The Buckeye Boom: Ohio’s Growth in Tech

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You are listening to Leaders in Lending
from Upstart, a podcast dedicated to helping

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consumer lenders grow their programs and improve
their product offerings. Each week, here

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decision makers in the finance industry offer
insights into the future of the lending industry,

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best practices around digital transformation, and
more. Let's get into the show.

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Hi. This is Lynd Soderbill of
Upstart, and welcome to Leaders in

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Lending. I will be joined today
by Chris Berry. Chris serves as a

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president and CEO of ohio X,
a statewide nonprofit working to build Ohio into

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a tech hub. Ohio x is
a member based organization with representation from Fortune

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five hundred companies, universities, research
organization, startups, and tech focus businesses.

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The work of ohio X centers around
connecting, promoting, and advocating for

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tech and innovation in Ohio. Let's
get started, all right, Hi,

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Chris, thanks for joining me today
on Leaders in Lending. So we are

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We're going in a slightly different direction
with today's podcast, a bit more tech

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and industry focused and a little bit
less focused on lending. So I'm excited

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for our chat today. Yeah.
Well, thanks for having me. Lynn,

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big fan of you and the Upstart
team and yeah, just don't ask

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me any overly technical questions and we
should be in good shape. Absolutely.

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So, you know, I think
Chris, like you have a really interesting

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background and like honestly many of the
people I've had on the podcast is guests.

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You spent some time in politics,
both in DC and Ohio prior to

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your current role. You know,
can you talk me through kind of your

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your career path and and what led
you to leading Ohio X. Yeah.

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Absolutely, well, so my background, as you mentioned, isn't really technology,

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but I worked in government. So
I started my career in DC and

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then left and if we're talking finances
at the State Treasury in Ohio for eight

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years. And I grew up always
with a kind of a passion for government

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and policy, and you know,
I love shows like The West Wing and

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you know, kind of history books
and all of that, and so that's

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what I thought I wanted to do, and that was kind of my goal

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when I was growing up. In
college, we moved to Washington and work

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in that space. Kind of quickly
realized I didn't love living on the East

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Coast. I didn't really love,
you know, the big city of Washington,

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d C. Not quite like New
York, but still a pretty big

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metro area, and so I wanted
to come home, and that's when moved

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back closer to family and started working
at the State Treasury. And I think

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kind of government service is a very
fascinating vantage point, especially for what I'm

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doing now, is because when I
was at the State Treasury, we started

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doing more and more technology focused projects. Most people don't think of innovation and

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government just like they don't necessarily think
of technology in Ohio, and so it's

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kind of a, you know,
an interesting parallel between the two. But

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one of which was we made Ohio
the first state to accept bitcoin tax payments,

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and this was a number of years
ago. At this point was I

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think the third government in the world
that did this, and so that was

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an interesting space. But we were
working with a fintech in Atlanta to make

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it possible, had a couple other
interesting tech projects that were really fascinating to

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me, and we could see the
impact where we'd work with, for instance,

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Silicon Valley based startups, and then
through that process, we were asking

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ourselves, well, you know,
why are we working with FinTechs in Atlanta

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and Silicon valley based startups and what
does the tech landscape look like in Ohio.

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And when you work in government,
you end up working across sectors,

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across industries, largely working with the
statewide industry group. So it could be

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like the Ohio Bankers League or the
Ohio Farm Bureau groups like that, but

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tech historically in Ohio hasn't had that
same type of statewide industry coalition that could

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work to connect and promote and advocate. And so long story short. After

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leaving government spending time in the private
sector, a group of entrepreneurs and myself

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saw this need and kept seeing just
an opportunity to make an impact, and

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we slowly but surely put this Ohio
x idea together and just a band of

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volunteers came together to make it happen, and here we are today. Yeah,

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that that's super interesting. I did
not realize that Ohio was the first

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state to accept bitcoin for tax payments. I've never attempted to pay my taxes

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via bitcoin, but I was also
surprised. This week I saw an article

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that the first write up by Satoshi
on crypto was actually fourteen years ago,

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which surprised me. It feels like
it's more current than that, but fourteen

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years is not brand new. So
I think a lot of a lot of

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our listeners are going to be surprised
by the fact that Ohio led the charge

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there. So really, like you
know, Ohio actually were saying, you

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know, it came about just kind
of a group of both people in the

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public sector, entrepreneurs. Different folks
got the idea when was that, how

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long's Ohios been around in the state, and you know, what do you

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really see as the primary goals and
what the organization wants to accomplish. Yeah,

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so we launched in December of twenty
nineteen, and as I mentioned,

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as a group of volunteers entrepreneurs,
I was the only person actually that had

