August 2, 2025 • 23 mins
In this dynamic episode of On The Fly!, Flywheel Executive Director Donna Zaring sits down with Liz Keating, former Cincinnati City Council member and current VP of Government Affairs at the Cincinnati Regional Chamber, to explore how civic innovation can thrive when entrepreneurs and policymakers join forces.
From tackling litter and recycling to addressing eviction and housing instability, Liz shares how hackathons—intensive, solution-driven events—are changing the way governments approach problem-solving. With Flywheel as a key partner, these collaborations have not only led to community-wide improvements but have sparked new startups, fostered empathy, and reimagined how public funding can drive long-term, people-first impact.
Listen to hear more about:
- How a groups co-created winning solutions to Cincinnati’s litter problem
- The birth of the Cleanup Cart from Product Refinery, a startup launched through a Flywheel hackathon
- Why housing stabilization is an economic, human, and entrepreneurial issue, and how Cincinnati piloted an innovative grant to prevent eviction
- The ripple effect of bringing together government, community, and entrepreneurs to solve shared challenges
- How policies around childcare, housing, and transit connect directly to workforce growth and business success
Mentioned in this episode:
- Product Refinery – Startup that developed the Cleanup Cart
- Strategies to End Homelessness – Partner in the housing stabilization hackathon
- Main Street Ventures – Funders supporting startups born from civic innovation
At Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub, we believe entrepreneurs are some of our greatest problem solvers. From the litter on our streets to the housing crisis in our neighborhoods, Flywheel brings together innovation, empathy, and real-world application to drive double-bottom-line solutions. Learn how to get involved or support our mission at flywheelcincinnati.org.
On The Fly! is sponsored by First Financial Bank
Learn More at bankatfirst.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Donna Zaring (00:10):
Flywheel is so important because if you have
that mindset of understandingand bringing in that innovative
mindset and the talent that yourecruit in your ecosystem and
then pull in these businesschallenges or government
challenges, you can solve somany problems and and create
better economy, create betteroutcomes for just the people
(00:31):
that live here, people in ourregion, people in our state or
across the country. And that'swhy what you do is so critical
to being able to solve some ofthese problems and just think of
it in a completely differentway. And so I love the the
bright minds, the new ideas thatcome in, from the work that
Flywheel does.
Joan Kaup (00:49):
Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub is a community of
social driven entrepreneurs,experienced and talented
coaches, angel investors,philanthropreneurs, and subject
matter experts. These folksshare resources, energies, and
ideas to help socialentrepreneurs build and scale
(01:11):
businesses that have both afinancial return and a social
impact. The Double Bottom LineMy name is Joan Kaupp. I am the
host of On the Fly! Today, wehave a special member of our
community at our microphone.
Liz Keating is currently thevice president of government
(01:33):
affairs and advocacy with theCincinnati, USA Regional Chamber
of Commerce. She first becameengaged with Flywheel while she
served as one of Cincinnati'scity council members, where she
was focused on housing, itszoning, limitations, and
restrictions. With her support,Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub
(01:56):
facilitated a housing hackathonto generate and identify
innovative thinking about how toaddress the shortage of
affordable housing in our city.Here to talk about all of that
and more is Flywheel executivedirector Donna Zaring and Ms.
Liz Keating.
Donna Zaring (02:16):
Hi, Liz.
Liz Keating (02:17):
Hi.
Donna Zaring (02:18):
You know, I think it's been three years since we
first met. It's kind of hard tobelieve time really flies. But
we met when you were arelatively new city council
member, and I was working atCentrifuge. One of my first
projects was working with you asa council member on an
innovation hackathon
Liz Keating (02:37):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (02:38):
To reduce litter in our neighborhoods. That was a
really great project for whichFlywheel was a key partner and
was just one of the manyinitiatives that you spearheaded
as a council member to createmore innovation in government.
Talk a little bit about that.Tell us a little bit about, why
did you wanna change the mindsetof government during your time
(03:01):
as a council member?
Liz Keating (03:02):
I just think there's so much opportunity to
drive innovation withingovernment. Like, there are so
many different challenges. Andif you get government to start
thinking in the way ofinnovative businesses and
partner with startup ecosystemin the Cincinnati region, we can
drive that innovation andactually save a lot of taxpayer
dollars that can then be spentin so many other cool visionary
(03:24):
projects. And so I wanted to tryto create that kind of
atmosphere and that mindset tobe able to just have that better
partnership. You've gotgovernment.
