YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Tricia Ross, owner of the Nature + Nurture bookstore, acknowledges there are “a lot of moving pieces” as she works toward reopening the shop in its new location by May 1.
“This is a lot bigger project than I anticipated,” she concedes. “But it’s going to be great when it’s open.” Ross, who launched the bookstore online in February 2021, opened her first physical space in the back of a flower shop a month later. Three months later, she moved into a storefront at 515 E. State St., Salem, that the Sustainable Opportunity Development – or SOD – Center helped her find. Her store opened on Small Business Saturday that year.
She was there for about four years when the SOD Center helped her find her current location, the former Macmillan Office Supply building, 553 E. State St.
That was just one example of the assistance provided by the SOD Center, just one of the ways it helps local entrepreneurs.
Early Challenges
Youngstown-based YBI works with a lot of early-stage technology companies. The first year is the hardest for these entrepreneurs, Chandler Fiffick, senior director of the Engine Tech program at YBI in Youngstown, says.
Among the early challenges entrepreneurs face are lack of funds, as well as validating their market.
“Just because you think that your product solves a problem doesn’t mean that a customer is going to buy it. You kind of have to get out of your own way and accept the feedback as it comes,” she says. “Sometimes you discover that there is a customer and that’s great, but a lot of times you discover and have to accept that there is not, or maybe [the product] is just not needed at this time. A lot of it is just luck.”
Brite Energy Innovators in Warren, which focuses on accelerating the advanced energy economy, works with a wide range of innovators at different stages of development, said Lucas King, startup program manager. “So we’ve worked on putting together kind of a programmatic journey that’s going to meet founders where they’re at, whatever stage they come in,” he says.
Early stage entrepreneurs might be university students or faculty members who are figuring out how to go from working in a lab to becoming something that is fully commercialized, he says.
Many businesses in the defense and advanced manufacturing space are helmed by “brilliant men and women with technical backgrounds, so navigating the world of business development and funding is a very daunting task and new to them,” Fiffick says.
Brite serves energy technology and hard-tech startups, “companies that are building something physical,” King says.
“It’s a very different journey than a lot of your software startups are going to face,” King says. While a software company “might see an exit in two to five years,” founders of the kinds of companies that Brite serves typically take a decade to go to market and potentially exit. Additionally, traditional investors might see the process of building a physical product as risky, so many of Brite’s founders rely on nondilutive funding such as grants, tax credits and competition prizes in the research and development phase.
“We’re able to walk side by side with founders as they’re going through that journey,” King says. “It’s a long one, it’s tough, and it’s really hard to just keep pushing through that, but it’s really rewarding to see people keep making strides as they move forward.”
One of the biggest issues entrepreneurs face is “working on that go-to-market strategy” and identifying that first customer, “somebody who’s willing to be an early adopter,” King says.
“There’s going to be problems. There’s going to be a lot of different versions along the way,” he remarks.
Identifying an early customer also is critical for securing investment for growth, because as companies look to secure investment, private investors oftentimes consider how they can de-risk potential investments. “A key signal for investors is any signs of revenue that the company may have,” including letters of intent or having a product being sold on the market.
A Wide Range
Resources available to entrepreneurs in and near the Mahoning Valley include YBI, Brite, the SOD Center and Valley Economic Development Partners.
Ross, of Nature + Nurture, reached out to Julie Needs, executive director of SOD Center, at the suggestion of her father, who had been on its founding board. She had screenshots of ideas of what she wanted to sell and concepts for the store.
Needs was one of the first people who believed in her, and the staff at the SOD Center “have their finger on the pulse of everything in town,” she remarks. The center walked Ross through the process of securing financing through Ohio Mid-Eastern Government Association and referred the entrepreneur to the Small Business Development Center at Kent State University.
“I have a really great relationship with Julie and everyone at the SOD Center,” she says. “They help in every way.”
One of the technology entrepreneurs that YBI’s Engine Tech has assisted is LeapFast Manufacturing Inc. The winner of YBI’s 2025 Shark Tank, LeapFast’s flagship technology is a large-scale, solid-state additive manufacturing process, co-founder Zachary Courtright says.
While at NASA, Courtright had developed an additive manufacturing process called bobbin friction stir deposition. He determined the best way to bring the technology to full-scale commercialization would be to start his own company, which he eventually did with another engineer from Pacific Northwest National Lab.
“Our goal is to basically cut supply chain lead times for large metal structures for the aerospace and defense industries primarily,” Courtright says.
LeapFast connected with YBI through America Makes, the national additive manufacturing center based in Youngstown. YBI helped the startup establish lab space at Tech Block Building #5 and purchase critical equipment through the support of grants it helped secure. Working with YBI, the startup proposed and won a project through the Youngstown Innovation Hub for Aerospace and Defense to develop the first prototype of its deposition system.
“We have helped them prep their site for this equipment, which is no easy feat,” Fiffick says. LeapFast also works with several of YBI’s entrepreneurs-in-residence. It also has interns through Youngstown State University’s STEM – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and entrepreneurship programs.
Rich Majzik, owner of Eastwood Quick Print in Howland, says he has benefited from his affiliation with Valley Economic Development Partners. He had been working in accounting and finance when he moved back from Columbus to take over the print shop from his late father about two years ago.
Majzik has attended several of the Lunch and Learn programs hosted by Valley Partners, which also helped with his business plan and securing financing for another business that he was acquiring.
“I actually had to start my own company as a sole proprietor when I took over, and because of that, the banks looked at me as a brand new business, even though Eastwood Quick Prints had been around since the ’80s,” he recalls. “I was surprised. I had a very hard time getting a loan.”
That was when he came across Valley Partners, which “really helped out greatly,” he says.
He also participated in Valley Partners’ six-week accounting and legal assistance cohort program, which at the conclusion provides funding for an accountant or attorney.
Helping Hands
Resources for entrepreneurs in western Pennsylvania include the eCentre@LindenPointe in Hermitage and Shenango LaunchBox in Sharon.
Looped Solutions in Hermitage, Pa., launched as OhanaLink Technologies in 2019, was based at the eCentre@LindenPointe for a little over four years, CEO and founder Kara Wasser recalls. Since its founding, Looped Solutions has evolved from a platform for connecting people in health events to focusing on individuals in domestic violence situations.
The center provided incubator space for a year and after that Looped was able to utilize the co-working space for a nominal fee.
“That was a really great transition for somebody coming out of an incubator program because I was able to be surrounded in the co-working space by other founders, so you weren’t all alone going through the early stages,” she says. “From there, we transitioned into having our own space.”
Going through the eCentre program also provided Looped access to legal support, accountants and other resources necessary for figuring out how to turn an idea into a business.
“That’s what’s really critical about incubators,” Wasser says. “Entrepreneurs are full of ideas, but executing them into a business model that is potentially profitable is the shift that occurs when you go through a program.”
CycleLife Studio, a boutique indoor cycling and fitness studio in Sharon, is going on five years of operation. Owner Amy Javens, who says she has taken courses from the Gannon University Small Business Development Center, was referred to LaunchBox as an option for support services and to help develop her small business.
Shenango LaunchBox is like “the ring leader,” she remarks,” sending her “in the right way at the right time.”
The organization directed her to legal resources to address contractual matters, and to assistance with reviewing leases and contractor contracts. She also has been exposed to grant opportunities and received advice and tips about launching and operating a small business.
Pictured at top: Tricia Ross, owner of Nature + Nurture, is one of the entrepreneurs assisted over the years by the Sustainable Opportunity Development Center. The center recently helped her identify a new location for the downtown Salem bookstore, where she plans to open in May.