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a government and policy background, and
so as we were thinking of you know,

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hey, there are some challenges that
we repeatedly hear, and that was

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largely you know, we have to
do better at promoting the tech industry in

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Ohio. Pre COVID especially, people
didn't think of this as a destination for

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technology and that's just not the case. Is you know, there's incredible companies

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and people and ideas. The second
kind of challenge or frustration that a lot

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of people were mentioning was we have
a really big state, and Ohio is

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just geographic makeup is quite unique in
that we're more like California and Texas and

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Florida, and that we have three
really big metro areas Cleveland, Columbus,

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and Cincinnati that are spread out.
Whereas you look at like a Chicago,

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Illinois, and Atlanta, Georgia,
and New York, New York, a

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Boston, Massachusetts, those states typically
have one really big metro area where all

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the tech is concentrated, and then
the rest of the state is you know,

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kind of has different industries and sectors, and so in our state we're

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spread out, which makes it really
difficult. But if you think of the

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Bay Area we're Upstart is headquartered.
It's not a single city. It's not

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like every It's not like Manhattan where
all the financial companies are largely in Manhattan.

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It's it's from Berkeley to Palauto and
everywhere in between. And if you

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were to drive through that, that
wouldn't be a lot of fun to go

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from you know, the north end
of the Bay to the south end and

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make a big loop. But that's
really no different than Ohio, and that

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you look at our state and if
you look at financial services, there is

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incredible companies in all of our major
metro regions and we're connected by an easy

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highway system, and so in a
lot of ways, it's just kind of

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taking something that is so simple,
of thinking of this as a statewide tech

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opportunity. Again, financial service is
a perfect example, and making it easier

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to connect, promote, and advocate. And so that's that's what we do

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today. As I mentioned as quickly
we launched in December of twenty nineteen all

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volunteers. COVID hit like two or
three months later. And so if there's

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ever a good time to start a
nonprofit trade association that's about bringing people together,

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doing it at the beginning of a
global pandemic that we've never lived through

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is a really awful time to do
it. And so we kind of paused

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for a little bit. And so
technically we're about four and a half years

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old, but really we're probably about
two or three because we kind of had

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to, you know, just figure
out what the world was going to be

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in the middle of COVID, like
everyone, but we pivoted really quickly into

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the digital the virtual kind of the
online community, which makes sense for technology

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and remote companies get that, and
it really opened up a world of opportunity

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where it helped people see and it
helped accelerate our work and that hey,

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if I'm in Cleveland, I can
just as easily connect with someone virtually in

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Columbus and Cincinnati and Dayton and Toledo
and Acorn and Canton and Youngstown as I

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can someone in my own backyard now. And so COVID very much accelerated our

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work. And our pillars are connect, promote, and advocate. So connect

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the people, the companies, the
ideas, celebrate, promote it, make

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sure that we're telling this story of
Ohio successes and upstarts story is one of

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those leading ones, and then advocate
for it. There's so much space,

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especially in a regulated industry. You
all know of the relation between industry and

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government, and that's something that we're
kind of filling this void for the first

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time in our state. Sure,
And I definitely think the you talked about

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the size of Ohio and that you
know we're connected by the highway system.

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I think that's a common kind of
maybe joke about the Midwest that you know,

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we just get in the car and
drive wherever we need to go fourteen

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hours. It's fine, seven hours, it's around the corner. But it

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is true that, you know,
Ohio is a very large state. I

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think it's a larger state that many
people realize. But it is drivable and

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you drive between you know, the
three c's as we often call them,

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and there's a lot of different interesting
industry happening in each of the major cities.

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I think some of the listeners probably
have not heard how how we've been

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describing Ohio over the past several years
and much the Midwest, but the Silicon

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Heartland phrase. It's kind of a
fun play on Silicon Valley and farmland and

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the you know, the heartland of
the country. What do you think makes

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really the Silicon heartland and and Ohio, but really the Midwest what, you

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know, have really so much promise
as we grow that's becoming such a kind

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of additional center of tech and innovation. Yeah, and for those that haven't

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heard that Silicon heartland phrase before,
that was really born out of Intel coming

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to Ohio, where a couple of
years ago at this point, Intel made

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an announcement that for our state is
transformational because we have never had a semiconductor

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industry in Ohio. And so when
that came to be, Intel's CEO and

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some others started playing with that phrase
Silicon Heartland like Silicon Valley, and it's

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really caught caught hold, and I
I think it shows the promise, the

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potential, but also just the passion
of the the technologists across Ohio at companies

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from Fortune five hundreds to startups and
everything in between that have kind of used

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that phrase as like a bit of
a rallying cry. And I like that

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it's not about one city, it's
it's you know, it's it's where does

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the heartland start? And ind so
there's a lot of people that can take

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pride in that. And so,
you know, in terms of what is

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the kind of the Midwest the Ohio
specific opportunity, I think in a lot

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of ways, Well, one,
it's quite big in its areas and our

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state of excellence that we have a
long, rich tradition and so financial services,

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insurance, agriculture, manufacturing industry four
point zero, advanced manufacturing, healthcare.

