“Back when we started, there wasn’t a tech ecosystem in Toledo,” said Stuart Bertsch.
Keith Instone &StuartBertsch [ Tech Toledo - Business ]
“Back when we started, there wasn’t a tech ecosystem in Toledo. The idea was to bring these (tech-savvy) people together in one room and share what’s happening, that was the original idea,” said Bertsch (pictured at right). “It evolved to helping our existing companies get better at tech,” added Instone. “The Andersons is a prototypical local company. If they get better at tech, they’re going to be able to compete better in a global market. So when we started bringing these people together, and The Andersons needed some of those software developers, we could easily identify them.” Their biggest work to date? Bringing the TechHire Initiative to Toledo. An innovative program launched by the White House’s Technology Officer, TechHire connects the Glass City to a pipeline of 20 other selected tech cities, which will facilitate tech jobs in Toledo as well as training for those jobs. This provides an opportunity to offer good, local computer and technology-immersed careers because of the hard work by Tech Toledo. That’s pretty much the definition of community spirit.
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Andrew Newby Started with the goal of applying a “brewery attitude” to a whiskey company, Andrew Newby and his cofounders Dustin Wade and Lukas Kummer, decided a career in spirits was only natural for the Toledo-based entrepreneurs. “In Northwest Ohio, we’ve got grain, we’ve got water and we’ve got glass,” Newby said. “The best thing you can do with those three things is make whiskey.” An understatement, Toledo Spirits is actually innovating with a new spin on an ancient practice. Distilling their premier brand, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot in small batches allows them to experiment with formulas and flavors, playing with tastes and aging to hone each batch into something unique. “It’s the ultimate slow food,” Newby said. “You’ve got to make something and wait a while to see if it’s good or not.” Distillation itself isn’t hard, “Making good whiskey isn’t our challenge,” Newby admitted. “How do you start this company and create a consistent product that people like, that is our challenge. To supplement the entry into the alcoholic beverages market, Newby owns another company, Avatar, a marketing technology firm he started in 1997, which is his primary business right now. “It is my first love from a business perspective.” But with the release of Toledo Spirits’ latest innovation, a strawberry-flavored vodka called Heart of Glass, Newby may be tempted to share his affection.
January 11 • January 24
[ P r e s i d e n t , T o l e d o Sp i r i t s - B u s i n e s s ]
“We’ve been corralling grass roots efforts around technology, design and entrepreneurship that have bubbled up over the last few years,” said Instone (pictured at left), one half of this omnipresent duo that has their hands on much of Toledo’s tech/ startup scene. Their mission is to make Toledo better through the use of technology. It’s an exciting idea for a town better known for its blue-collar workmanship, and with Bertsch (pictured at right) and Instone’s (pictured at left) volunteer organization hard at work, they have made cutting-edge concepts, like the Pitch and Pour, a reality.
“Whiskey is the ultimate slow food”
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