Author: Tricia Collins

Queen City Angels (QCA) and Griesing Mazzeo Law, LLC have partnered toexpand resources to Cincinnati’s and the region’s start-up founders and their businesses. Griesing Mazzeo Law is QCA’s first women-owned law firm partner and brings to the region experience promoting diversity and inclusivity and empowering women and minorities in business and the legal profession. Griesing Mazzeo Law is part of the National Association of Minority and Women-Owned Law Firms (NAMWOLF).

“There has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in the Greater Cincinnati Region with the depth and breadth of resources and service providers now available,” said Sue Bevan Baggott, member of QCA, and chair of QCA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. “We are extremely impressed with Griesing Mazzeo Law, and our community is better off because the firm chose to establish an office in Cincinnati. This is an important partnership for us and our portfolio companies for several reasons including the opportunity to connect our angels and our portfolio companies with the legal professionals at Griesing Mazzeo Law to capitalize on their leadership in inclusivity and diversity.”

“We are thrilled to become Queen City Angels’ first women-owned law firm partner,” said Jessica L. Mazzeo, Member and Chief Operating Officer of Griesing Mazzeo Law. “Aside from providing high-caliber legal advice and serving as advocates for our clients, many of us here at Griesing Mazzeo Law are entrepreneurs ourselves. It is with that mindset that we can fully embrace the dedication, drive and unique nuances of the start-up industry. We are looking forward to what our partnership with Queen City Angels brings, including fostering new relationships that further bolster Cincinnati’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Scott Jacobs, Executive Director of QCA added, “QCA is becoming a regional and national player in start-up funding, so it’s important that we partner with the right service providers to help advance the efforts of our portfolio companies and their entrepreneurs. Minority and women-owned businesses receive an extremely small share of investment capital, and likewise have limited access to great legal services. Together, QCA and Griesing Mazzeo Law are working to change that.” About Griesing Mazzeo Law Griesing Mazzeo Law, LLC is a full-service women-owned and operated law firm based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with satellite offices in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. We are proudly certified as a Women Business Enterprise (WBE) by WBENC, enabling us to tackle opportunities specifically intended to promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. Since its inception, the Firm has been committed to the promotion and advancement of women and diverse lawyers as we believe that a more inclusive legal profession is a more successful one. Griesing Mazzeo Law aims to combat the forces that keep women and minorities out of leadership roles and from staying in the profession at all, which we embody through our Firm’s culture, the long-standing relationships we’ve built and maintained with women and diverse attorneys, and our continued commitment to institutions and organizations that foster inclusivity in the legal field.

About Queen City Angels Queen City Angels (QCA) is a Cincinnati, Ohio-based professional angel investor group with 191 angel investors members residing in 20 states. QCA members include successful entrepreneurs, former C-suite corporate executives, R&D/technical experts in life sciences, IT, and advanced materials, and others with related backgrounds. QCA leverages its proprietary Standards + Practices Guide to educate, train, and mentor both entrepreneurs and angel investors. QCA members typically donate approximately 40,000 hours per year in pro-bono mentoring, coaching, and guidance for entrepreneurs to improve their success and the success of angel investors. Since 2000, QCA members have directly invested over $100 million in more than 100 portfolio companies. The total capital invested in these companies, including QCA members’ capital, syndication partners’ capital, follow-on venture capital funds and venture debt is more than $875 million. CB Insights ranked QCA second out of 370 national angel organizations. For more information, visit https://www.qca.com.

Connecting the dots is a metaphor to describe the understanding gained by a series of seemingly disconnected events that connect and lead to a specific conclusion. 

This conversation is about a unique type of dots, specifically Braille dots. Braille was invented over 200 years ago to provide a method for visually impaired people to read using combinations of six dots to represent letters and words. Books translated into Braille are available for the visually impaired.  

According to the National Federation of the Blind, fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million people who are legally blind in the United States are Braille readers. Further, a mere 10 percent of blind children are learning to read Braille. In addition, over 70 percent of blind adults are unemployed, and as many as 50 percent of blind high school students drop out of high school.

The information tsunami brought on by the Internet left the visually impaired with a significant problem. How can these individuals, including K-12 students, access education, be gainfully employed, and participate in the digital world?

Join us as Dave Schleppenbach discusses the journey to develop a digital Braille technology to provide the visually impaired access to the digital world, including digital content, games, graphics, and animation.