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Those are all areas that our state
especially really excels at. And whether

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you're in northeastern Ohio, Central Ohio, southwestern Ohio for as diverse as are

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our state and region. Is the
sectors and industries are all really really similar.

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I think they also happen to be
areas that really frankly matter. I

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jokingly, you know, like to
say that I don't know if the next

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TikTok is going to be built and
born in Ohio. But banks and financial

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services that allow people to transact and
get money for lending and grow companies,

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you know, that takes place here. Insurance that is something that we have

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a fantastic pillar in. Again,
healthcare, We're better place in the world

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to come for healthcare than Ohio.
You have the Cleveland Clinic on one end

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of the state, with University hospitals
and Metro Health. You have Ohio State,

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Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and Cincinnati. Cincinnati Children's has been ranked the

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number one children's hospital in the US. And so people literally fly to the

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or fly to Ohio from across the
world for healthcare. And so we have

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these, you know, really pillars
of excellence that are incredible sectors, industries

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that matter and are important. And
that's the Ohio tech opportunity. And then

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if you think about kind of beyond
that, I think in a lot of

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ways. You know, we have
to seize this for for America in some

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ways because we've seen what reshoring or
what taking companies abroad has done. I

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grew up in northeastern Ohio and Akron, which is the rubber capital of the

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world historically goodyear in fire snowver there. My family is there because of that

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industry and what that has done to
places like Ohio and other states when those

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jobs go overseas well. We all
kind of know that the geopolitical trends of

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of what's just happening in the world
and how complicated that is. So COVID

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kind of created these opportunities, and
Intel and others are deciding to make things

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that really matter and that are you
know, so strategically important right here,

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and so we're kind of capturing these
opportunities for the first time in a long

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time. And our friends at Jobs
Ohio like to call it a generational opportunity

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where we haven't seen this type of
momentum and opportunity capture before and so hopefully

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we can take advantage of it,
which I think we are, But you

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know that work isn't done by any
means. Yeah, I think the Intel

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piece has been super interesting and then
kind of what's fall it on beyond that.

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I think lately we've been talking about
the you know, the megaloads as

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they're bringing supplies and to build that
intel plant, and the amount of planning

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that goes on and just transporting the
raw materials that they need to start building

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that facility is really significant. Uh. And it's a good point you made

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about the kind of the rubber industry
and the various industries and and really across

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the Ohio and much the Midwest of
what became the rest Belt. And you

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know, I grew up an hour
north of Columbus and a small town and

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had a number of industries Mansfield tire, Ohio brass ak steel, so a

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lot of that kind of core industry
that that used to exist in the Midwest.

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And certainly watch that move away and
watch you know, my my parents'

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friends lose their jobs and and have
to retrain to do to do new things,

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whether they were you know, working
at a factory or in a management

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level. And and uh and my
parents both actually had the opportunity to train

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people overseas as part of that being
on the more on the management side of

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it. So uh, it is
really exciting, I think to see this

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this amount of development and growth.
And I've lived in Ohio my entire life

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and have not seen this this amount
of positive change until until recently. So

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you know, we've definitely seen the
data centers come in, like the Meta

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Google and and a w S has
some some cloud centers here. What do

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you think makes makes really Ohio or
just even the central Ohio region, Uh,

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the right opportunity for them? Like, what do you think is is

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do you think there's just some you
know a little bit of fomo Now that

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everyone's there, it makes sense,
But but kind of what's bringing them here?

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And what do you see that as
creating opportunities for employees, especially kind

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of new younger people entering the employment
market, Like what will that mean for

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them as there as they try to
define and develop careers. Yeah, so

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I think that the data centers a
couple all of the things that you know,

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we've heard, and those companies you
mentioned are great partners and members of

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ours as well. You know a
lot of it's land where central Ohio you

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know, we don't have It's a
great place to live, but we don't

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have the mountains, we don't have
the beaches, those types of things.

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So and so there's and also Columbus
is just historically like a younger town.

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It's people like you and me moving
here from you know, north of north

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of Columbus by an hour. I'm
north northeast of Columbus by two hours.

