Entrepreneurial Spirit | Geras Home Solutions
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Dozens of entrepreneurs in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys navigated the challenges of the pandemic to launch a new venture, proving the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well.
For Growth Report 2, The Business Journal spoke with owners of six local businesses who shared their experiences. They include Devyn Bellamy of Geras Home Solutions; Amy Javens of Cycle Life Studio; Lindy Lauro of Lindy’s Lunch; Monique Davis of Beloved Guardians Home Health Care; Sara Lee Grandelis of Lotus Art Center; John McDonald and Joe Driscoll of Easy Adapter Inc.; and Benjamin Warren of Big Benz Towing & Repair.
Geras Home Solutions: Devyn Bellamy
Devyn Bellamy of Youngstown founded Geras Home Solutions, which uses home-automation technology to improve safety in assisted living centers. He came up with the concept after his mother came to visit.
Staff at the Youngstown Business Incubator urged him to create a company and further urged him to participate in YBI’s version of “Shark Tank,” which was coming up in late October. Geras was its audience choice award winner and received $5,000.
His system is currently in the design phase. But the company consults on home automation and builds out custom systems for people’s houses, Bellamy says.
“The goal is for us to be able to use our own software to be able to do this,” he says. “Things are progressing really well.”
The main challenge he has faced is “not knowing what I don’t know when it comes to running a business,” but credits YBI helping with that.
The key benchmark for Geras this year is to have a minimum viable product – or MVP – available to go to market.
“The biggest thing is the hub that communicates with everything,” he says. “The hub we’re creating not only would communicate with our devices, but with any smart home device, regardless of what protocol it works on,” he says. “So, if we get that across the finish line in 2022, then things are going to be amazing and that’s a conversation we’ll be having Q3.”
Read more of these stories of entrepreneurship over the next few days, or read George Nelson’s story in Growth Report 2.
Pictured: Devyn Bellamy of Geras Home Solutions.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