You've got the startupecosystem. You've got the
business community. And how doyou start utilizing all of the
different talents and expertisethroughout the region to be able
to drive that innovation ingovernment. And so when we got
(03:47):
the other council members toagree to fund something like
this, because it was sodifferent and something that was
totally outside of normalgovernment, We got it to fund
it, and then we looked at what'sthe first project that we can do
that is interesting to communitymembers. And litter is a huge
problem in Cincinnati.
And we have so many differentgroups in Cincinnati that work
(04:11):
to clean up neighborhoods, tocombat litter. And then the city
spends millions every singleyear, and it doesn't really move
the needle. So let's use thisbecause it impacts everybody. We
can get more people engaged withwhat's going on at the city, but
then also bring in theseinnovative minds in the startup
(04:31):
ecosystem. And then the businessminds within the business
community come together alongwith the people who work in
government who are deep expertsin this area, but they're not
given the space to be able tothink outside the box and drive
new innovation and create newsolutions.
Donna Zaring (04:50):
Mhmm. Yeah, I I remember how exciting it was
when we got the different groupswithin city government together
really for the first time totalk about the litter challenge
all in the same room. We've saidthe word hackathon a few times
and you and I know what that is,but some of our audience may not
know what a hackathon is. Howwould you describe a hackathon?
Liz Keating (05:12):
I would say so I think it's several pieces. And
you bring all these groupstogether, and then you have a
facilitator who helps firstbreak down what the problem is
and then create that problemstatement of what you're trying
to solve for. And then you putout that problem statement out
to the community. And you canhave community members. You can
(05:33):
have startups.
You can just have entrepreneurs.You can have students that come
in to basically hack at thatproblem statement and come up
with new solutions. And so thatfirst one with Litter, I think
we did it a week long. We didoffice hours with different
experts from the city. We didoffice hours with innovators,
with successful startups andentrepreneurs to ask questions,
(05:55):
to gather data.
We shared data between differentgroups, like Keep Cincinnati
Beautiful that understandslitter cleanup throughout the
city. And they have access todata with Keep America Beautiful
nationwide. We had the citydepartments, our Office of
Environment Sustainability. Wehad public services that does a
(06:16):
lot of the bulk pickup andlitter pickup. Pulling all that
together.
And then during those officehours, innovators, those teams
can ask questions, make surethey're on the right path for
the solving of the problem. Andthen we have pitch day. And
that's what you ran. Well, youran the whole thing. But then,
really, the coolest part is youbring everybody together.
(06:39):
That was at Union Hall. And wehad so many teams compete. And
they pitch their idea. And thenyou have a panel of judges that
ask questions. And then at theend of the day, have the
champion.
And then you take that idea andyou try to start implementing it
within government. And it wascool because we had, I think,
junior high students all the wayup to octogenarians that wanted
(07:00):
to get together and just findsomething new to learn about and
try to pitch new ideas of how toclean up their neighborhood.
Donna Zaring (07:07):
We did. I think the winner was the freshman in
high school, maybe?
Liz Keating (07:11):
Yeah. We had teenage girls who got together,
who they're part of a group thatdoes a lot of innovative work.
And then we also had I thinkthey were second place. And then
the winner was a partnership ofcity employees, neighborhood
leaders, and just communitymembers who were genuinely
interested and had their ownideas because they live the
(07:31):
experience of having litter ontheir doorstep and on their
streets and in their yards everysingle day. And they wanted to
pitch new ideas of how to cleanit up.
Joan Kaup (07:40):
And one participant, Lucas Williamson, created he's a
startup. He has a company calledProduct Refinery, and they do
all kinds of manufacturing forstartup companies. They created
the cleanup cart.
Liz Keating (07:56):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (07:56):
And his prototype actually, didn't that go on to
receive some, funding from MainStreet Ventures?
Liz Keating (08:04):
He did. He got funded from his idea that came
out of the hack, which madeneighborhood cleanups far more
efficient with his product withthe cleanup cart. Yeah. So it's
incredible the different thingsthat and business opportunities
that are created out of thesehacks in addition to helping
government and then offset thecost of government to be able to
clean these things up and thenthat ripple effect in the
(08:28):
community. When you're gettingrid of litter, you're creating
more neighborhood pride.