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And so Columbus has really had this
population growth from other parts of the state

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over the years. And so we
don't have the mountains, we don't have

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the rivers like as Cincinnati does,
or the lake like Cleveland, and as

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a younger city, we just have
had a lot of land and so land

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energy. There's incredible energy kind of
energy environment here, AEP and others that

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just you know, the data centers
they needed the energy of course, and

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so there's some of those pieces.
I think there's also a lot of business

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leadership that helped pave the way for
this. There's groups like Jobs Ohio again

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that are out there aggressively recruiting and
kind of going after some of these really

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big opportunities for our state. There's
also groups like the Columbus Partnership, which

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is a coalition of the largest businesses
in central Ohio that have been laying the

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groundwork for like this, For many
many years. It's not something that just

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you know, happened. I think
that's one of the stories that you know,

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certainly you all know and and and
the upstart story has been part of

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that. But I think sometimes people
just think these opportunities come, but largely

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it's leadership that you know, they're
taking things again like the land and the

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energy. Well, people could kind
of just stop there, but you know

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that they set the stage of you
know, placing you know, strategic bets

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that that helped attract these and so
it's been fantastic to see over the really

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the past just five years or so
where these companies are really coming in and

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droves. And this hasn't as you
know, also being from Ohio like that,

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these opportunities haven't always occurred to our
state. And when you can have

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a map of the state with logo
like Intel and Google and Meta and Aws

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and Microsoft and Honda and LG and
their four billion dollar electric vehicle plant and

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Ford and their ev plant in northeastern
Ohio, I mean these are literally multi

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billion dollar investments that are adding up
and talk about a powerful signal where I

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remember when Intel broke ground on the
state, I had the opportunity to go

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then President flew In and CNBC and
Swalk on the Street they were broadcasting live

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from from the from the announcement and
the site, and so you know,

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we're in these headlines with global names
and people have to notice and pay attention.

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And I think there's a real opportunity
here that is happening and being seized

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because of because of a lot of
great leaders that have been laying this work,

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laying the groundwork for this for a
long time. Hey there, former

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00:17:48.279 --> 00:17:52.920
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Again, that's upstart dot com.
Slash AI certification. Thanks and now back

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00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:33.160
to the show. Yeah, I
think Ohio surprises a lot of people.

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I know you mentioned upstart when we
opened our offices here as the leadership of

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the company, and the headquarters was
in San Mateo, so in the Bay

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area was looking for Actually it was
in San Carlos at that point and not

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moved to Salmonteo. But we're looking
for that second headquarters location. Ohio hit

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all of the boxes and I think
once that decision was made, it was

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about ninety days until they're were,
you know, people on the ground,

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uh in an office and Columbus and
and we've only really grown since then.

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And while we are primarily remote and
we maintain our offices here and and spend

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a lot of time in them.
So it's been a great location for us.

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And I think the it's you know, been super interesting as we have

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people come in from around the country
who may not have traveled here, it

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may not have been in Ohio.
They are always surprised how much they like

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Columbus, Like, wow, this
is really walkable. There's all these great

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restaurants, I can walk to the
hotel. There's so many interesting things to

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do. It's a variety of people, and uh, and so it's it's

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for those of us who are big
champions of the middle Aston, champions of

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Ohio. It's it's definitely validating to
uh to show it off and and to

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to to have everyone see what you
know, what we see here. Uh.

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But you know, I think,
of course, everything's not always perfect,

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not not always roses. What are
some of the obstacles that that maybe

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you hear or you see as you
or jobs Ohio where the various organizations are

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working to encourage new companies to come
to the states, What sort of things

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are you hearing that are maybe obstacles
to them choosing the Midwest versus a wanting

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to be in a on the coast
or in a larger metropolitan area. Yeah,

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definitely. I would say there's kind
of two big ones, capital and

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talent, which which very much makes
sense, but to kind of dig into

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both of those on the capital side, Ohio and really anywhere outside of San

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Francisco, Boston, New York,
that's where the vast majority of venture capital

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dollars just flow. And Ohio I
think last year got like one percent of

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national funding, which for a state
that is the eighth largest I believe in

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terms of population with all these big
industries, I think we have fifty four

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fortune one thousand companies, so you
know, very clearly they're a very large

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base of potential sales opportunities for startups. We are still not a tracting and

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kind of earning the venture capital investment
dollars and kind of a larger share of

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the pie than we should. So
that's an area that's not anything necessarily new.

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And I think now, as you
mentioned, you know, a lot

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of startups, especially younger tech companies, are are typically you know remote first,

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or maybe they have like a couple
people at their quote unquote headquarters,

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but then you know, then they
have seventy five percent of their team in

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other places. And so I think
covid is in some ways helped the opportunity

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for not being in San Francisco or
not being in Boston if you're a life

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science as or biotech company. But
that is still a really, really big

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struggle, and so that is an
area that we just have to do better.

