know, the audio development.

And so it's one of those things I think we all need to start paying attention to and finding ways that it can we could use it to leverage, and learn from.

I'm really curious about notebook LM and how you can feed the model to teach you things.

So, you know, something I'm very passionate about is programing and design.

I'd love to have notebook alum teach me the things I need to know.

And I think that that could become a new a new way to, for young folks and all of us to start learning.

Hello.

This is a text question.

Do you work to reach the mom and pop or one man businesses that has the creative side down, but is struggling to build a functional business?

How does a knowledgeable investor reach those people without being taken advantage of?

You know, mom and pop businesses, again, are the backbones of so many of our neighborhoods.

It's really important to not only support and protect them, but find ways to to give them those resources.

That could be something as simple as consulting and advising.

But you should never take away the soul or the essence.

You know, when we talk about our favorite businesses, even from 5000 years ago, they have such great origin stories.

And to me, as someone who likes to get involved with them, whether it's consulting, marketing or investment, you really want to make sure the essence stays there.

Hi, my name is Amanda.

I'm also with Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

We do youth workforce development.

And we hear from a lot of our youth that they're interested in entrepreneurship.

And a lot of our young people are also looking online for tips about, you know, their potential career journey or maybe how to get started in the entrepreneurial space.

But I think we all know that there's a great, you know, there's a lot of good information online, but there's also a lot of bad information online.

So what advice would you give to young people who are maybe on TikTok, on YouTube, listening to people who are like, here are my five tips for being a good entrepreneur.

How do they figure out what's good and maybe what's not?

So good to be listening to?

You know, in this day and age, when I talk about staying focused, that's exactly why I said it, because there is oftentimes a lot of clutter.

Sometimes the information might not even be accurate.

Right.

Because AI is just generating, you know, the output when it comes to your own passions.

Right?

Or which could lead you to entrepreneurship.

It's actually kind of a very simple formula.

I encourage you all to consider it.

If you're thinking about business, and we're going to label them as variable A and variable B, variable A is the things you loved as a child, right?

The innocence you have at a young age of the things that you grew up with, that could be something as simple as video games or Legos, right?

What did you do?

Where you building something?

Were you enjoying something?

I think there's there's an aspect of who we were at.

Someone had said, you know, for the first seven years of your life, that's a really important part, right?

That's in some ways where your passion lies or your interests.

And then B variable B is the things the skill sets, those hard skills.

You may have learned along the way.

Sometimes I found that if you just tie A and B together, you got yourself a potential first start, right?

And I say that to every budding entrepreneurs.

If you find something you love that you're passionate about, and you find skills that you've learned along the way, maybe in high school or college and so on, you probably have yourself at the beginning of a small business.

You don't necessarily need to go to YouTube for that, right?

If you love dogs and you love to be authentic, maybe a dog walking business could be a great first start for a high schooler, right?

And you don't need to overthink it because there's two variables that you love, and it is kind of a little easier to do it that way.

And I encourage everyone to think about that too, of, you know, if you are, you know, in the early stages of entrepreneurship.

This is a text question with having such a strong entrepreneur mindset and always constantly looking for the next best thing, how do you find ways to shut the side of your brain off to avoid being and feeling burnt out?

And these are these are some good ones.

You know, I think the the curse that I talk about entrepreneurship extends sometimes past just business.

I mean, if a door is the wrong way, I will pay attention to that.

I have to know all these little nuances.

And I think about those things when it comes to, shutting off.

You know, I think that I have to have my friends and family do that for me at times.

That's probably the only way it can work.

But I think as you get older and you, you know, you feel more grounded in the work that you do and you feel fulfilled.

Whether it's the people, the community, you know, certain metrics that are hit.

I think that also as an opportunity shut off because, you know, you're hitting what you need.

Fulfillment can come in many ways.

I think that that's been one of the things that I need to do is knowing that things are going to be okay.

We've got people in place, we're on the right track, and that's a way to tell yourself it's okay to shut off, or it's okay to give you something and give something back to yourself.

Okay.

Thank you, Kumara and Joe Black for joining us at the City Club today.

Thank you, all of you, for being a part of this as well.

Forums like this one are made possible thanks to generous support from people like all of you.

You can learn more about how to become a guardian.

A free speech at City club dot org.

Our forum today is presented in partnership with the Burton De Morgan Foundation.

Our gratitude to Dan Hampu and his colleagues at Burton de Morgan for their support of the city Club and entrepreneur, and for their support of entrepreneurs across the region.

We would also like to welcome.

Students joining us from Cleveland Early College High School.

What's up kids?

Great to have you here.

And we would also like to welcome guests at tables hosted by the Burton De Morgan Foundation, friends of Kumar Arora, the Leadership Cleveland class of 2025 and Youth Opportunities Unlimited.

Thank you all so much.

Coming up next week at the City Club on Wednesday, October 1st, we're back at the Happy Dog for our first Happy Dog Forum of the season.

We'll be taking on the state of free speech with Andy Geronimo from Case Western Reserves First Amendment Clinic in the School of Law, and Peter Carton ski with CSU's center for civics, Culture and Society signal.

Cleveland's Nick Castell will moderate.

It's free.

The doors open while the doors are always open at the happy Dog.

But the program begins at 7:30 p.m.. I hope to see you there.

And then on Friday we are.

We will be joined by Biju Shah.

He's CEO of the Greater Cleveland Partnership right across the street here, Playhouse Square.

He'll be discussing Northeast Ohio's growth and how business and civic leaders can work together to unlock the region's full potential.

Please consider joining us for that.

You can learn more about that form and everything else on our calendar at City club.org.

Thanks once again to Kumar and Joe, members and friends of the City Club.

Thank you for being a part of this today.

Done.

Enjoy and dear Multi-member Forum is now adjourned.

I don't know what time was for information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the City Club, go to City club dot org.

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