With more than $1 million to get started, ExpenseBot is looking for an address to call home.
Businesses are lining up for a crack at ExpenseBot's finance software. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Edward Buchholz feels more confident than most entrepreneurs at the early stage of a startup, and no wonder.
He's a freshly minted product of TechStars, perhaps the nation's most esteemed business accelerator, with the venture capital to prove it. Now he's looking for a place to launch.
Buchholz created a sensation in the local startup community last summer when his business idea, a company that automates expense reports using predictive analytics, scored an invitation to TechStars in Boulder, Colorado.
He has pedigree. Buchholz and his partner, John Siladie, had built and sold an earlier finance software company, 60mo. And ExpenseBot enjoys local support from venture capitalists like Morris Wheeler and startup hubs like Shaker LaunchHouse, which shaped ExpenseBot in its 2013 accelerator class.
But TechStars is a different league. Its graduates leave the program with $118,000 in capital -- compared to $20,000 or $25,000 from a Cleveland accelerator -- and the attention that comes with having been selected for an elite club.
Buchholz said he was told ExpenseBot was the first Ohio startup accepted into TechStars.
I caught up with the 34-year-old Westlake resident at TechPint's Winter Jam at the Beachland Ballroom. He described the 90-day boot camp as "an incredible experience" that left him smarter and better connected. Way better connected.
"The real value of TechStars comes from networking," he said, adding that he was introduced to numerous venture capitalist and company founders, some of whom became investors.
Most of the more than $1 million ExpenseBot has attracted comes from outside the region, and Buchholz credits TechStars for that. Now back in Northeast Ohio, he's looking for a headquarters space.
ExpenseBot has six employees and plans to add more. The company is working from a waiting list as it accepts its first paying customers, Buchholz said. He's not sure where it belongs, but he likes the vibe of Lakewood or Ohio City.
"We plan to hire a lot of people," he said. "We need room to grow. 2015 is going to be a very big year for us."
Zach Schwartz is co-founder of the LEAP program for high school entrepreneurs. LaunchHouse Bootstrap Bash champions young entrepreneurs
At Shaker LaunchHouse, the startup accelerator and co-working space in Shaker Heights, people like to say that you're never too young to start acting like an entrepreneur.
That faith will be on display Saturday, at a celebration called the LaunchHouse Institute Bootstrap Bash.
Co-hosted by the Shaker Heights Development Corporation, the Bash is aimed at raising money and awareness for LaunchHouse programs that teach startup strategies to high school and middle school students.
Those programs include LEAP, a summer school described as the nation's first business accelerator for high schoolers.
"We believe strongly that the best route to entrepreneurship is education," said LaunchHouse co-founder and chief executive Todd Goldstein. "And it's never too young to start the educating."
The evening begins with cocktails at 7 p.m., followed by strolling dinner, dancing and an auction in the garage space at Shaker LaunchHouse, 3558 Lee Road.
Attire? Startup Dress-up, of course.
Tickets are available via www.launchhouse.com/2015-bootstrap-bash/
Robert L. Smith covers economic development for The Plain Dealer. Follow him on Twitter @rlsmithpd.