The topics addressed in this interview are:

• 00:00 Intro to Dave Schleppenbach, CEO of Tactile Engineering
• 01:40 Overview of the Tactile Engineering device for the visually impaired
• 03:06 How the Cadence device works
• 04:31 The statistics on the visually impaired population
• 05:03 The relationship between Braille and raised print
• 07:02 The market size for visual impairment
• 08:49 Mobility of the Braille device
• 09:40 Starting with deployment in local markets
• 11:55 Deciding to address blindness with technology
• 13:26 From tinkering to a robotic factory
• 14:30 The factory tour
• 18:00 Financial support product development
• 20:30 How well do adults learn to use the Cadence device?
• 22:00 Sources of funding for Tactile Engineering
• 23:00 What are the plans for the future?
• 24:07 Contact information

CINCINNATI and PITTSBURGH – October 11, 2022 – Queen City Angels (QCA) is pleased to announce the closing of an investment in C360, a Pittsburgh-based computer vision SaaS company that provides solutions to leading broadcasters and sports leagues around the world. C360’s award-winning image processing and ultra-high-quality video output is used by the leaders in sports broadcasting, including the leading sports networks, as well as the most popular sports leagues in the United States. The QCA investment will help C360 continue to expand its reach and technology to deliver direct-to-consumer OTT (over-the-top) immersive experiences for viewers everywhere. “Oftentimes when we watch sports broadcasts, it’s the small things that make the biggest difference, such as the yard-to-gain markers or the pylon cameras in football that are critical to the game and the viewer experience,” said Thomas Browning, a member of QCA. “Rarely do people know the people and companies behind these technologies that improve the viewing experience, but we are fortunate for the opportunity to play a small part in what the future holds for C360 and sports fans around the world. C360 is truly changing how we experience live sports, and while their impact is already seen and felt by millions of viewers every week, there is so much more that they will do in the months and years to come.” Among C360’s products are technologies used in game action every week in collegiate and major sports leagues, including pylon cameras in professional and college football games; CornerCam for baseball games; NetCam for professional hockey; overhead cameras in college basketball; and onboard cameras in auto racing. The company’s technology helps capture immersive media for producers; up-close, in-game experiences for viewers; and exclusive content for broadcasters and channels. Fans can also use C360-developed apps to select their own viewpoint while C360’s content streams work in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality formats. C360’s technologies are also being used by the armed forces and other aerospace defense and security organizations. “We appreciate the confidence that QCA has in C360 and our leadership to execute on our vision for the future of sports media,” said Carlos Silva, CEO of C360. “We are literally looking at every angle of sport, bringing fans and viewers closer to the action, and helping our partners deliver the type and variety of high-quality content that keeps people tuning in. QCA’s investment will help us to continue to change how people watch and engage in sports.”

About Queen City Angels

Queen City Angels (QCA) is a group of more than 180 experienced angel investors in the Cincinnati region. QCA members reside in 18 states and include successful entrepreneurs and former corporate executives. QCA investor members evaluate early-stage angel investment opportunities and provide on-going mentoring to young businesses with exceptional growth potential. QCA members typically donate the equivalent of over $5,000,000 per year in pro-bono mentoring, coaching, and guidance for entrepreneurs to improve their success and the success of angel investors. Since 2000, QCA members have directly invested over $80 million in more than 100 portfolio companies. The total capital invested in these companies, including QCA members’ capital, syndication partners’ capital, follow-on venture capital funds and venture debt, is approximately $800 million. CB Insight ranked QCA second out of 370 national angel organizations. For more information, visit www.qca.com or contact Scott Jacobs sjacobs@qca.com.

About C360

C360 has pioneered original 360 technologies that deliver the highest quality non-stitched immersive video products, live output for broadcast and OTT platforms. C360’s proprietary process and ultra-high-quality output has earned relationships with Fox Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, NBC Sports, TNT, NASCAR, NFL, NHL, AWS Sports among many others including sports betting operators and data providers. Key investors in C360 include sports venture capital company SeventySix Capital, Cosm, Queen City Angels and BlueTree Venture Fund. Former ESPN executive Jed Drake is also a board member of C360. To learn more about C360, go to www.c360live.com.