You're creating healthieratmosphere for kids to grow up
in. There's a huge differencebetween kids that grow up and
everything is green and theyhave trees and it's nice and
it's fun to be outside. And kidswho walk outside every single
morning and right at theirdoorstep, people are just
(08:48):
dumping. And the disrespect forthem and their neighborhood and
where they live versus beingable to create a much better
environment for them creates farbetter outcomes for those kids
long term.
Donna Zaring (09:02):
Yeah, I thought that was really eye opening when
we were working on this projecttogether. Not only can a
hackathon, create newopportunities for startups, to
to build business, startups likeProduct Refinery, but it also,
you know, can create public,government innovation. But at
(09:23):
the same time, the whole processcreated a lot of empathy and
awareness for perspectives andexperiences that people in our
community have that one mightnot always think about. And so I
thought that was really animportant outcome from the
hackathon that perhaps we hadn'tinitially thought about. That's
not the only hackathon that wedid together. We also worked on
(09:46):
a project to try to create morerecycling
Liz Keating (09:49):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (09:50):
In Cincinnati. And you worked with Flywheel on a,
hackathon around housingstability. So so there's so many
things that we can innovatearound, in government and in
business. Tell us about how whatyou're doing now and, how you're
(10:12):
continuing that innovative workin your role today.
Liz Keating (10:15):
Absolutely. So ever since I left the city, I'm with
the Cincinnati Regional Chamber.We represent 15 counties in
three states, and that's about,I think, 2,200,000 people, so
that entire business ecosystemin this region. And my job is
I'm vice president of governmentaffairs and advocacy. And my
(10:36):
work is to figure out whatpolicies at the local, state,
and federal level have impact onthe business community so we can
react to policies that arecoming up and how it will impact
the business community so we canpush against it or push for it.
And we can also be proactive andoffer up ideas of here's things
that can help us and here'sthings that matter to us. So
(10:58):
things that are important isgoing to be like housing. We
need to be able to continue togrow as a region so that we can
drive more tax revenue so thatwe can have more money to spend
on things to make our regionmore vibrant and a better place
to live. We want to be able torecruit talent to come here so
that our companies continue togrow and thrive. We need to make
(11:20):
sure we take care of the peoplewho live here so it is a good
environment because that is ourfuture business leaders.
And, if we're taking care of thekids when they're young in the
most formative years and they'regrowing up in healthy
environments and staying inschool and have great schools,
then our businesses are going tobe able to be taken care of
because they're going to thrivelater on in life. Another area
(11:42):
that I'm very passionate aboutthat we work on is childcare.
That's a huge barrier for entryinto the workforce, but if we
can get people working, they canget the paychecks. Going home
create more stability forfamilies. Businesses can be far
more productive.
And then you get more taxrevenue going to the government,
which then can then spend it onbig ideas, big things to create
(12:03):
a much more vibrant community.
Donna Zaring (12:05):
Wow. Yeah, you're absolutely right. The childcare
I'm a working mom, also. I knowyou are. It's it's always top of
mind at all stages of yourchild's development. You know,
balancing those needs can bereally challenging. And we do
miss out on a lot when we wedon't have parents in the
workforce because they don'thave access to that childcare.
Liz Keating (12:27):
Absolutely. So the data is, in Ohio, it's a
$3,900,000,000 economic impactwithout So that is loss of
productivity. That is people notentering the workforce or taking
on more hours or being employedfull time. There was a survey
done recently that shows 70 notseventeen, seventy seven-zero
(12:51):
percent of mothers in Ohio wouldwork more or go back into the
workforce if they had access toquality, reliable child care. So
think about that impact.
And so that, I think, is areally cool opportunity in the
future to drive more innovationin that space because there's
been so many groups working onthat for so long. And businesses
(13:13):
feel the impact. And then thehuman services that have been
advocating for this for a reallylong time, they feel the impact.