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And there's a lot of smart people, you know, working on that

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and trying to you know, change
that for the better. And we're hopefully

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playing a small role in that too. On the other side, talent where

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Ohio just as a state, you
know, our population isn't isn't growing like

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a lot of southern and western states. Columbus, we're upstart is hq' in

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our state and where we both live. As you're mentioning, you know,

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there's a really vibrancy and growth to
it. But it's because of people like

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me that grew up in northeastern Ohio
and move here. And so the typical

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kind of you know Ohio story is
is you go to you know, whatever

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Ohio university, whether it's literally Ohio
University or Ohio State or Miami or some

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others, and then a lot of
students will go off to Chicago or they'll

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go off to New York. I
went to the East Coast myself, and

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I came back a couple of years
later. But we have a ton of

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universities, a ton of community colleges, but we also export a lot of

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talent, and so I think there's
some population, you know, challenges and

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just in terms of keeping that talent. And that is one where if you

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ask a college grad that's maybe a
computer science major or something else in that

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space, you know they want to
go where the jobs are, and they

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want to go to companies like Upstart
in others and so you know the volume

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there of companies like Upstart when it
was a you know, a non iPod

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company, as a series A,
Series B, series C. Those are

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the exciting opportunities that especially younger college
grads that are in this tech space want

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to want to go after. And
so a lot of them, again because

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of that venture capital kind of chicken
or the egg, what what what?

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Which is the real key, will
leave and again go to a much bigger

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city, leave the state. What
we find is that oftentimes a good chunk

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of them want to come back Ohio
boomerangs. But we have to make it

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easier by hopefully building up more companies
that make it a really simple decision where

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hey, it's not just one or
two companies they could potentially work at that

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are really exciting and tech focused and
really leaders in innovation. But you know,

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how do you multiply that? And
there's there's all sorts of good groups

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like the Ohio Angel Collective and a
few others out there that are doing work

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in this space to hopefully help with
that funding side. But I think it's

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talent and capital is largely some of
the big challenges. Yeah, that's a

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that's a great point because I think
as you're you know, if you're going

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to growing up in Ohio, and
particularly if you're in one of the more

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rural areas as which much of the
state is, outside of the three major

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cities, you may just not know
what is out there. And so you

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think about tech and all you hear
about is is Silicon Valley. You think

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about banking, and you know,
you hear about New York, and you

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don't really know what is available locally. I think that that Ohio ex you

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guys do a great kind of tech
education uh Tech Day in the fall that

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is aimed at at really exposing that
to to high schoolers. Can you talk

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a little bit about that and and
how I think your organization is really helping

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expand that and build that desire to
to stay local and to think about staying

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in the state and keeping your talents
here versus moving. Yeah. Absolutely so.

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Our group, as we've been discussing, we're an industry organization, but

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one of the inter stream things that's
come out of our work that we didn't

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necessarily expect was a couple of things. One is well the known knowns of

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We knew that the talent side was
something that our companies and just the tech

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sector was really passionate about, and
so as we've gotten deeper into that work,

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I kind of think that there's,
well, there's kind of two pieces

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of the talent. There's like the
university is a higher education there's a lot

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of great work happening there. There's
also a lot of movement around the reskilling

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and upskilling, and I think that's
a fantastic thing, whether it's like tech

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apprenticeships or you know, helping companies
maybe at some of the larger you know,

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think of a grocery store chain of
how do they take someone that maybe

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has been a cashier or a bagger
or a stock shelfer that knows the industry

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because they're actually there, they're interacting
with customers, but how do you move

364
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them perhaps into career trajectory opportunities And
so they'll kind of be a lot of

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reskilling or upskilling initiatives, which are
fantastic. Where I think there's been a

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bit of a void and really more
of an opportunity is in the K through

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twelve because largely if we just wait
for students to self select that they're going

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to go to Ohio State or Case
Western or Miami or the University of Cincinnati,

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and then self select that they're going
to go into computer science and then

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self select that they want to go
into a tech career. Like we've already

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lost out on ninety five or ninety
nine point nine percent of potential tech workers

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because you just don't know it's an
option, or a lot of students,

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you know, don't have the opportunities
that other students have that they can get

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into tech careers. And so that
K through twelve space has been really interesting

375
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because the earlier we can help expose
that there are these opportunities, that there

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are tech companies here, that there
are tech opportunities here is a really really

377
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powerful thing. And so with our
members, we about three years ago started

378
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this initiative called Ohio Tech Day.
As simple as it is, it's about

