SustainableCincy '22 Cohort Came, Saw, and Conquered Demo Day!

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we could not be more thankful for all of the Friends of Flywheel, new and veteran, who joined us for Demo Day on November 16th at Madtree Brewing. It was my first Demo Day as Executive Director and I could not have been more proud of our SustainableCincy cohort. Each founder grew tremendously through the nine week program and on Demo Day, every one of them pitched their personal best.

We began the evening with networking and reflections from our SustainableCincy sponsors, Donovan Energy, Michelman and Electrada. Our host and longtime partner MadTree Brewing welcomed us to their home.

Councilmember Meeka Owens honored the crowd of nearly 200 with a Keynote Address . She outlined the City Council’s firm commitment to addressing climate change and spoke to the importance of innovators and entrepreneurs leading the way.

The pitches started with Clean up Collective and the announcement that the enterprise had received a critical grant and LOI to support the 2023 litter cleanup seasons. Intersect Agriculture fascinated the room with their process for growing and harvesting insect larvae to be used as a high protein ingredient in animal feed. This innovative approach to agriculture is so highly efficient, it is carbon negative, returning more environmental resources than it uses. Armbruster Impact Management had the cutest cheering section. Kari Armbruster described how she will bring the strategies she developed working with Kroger on the Zero Hunger/Zero Waste initiative to other businesses seeking to make a measurable difference with their corporate ESG strategy. With an ESG tracking and alignment SaaS platform, Uplift 5P announced it has secured LOIs for it’s fully operational solution for large companies to align ESG goals across supply chain partners. Finally, everyone’s favorite beekeeper, Brandon Reynolds with his data scientist partner Johnny Avant demonstrated their plan to bring people and plants together with their new platform, Sprout.

If you are interested in learning more, or perhaps have talent, connections, or capital to offer any of our founders, you can google their websites or contact me and I’ll make the connection. Enjoy our slideshow below.