Combined solution integrates supply chain risk event monitoring and automated due diligence with advanced item-level visibility and multi-tier supply chain mapping to reduce cost, mitigate risk, and enhance compliance for sourcing, acquisition, and procurement professionals across public and private sectors.   CINCINNATI, OHIO – August 30, 2022 – Exiger, the leading SaaS supply chain risk management, third-party risk management and compliance company, announced today that it has acquired Supply Dynamics, one of Queen City Angels’ portfolio companies and the industry’s most sophisticated supply chain collaboration platform for tracking, tracing and choreographing the purchase and supply of subcontracted products, parts, raw materials and ingredients. “The combination of Exiger and Supply Dynamics is a force multiplier, not only because we believe they are the preeminent player in this market, but because we are equally committed to investing in the capabilities necessary to set a new industry standard that allows for informed, high-level decision-making within a matter of minutes.” said Supply Dynamics Founder and CEO, Trevor Stansbury.  The integration of Supply Dynamics’ products will enable end-to-end supply chain visibility and holistic risk management via a single, secure, cloud-based enterprise platform. “We are delighted to see another of our portfolio companies experience a successful exit,” said Queen City Angels founder and chair Tony Shipley.  “We are proud to have supported Supply Dynamics as they built the company to this exciting point,” added Shipley. Queen City Angels invested in Supply Dynamics in 2017, serving as the lead investor for that round.  “In addition to an investment from QCA’s First Fund V, we had nearly 20 members make personal ‘sidecar’ investments in that round, given our positive assessment of the company’s proposition and management team during due diligence,” said John Habbert, co-manager of QCA’s family of First Funds.  Other angel groups who invested include Ohio TechAngel Funds of Columbus, Ohio, managed by Rev1 Ventures. “It’s been a privilege to work with Trevor, his team and my colleagues on the Supply Dynamics Board,” said Ted Capossela, QCA member and representative on the Board.  “The acquisition by Exiger is an important validation of Supply Dynamics’ unique approach to ‘illuminating’ all elements of a customer’s supply chain,” added Capossela. “Since we started QCA more than 20 years ago, we have invested over $85 million in more than 100 companies, said Shipley.  “Our investments have been leveraged with over $700 million of additional capital invested by others in our portfolio companies.  Some of our earlier investments include Assurex Health (where we led the initial investment in the company), T-Pro Solutions, ConnXus, among a group of other successful companies.” “While we have a very strong current portfolio, we continue our work to identify additional investment opportunities,” said Scott Jacobs, QCA Executive Director.  “We continue to see strong ‘deal flow,’ both in the Cincinnati region and beyond.” ##### Additional information on the Supply Dynamics acquisition can be found here:   https://www.exiger.com/perspectives/exiger-acquires-supply-dynamics/ About Queen City Angels: Queen City Angels (QCA) is a group of more than 175 accredited investors in the Cincinnati region and beyond.  QCA members reside in 16 states and include former corporate executives, successful entrepreneurs, and many mid-career individuals passionate about working with start-ups.  QCA investor members evaluate early-stage angel investment opportunities and provide on-going mentoring to young businesses with exceptional growth potential.  QCA members typically contribute more than 20,000 hours per year in pro-bono mentoring, coaching, and guidance for entrepreneurs to improve their success and the success of angel investors.  Since 2000, QCA members have directly invested more than $85 million in over 100 portfolio companies.  The total capital invested in these companies, including QCA members’ capital, syndication partners’ capital, follow-on venture capital funds and venture debt is more than $700 million.  QCA’s First Fund VI, which was launched in 2019, currently has 30 active portfolio companies: Active Energy Systems, Alphyn Biologics, AKRU, Bert Thin Films, Cloverleaf, Content Status, Convey^MD, DART Displays, DAtAnchor, Divine Services Corp, Groupize, Guardian Medical, Healthy Roster, Include Health, Ischemia Care, Joot, Kurome Therapeutics, Medalink Systems, Peerro, Plankk, Qualifi, Ready Set Surgical, Resonado, Sense Neuro, ShareThis, Standard Bariatrics, SureImpact, 3 Bar Biologics and TPA Stream.  For more information, visit www.qca.com. About Supply Dynamics: Supply Dynamics provides Fortune 500 manufacturers with real-time visibility and control over the material requirements of their extended supply chain. Its innovative supply chain analytics solutions enable customers to reduce the cost of raw materials and component parts that go into their products, characterize and quantify risks, anticipate disruptions before they happen, enhance collaboration with supply chain stakeholders, and ensure that the timely purchase and supply of material-inputs is NEVER the reason parts are late to an end-use customer or in-field requirement. Supply Dynamics currently serves heavily regulated, global manufacturing companies in the oil and gas, automotive, aerospace and defense, power generation, chemical, plastics, and electronics industries. It also works with DOD Program Offices and a variety of US Government agencies, including the Navy and Defense Logistics Agency. Supply Dynamics’ product, SDX, is a highly secure, multi-tier supply chain collaboration platform, designed for complex, distributed manufacturing supply chains. It’s award winning (web-based) multi-enterprise platform, SDX, provides commercial and DOD customers with real-time visibility and control over the “material-input” requirements (metals, fasteners, plastics, electronics, etc.) that go into their products, equipment, or weapons systems – facilitating real-time monitoring and control of Tier 1-Tier N suppliers and item level bills of material. To learn more, visit supplydynamics.com. About Exiger: Exiger is revolutionizing the way corporations, government agencies and banks manage risk and compliance through its combination of technology-enabled and SaaS solutions. In recognition of the growing volume and complexity of data and regulation, Exiger is committed to creating a more sustainable risk and compliance environment through its holistic and innovative approach to problem solving. Exiger’s mission to make the world a safer place to do business drives its award-winning AI technology platform built to anticipate the market’s most pressing needs related to evolving ESG, cyber, financial crime, third-party and supply chain risk. Exiger has won 30+ AI, RegTech and Supply Chain partner awards. Learn more at Exiger.com and follow Exiger on LinkedIn