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00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:45.400
inspiring students to consider and explore innovation
careers. And where it's kind of been

380
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morphing is really connecting schools at the
local level, connecting the schools and tech

381
00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:53.720
companies where they can build relationships,
you know, actively, and that can

382
00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:57.880
be through you know, career days
that can be school visas into the companies,

383
00:26:57.920 --> 00:27:02.799
companies going to visit schools. There's
a big push around high school tech

384
00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:07.400
interns in the state and so building
those relationships because what we found is largely

385
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the tech companies we work with didn't
necessarily have relationships with their local school districts

386
00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:15.799
or education centers. And then at
the school level, you know, we

387
00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:19.799
all know how difficult it is for
things like school funding and others, but

388
00:27:21.079 --> 00:27:26.880
oftentimes there was just a lot of
entrepreneurial teachers that saw the need to help

389
00:27:26.920 --> 00:27:30.400
provide their students with tech and innovation
kind of inspiration or opportunities. But they

390
00:27:30.400 --> 00:27:34.319
didn't necessarily, you know, have
a background as a computer science teacher.

391
00:27:34.359 --> 00:27:38.680
They certainly weren't a technologist by training. They were maybe a science teacher or

392
00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.839
even just a social studies teacher,
and so they kind of took it upon

393
00:27:41.880 --> 00:27:45.960
themselves to just create some of these
opportunities. And so it's held annually on

394
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:51.640
the final Friday in September, and
it's about again inspiring students to consider innovation

395
00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:56.119
careers, but really about connecting schools
and tech companies at the local level so

396
00:27:56.160 --> 00:28:00.319
they can build relationships that hopefully,
you know, create opportunities for things like

397
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:04.240
internships, career exploration, and just
inspiration. Because again, if we wait

398
00:28:04.279 --> 00:28:08.799
till someone's a computer science graduate at
a four year university, there are a

399
00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:12.759
whole host of potential, you know, amazing tech professionals out there that we

400
00:28:12.880 --> 00:28:17.920
just will never get to meet because
it's just you know, it's not like

401
00:28:17.960 --> 00:28:19.160
going to a restaurant you know you
want to be a chef, or going

402
00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:22.480
to a dentist or a doctor know
you wanted to be a dentist or doctor.

403
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:26.359
A lot of tech people just sit
find a computer and do a lot

404
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:30.440
of work, and so there's not
necessarily that kind of welcome sign to make

405
00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:33.720
it easy to figure out how you
might want to be someone who works in

406
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.079
a technology career field. Yeah,
and definitely I think if you if you

407
00:28:37.079 --> 00:28:41.000
don't have somebody in your family or
your immediate circle, who who does,

408
00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:45.960
I think it's hard it's hard to
to maybe understand what those careers are.

409
00:28:45.079 --> 00:28:48.599
So like, as you said,
it's very easy. Everyone knows what a

410
00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:51.599
dentist does, everyone knows what a
doctor does. There's a lot of jobs

411
00:28:51.640 --> 00:28:55.160
where there's a single word that can
describe them, and I think in the

412
00:28:55.440 --> 00:28:59.880
tech industry particularly, there's so many
roles that are not as easily described.

413
00:29:00.759 --> 00:29:03.000
I know personally, if I talk
about my job, and you know,

414
00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:06.680
we joke that we should have a
podcast where we have all of our parents

415
00:29:06.720 --> 00:29:10.279
come on and explain what we do
for a living, and our kids come

416
00:29:10.279 --> 00:29:11.839
on for that matter, and explain
what we do for a living and see

417
00:29:11.839 --> 00:29:19.039
how that episode goes. Yeah.
So yeah, yeah, tell us what

418
00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:22.319
tell us what lynd does for a
living and uh and we can all be

419
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:26.759
be entertained by that. But you
know, I think, I think,

420
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:30.359
particularly in Columbus, but even in
the you know, Cleveland and since study

421
00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:36.160
both have some some regional banks headquartered
there, we've got really some large,

422
00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:41.920
big bank banking centers here in Columbus. JP Morgan as over twenty thousand employees.

