INNOVATION LABS

Flywheel goes above and beyond to inspire and support social enterprise through focused innovation. Our Innovation Labs are a powerful platform for bringing together civic leaders, funders and founders with a shared mission to create focused startup innovation on a focused on a priority community challenge. Interested participating in or sponsoring a Flywheel Social Innovation Lab? Contact us at info@flywheelcincinnati.org

2025: Pave the Way Innovation Lab

This past winter, Cincinnati faced an extraordinary surge in pothole service requests-nearly doubling from 4,600 to 8,500. While City teams worked tirelessly to respond, the inability to get ahead of the problem has made it clear that the current approach-reactive repairs based on resident reports and service requests-must evolve.

The City of Cincinnati sought to reimagine the current process for addressing potholes in order to mitigate the compounding problems of wasted effort, budget strain and public frustration. To solve this challenge, Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub invited innovators, engineers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and residents to participate in an innovation lab and develop new, breakthrough approaches to the way the City identifies, repairs, and prevents potholes.

Solvers were invited to propose solutions in three key areas:

• Data & Intelligence
  Predictive analytics, unified data platforms, real-time mapping, and dashboards to proactively identify and prioritize repairs.

• Communication & User Experience
  Tools, apps, and public interfaces that improve how residents report potholes, receive updates, and understand repair timelines.

• Materials & Equipment
  New repair materials and methods that work across seasons, are environmentally friendly, and increase durability and speed of repairs.

Entrepreneurs participated in a week-long guided innovation sprint to develop a solution for helping the city deliver more durable road repairs, increase transparency and trust, and strengthen Cincinnati’s reputation as a vibrant, safe, and welcoming city for all. Solvers worked with Flywheel coaches (Joan Kaup, De’Marco Kidd, Adam Little, Kathy Schwab, Sandra Hughes, Melisse May, Jon DiMichele) and leveraged insight from meetings with City Departments to develop and refine their solutions before finalists were selected. 

On Demo Day, Flywheel, the City of Cincinnati and Tire Discounters welcomed nearly 70 community members, city leaders and partners to hear the final pitches from six finalists in the Pave the Way Innovation Lab at 1819 Innovation Hub. Nate Weyand-Geise earned top honors for a standout concept and creative framing of a proactive and engaging approach to pothole management. 

Presenting Sponsors

Partners

2024: Housing Stabilization Hackathon

Keeping Families Strong and at Home

24 Data scientists, programers, market research professionals, real estate investors, and community development advocates competed in the Cincinnati Housing Stabilization Hackathon February 2nd at the 1819 Innovation Hub.

Over 40 Innovators applied to the hackathon. The top 9 submissions competed in the event. 

The first place award and a check for $1,000 dollars went to a solution called TenantGuard. The team was led by Betsy Ehmcke, a data scientist at 84.51, and included Bijorn Burrell, Jacob Pieniazek, and Nick Ramos. TenantGuard used machine learning trained on 22 weeks of data from the Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey to predict when a tenant would be perceived as at-risk of eviction. The demo app also gave families access to a trained chatbot that would lead them to a knowledge base for all local tenant resources. 

Ramos noted that much of the data that might predict housing loss is in a state that is not usable. “So a lot of what we have to do to build a solution is to get the data into a usable state. Tenant Guard is a solution that collects clean data from the start,” he said. 

“We knew we would get some nontraditional ideas but we didn’t realize how much passion to solve this problem our contestants would bring to the challenge,” said Flywheel’s executive director, Laura Tepe. Even before the pitch event, contestants were asking how they could collaborate further, both with other contestants and the housing service providers, to further develop the ideas that came out of the event. 

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Purval delivered the welcome address and Council Member Meeka Owens served as a judge, as did leaders from housing services providers, and members of the Cincinnati startup community. 

Four other contestants were recognized for meritorious solutions

Best use of data - Juan Lazarde, Rosie Manfredi, Alejandro Ramirez, Pepe Lafuente for PRVNT

Best presentation - Serge Doumit, Sean Thimons, Mahmoud Shobair for HESTIA

Most creative approach - Adaite Vagerwal and Sahil Thakara for FinCare

Dignity for the Lived Experience - Cyrina Thomas, Shakeita Moore-Lilly, Alexandria Barnes, Sherry Powell, Candace Gasper Carroll Wallace 

Partners

The City of Cincinnati | Strategies to End Homelessness | Bethany House | Foundhouse Interfaith Housing Network | Legal Aid Society | Lighthouse Youth & Family Services | St. Vincent DePaul | YWCA | 8451.