And there's an opportunity tocome together with the startup
ecosystem in the same way we didbefore with litter and recycling
to innovate here. And if youlook at policy from the state
level, they have to deal withthese urban areas and the
(13:36):
childcare challenges in an urbanarea, which a majority of them
are going to be center based,and then the challenges of child
care in these rural areas, whichare going to be more in home,
you know, the neighborhood housethat has the few kids on the
street or the grandmother thathas multiple children in the
home, and being able to balancethat.
So I'm excited to try to figureout where we can innovate in
(13:58):
that space and bridge that urbanrural divide and be able to
create policy that impacts andcan help and enhance child care
in both atmospheres. Wow.
Donna Zaring (14:10):
It's fantastic to know that the business
community, like the Chamber ofCommerce, is a great
representation of the businessesin our region. And, you know, it
sounds like you're reallydriving some creative thinking
there on how we can create anenvironment where businesses can
(14:32):
thrive. And that involves someof these social issues. Right?
So Flywheel is a socialenterprise hub, and we're all
about championing innovation inspaces that are social. And so
it's great to hear that theChamber of Commerce is tackling
some of these things that willenable businesses to thrive on a
(14:54):
number of different levels.
Liz Keating (14:55):
That's why flywheel is so important because if you
have that mindset ofunderstanding and bringing in
that innovative mindset and thetalent that you recruit in your
ecosystem and then pull in thesebusiness challenges or
government challenges, you cansolve so many problems and
create better economy, createbetter outcomes for just the
(15:17):
people that live here, people inour region, people in our state
or across the country. Andthat's why what you do is so
critical to being able to solvesome of these problems and just
think of it in a completelydifferent way than the people
who have, you you almost havethe tunnel vision of people
thinking the same thing all thetime. So I love the bright
minds, the new ideas that comein from the work that Flywheel
(15:40):
does.
Donna Zaring (15:41):
We always say that there's no greater disruptor
than an entrepreneur.
Liz Keating (15:46):
Absolutely. Important. And that's why I love
this convening of the minds thatyou get from something like a
flywheel or Syntravuz ingovernment, local governments,
and in the business community.There's so much opportunity
there.
Donna Zaring (16:01):
Let's go back and and dive a little deeper into,
startup founders and the waythat they can innovate, around
social issues. Let's talk aboutthe housing stabilization
hackathon. How did that come tobe? What was what was the driver
of the idea?
Liz Keating (16:19):
So the way the city of Cincinnati funds human
services is it's it kind of isall over the map, and a lot of
nonprofits will submit proposalsof how they're going to spend
the money. And a lot of times,most of them get the same amount
of money, but it's so manydifferent nonprofits that you're
funding. So you're spreadingthat money very thin, and you
(16:42):
are taking care of the problem,reacting to the problem, but
there's no money left to reallygo after the problem farther,
much farther upstream to try toget to the prevention stage. And
so what we decided is we wantedto just try something new. It
was a pilot. And we took a bigchunk of the money and put it
(17:03):
aside and created what we calledthe Impact Award. So rather than
like $20,000 $50,000 here, here,here, here with all these
groups, we kind of skimmed someoff the top and took $1,000,000
and said, Okay, over the courseof three years, we'll give you
$1,000,000 to the bestapplication. And we put out a
problem statement. And theproblem statement was, How can
(17:25):
we prevent eviction? Becausewhat we know is it costs about
$800 to keep someone in theirhome.
If they've gotten evictionnotice, on average, it costs
about $800 to solve thatchallenge, keep them in their
home at a 90% success rate. Ifsomeone has already been evicted
(17:45):
but they're staying at afriend's house, staying at a
family member's house, they'recohabitating, it costs about
$1,600 to step in and help thatperson get back on their feet at
a ninety five percent successrate. If we wait until someone
has been evicted, they don'thave friends or family to go to,
(18:06):
and they're in a shelter or somesort of temporary housing, it
costs us $4,700 on average perperson with a success rate of
about sixty six percent toeighty two percent. So, if you
just look at strictly thebusiness side of things, it
(18:26):
makes so much sense to spend the$800 to keep someone in their
home, keep more stabilization,particularly if it's family and
kids involved. Because what yousee, especially if people get
evicted and then they're goingshelter to shelter, kids aren't
going to school or they'reswitching schools constantly.