423
00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:47.359
Wells Fargo recently opened up a technology
center and is making Columbus part of

424
00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:52.680
their geographic footprint. Do you see
that as really helping build talent and and

425
00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:57.039
kind of expanding those those types of
tech roles that people could have in the

426
00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:03.119
state. Yeah, absolutely, Because
again we're spread out, as we've discussed,

427
00:30:03.160 --> 00:30:04.880
and we have all these metro areas, and so I think that's sometimes

428
00:30:04.920 --> 00:30:08.519
the kind of you know, piecing
that together, and Columbus is a perfect

429
00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:12.359
example. JP Morgan an upstart,
and Wells Fargo and Huntington. I mean,

430
00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:17.279
there is a large, large financial
services presence. I think I should

431
00:30:17.319 --> 00:30:21.920
know the stat but I think Ohio
has the third or the fourth largest financial

432
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.880
services sector in the United States.
And so even for our kind of population

433
00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:29.599
being about the eighth largest state,
you know, we very much outpaced when

434
00:30:29.640 --> 00:30:33.599
it comes to financial services just the
base that we have here, and of

435
00:30:33.599 --> 00:30:37.880
course that means employees, and so
I think that that is a huge opportunity,

436
00:30:38.039 --> 00:30:41.839
especially if we think of you know, younger companies, whether they're startups

437
00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:45.279
that are you know, zero to
one built in Ohio or you know,

438
00:30:45.359 --> 00:30:49.680
hey, how do how do we
perhaps recruit more those startups from the Bay

439
00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:53.839
Area and others in New York that
maybe want to replicate the upstart story where

440
00:30:53.880 --> 00:30:57.799
they where they open up a second
office and come to a place like Columbus

441
00:30:57.839 --> 00:31:03.240
because everything from access to customers to
a talent base that has worked at large

442
00:31:03.240 --> 00:31:07.599
financial institutions, we have those,
and I think again your company is that

443
00:31:08.359 --> 00:31:11.799
perfect example of that that we really
probably need to do a better job of

444
00:31:12.119 --> 00:31:15.759
you know, telling that and shouting
that and trying to be active and recruiting

445
00:31:15.759 --> 00:31:21.440
more because again, you all have
literally lived in so there's no better story.

446
00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:23.920
And I love when I get to
hear team members of yours or you

447
00:31:23.960 --> 00:31:29.480
know, read stories about upstart,
because that is exactly what I think the

448
00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:33.680
Ohio opportunity is. It's in a
space where we have a deep expertise,

449
00:31:33.720 --> 00:31:37.359
a deep knowledge, a deep talent
base, and we should be you know,

450
00:31:37.480 --> 00:31:41.359
trying to do more of that.
And so I love the financial services

451
00:31:41.400 --> 00:31:44.599
space and I think it is an
opportunity, especially when you think about tech

452
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:48.240
that is very much untapped, and
there's a lot of activity in some of

453
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:53.480
those other pillars of excellence like manufacturing
and Intel being the biggest example. Again

454
00:31:53.559 --> 00:31:57.000
some of the Honda and Lgs and
they're manufacturing, so there's a lot in

455
00:31:57.039 --> 00:32:01.559
that. You know, healthcare has
these giant innovation districts that our state is

456
00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:07.400
making, you know, large investments
and you know anchored around again groups like

457
00:32:07.440 --> 00:32:12.599
the Cleveland Clinic and University hospitals and
Cincinnati Children and the universities. But I

458
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:15.799
think kind of financial services is still
that one untapped one, and so you

459
00:32:15.799 --> 00:32:19.599
know, there's probably some work to
do there that that we could all collaborate

460
00:32:19.640 --> 00:32:22.839
on, because I think it is
a massive opportunity for the state for sure.

461
00:32:23.039 --> 00:32:28.079
Well I'm I'm personally now even more
pumped than I was before we talked

462
00:32:28.079 --> 00:32:30.759
about about it. I you know, I think that the upstart story in

463
00:32:30.799 --> 00:32:35.200
Ohio has been fantastic. We've had
a really great experience here as a company.

464
00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:37.839
H And I think I think one
thing that I've found that is very

465
00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:44.559
unique among technology companies, maybe in
the Midwest compared to on the coast,

466
00:32:45.319 --> 00:32:51.839
is just how collaborative the companies are. Things like recommending talent that maybe maybe

467
00:32:51.839 --> 00:32:54.799
we know somebody who's looking for a
role and isn't exactly the right fit for

468
00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:59.519
us, or we don't have the
right opportunity. I know, our recruiters

469
00:32:59.559 --> 00:33:01.519
weren't closed. See with recruiters at
other companies, we may refer them in

470
00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:05.680
say hey, this is a really
great candidate, but it's not the right

471
00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:09.279
spot for us. You know,
company, why do you want to interview

472
00:33:09.319 --> 00:33:13.079
this person? You know, we
we'd really recommend them. And I think

473
00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:19.079
that has been a real benefit as
we've grown since twenty nineteen uh here locally,

474
00:33:19.200 --> 00:33:22.799
that that we can find top talent
and and and hopefully both you know,

475
00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:28.160
elevate the talent in the industry,
but also partner really closely with with

476
00:33:28.200 --> 00:33:32.440
so many other great, great firms
locally. So, uh I think any

477
00:33:34.279 --> 00:33:36.839
you know, we we've certainly talked
about a variety of things as it relates

478
00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:42.839
to Ohio and the Midwest, but
any kind of uh hot takes from you

479
00:33:42.920 --> 00:33:45.079
on kind of the state of tech
and what you're what you see coming in

480
00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:50.079
the Midwest. To close things out
again, I think it's the areas that

481
00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:52.680
that as simple as it is,
it's it's it's almost a mindset around thinking

482
00:33:52.680 --> 00:33:57.839
of it as a regional opportunity,
just like the Bay Area and you know,

483
00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:01.400
again to drive around you know,
the the Bay and go from downtown

484
00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:06.440
San Francisco to Coopertino and Mountain View
and Palo Alto and Berkeley, you know

485
00:34:06.480 --> 00:34:08.840
that that's a region and I think, as simple as it is, that

486
00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:12.760
is something that our state can can
do a better job and that we're you

487
00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:15.719
know, trying to work on in
terms of the Ohio opportunity kind of moving

488
00:34:15.760 --> 00:34:20.719
forward. It's it's also I think
somewhat simple. It's the areas that we

489
00:34:20.880 --> 00:34:25.639
happen to already excel in financial services
being a perfect case. As I mentioned

490
00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:30.400
earlier, it's also areas that matter. And so you know, we have

491
00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:31.480
to be able to transact, and
we have to be able to bank,

492
00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:34.840
and we have to be able to
lend. You know, we take care

493
00:34:34.880 --> 00:34:38.760
of people when they're sick with our
healthcare institutions. We build things. We're

494
00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:44.440
building semiconductors now, which is really
really exciting. And so the more we

495
00:34:44.480 --> 00:34:49.360
can keep making investments and strategic you
know, bets and those areas, I

496
00:34:49.400 --> 00:34:52.480
think we're just going to become even
more and more important, especially as the

497
00:34:52.480 --> 00:34:54.920
world seems to get more and more
complicated. And then another thing we didn't

498
00:34:54.920 --> 00:35:00.119
talk about, but just Ohio's geographic
kind of place. We're in the Eastern

499
00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:04.239
time zone. If you draw kind
of a circle around us, you can

500
00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:07.360
drive essentially to sixty percent of the
US population within about you know, a

501
00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:10.119
day. And you're joking that anyone
in the Midwest as you hop in the

502
00:35:10.119 --> 00:35:14.199
car for ten hours and you know
you're at the beach, and that's what

503
00:35:14.239 --> 00:35:16.639
we do. But there's that,
And then I also think though you know,

504
00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:20.320
is the world, you know,
climate change in others you know,

505
00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:22.639
we are positioned right on the Great
Lakes, and I think that is something

506
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:29.360
that you know, access to fresh
water, just our geographic placement as a

507
00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:31.960
state, which you know has nothing
to do with us, and and but

508
00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:37.039
you can't replicate Great Lakes with fresh
water. And so some of those things

509
00:35:37.039 --> 00:35:39.840
that are only going to become more
and more and more important. You mentioned

510
00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:44.400
the data centers. They're also here
partially because of our weather. And we

511
00:35:44.440 --> 00:35:47.199
don't have hurricanes, we don't have
earthquakes, we don't have forest fires,

512
00:35:47.440 --> 00:35:51.800
we do have tornadoes, but you
know, in the grand scheme, that's

513
00:35:51.800 --> 00:35:54.119
something that you know, is probably
something a little more easily defensible than others,

514
00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:59.320
and so kind of you know,
our weather, access to things like

515
00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:04.639
fresh water are real opportunities I think
for our state. That again there's some

516
00:36:04.719 --> 00:36:07.320
really good people working on some thesises
around those and kind of making bets.

517
00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:10.719
But that's something that you know,
it's kind of literally if you go up

518
00:36:10.719 --> 00:36:15.400
to Cleveland, it stares you in
the face, this massive great leg But

519
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:20.000
that's something that the world gets more
complicated, it's only going to become more

520
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:25.400
important. Yeah, absolutely, it's
definitely interesting that natural resources are a driver

521
00:36:25.559 --> 00:36:32.119
of tech coming here, so kind
of two very different things but depend on

522
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:36.199
each other. So well, well
great, I mean I really appreciate the

523
00:36:36.199 --> 00:36:39.199
conversation. Chris. Thanks thanks for
joining us here on the podcast today.

524
00:36:39.360 --> 00:36:43.519
Yeah, well thanks for having me
Lynn. I'll Start partners with banks and

525
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