So you can't even put numbersaround that for the long term
(18:47):
trajectory of that child ofhaving to live in those
different types of unstableenvironments. So what we said is
we put the problem statementtogether and said, help us
figure out how we can preventevictions so we can spend our
money in a much smarter way andbe able to help more people and
(19:07):
try to prevent ending up withpeople, particularly children,
in shelters later on becausethen you have far less money to
spend. We also said somethingthat'll get you higher points on
your RFP when you come back isif you team up with other
(19:29):
nonprofits and other groups inthe city. Because we wanted to
see far more collaboration andjust come up with new ideas. And
so Strategies Send Homelessness,which is a phenomenal
organization, and we're verylucky in Cincinnati to have
this.
They are a model nationwide.They have been funded by some
really prestigious groups fromacross the country. And they
(19:54):
came in and they pulled somepartners together, including
Flywheel, on this application.And they won the grant. And
that's why we launched thathackathon.
And we had entrepreneurs fromall over compete to come up with
new ideas to figure out how toprevent eviction. So if you
think of, it's not just thesocial impact, but it's more
(20:15):
efficient use of very limitedtaxpayer dollars. You have the
human impact, the long termtrajectory of these kids. But
you're also creating a newbusiness model that can be
replicated in municipalitiesaround the world. Everyone has
this problem.
There is a housing crisiseverywhere. And to be able to
innovate in that space, createthis new model, it's a win all
(20:41):
across the board for so manydifferent groups. And it helps
our business community as wellto then be able to have more
stable workforce, which helpscreate a more vibrant business
community.
Donna Zaring (20:54):
That's fantastic. Would would you say that
workforce is a top issue forbusinesses locally?
Liz Keating (21:01):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's so many
different aspects of that. Isthere you know, if they need to
be able to grow, do they havethe talent here? If they need to
bring talent in, do we have aplace for people to move? We
have a housing crisis. There's ahuge housing gap. It's hard to
recruit new people here becausethere's no place for them to
live. If you have a workforcehere, are they in stable
(21:25):
housing? If they're not stablein their housing, depending on
the pay range of your jobs orbecause you have the crunch and
you have really high demand anda short supply, housing costs
are through the roof. So a lotof people can't afford to live
in the housing that's nearbywhere they work. You need a
robust public transit system tobe able to get people to and
(21:48):
from jobs. You need really goodschool systems. So there's so
many different aspects to beable to have a strong workforce.
You need good schools anduniversities to be able to train
that.
So doing these little bits ofinnovation and partnering with
these entrepreneurs that we havein Cincinnati and programs like
Flywheel really help us solve alot of those challenges that we
(22:12):
see more in the human servicesworld. But it actually has a
massive impact on our economy,on our government, on the
businesses that are here, andcreates a more thriving, you
know, region for us. There's somuch opportunity.
Donna Zaring (22:26):
So true. Your your your vision is always so clear,
Liz. It always amazes me howclear it is to you and how
you're able to see the way tosolutions and and really
mobilize people around thosesolutions. And you did a
wonderful job of that as a citycouncil member, and we're all
(22:47):
very grateful to that. And weknow that you're going to do a
fabulous job for the, Chamber ofCommerce in the same way. So
thank you from Flywheel andeverybody in Greater Cincinnati
for all the work that you do tomake our community better, and
thanks for being here today.
Liz Keating (23:03):
Well, thank you, and thank you to Flywheel
because the work that you do isso critical. I said it earlier,
and I'll say it again. You arehelping solve so many of these
challenges. And it's so muchmore than just a program or just
one startup because of theimpact that it can have on just
human beings and the trajectoryof kids and success of
(23:25):
government and success ofbusiness in the entire region is
so critical.
Joan Kaup (23:30):
On the Fly! is produced by Joey Scarillo with
music composed by Ben Hammer,Recorded at 1819 Innovation Hub
in Cincinnati, Ohio, courtesy ofthe University of Cincinnati.
Flywheel is so important because if you have
that mindset of understandingand bringing in that innovative
mindset and the talent that yourecruit in your ecosystem and
then pull in these businesschallenges or government
challenges, you can solve somany problems and and create
better economy, create betteroutcomes for just the people
(00:31):
that live here, people in ourregion, people in our state or
across the country. And that'swhy what you do is so critical
to being able to solve some ofthese problems and just think of
it in a completely differentway. And so I love the the
bright minds, the new ideas thatcome in, from the work that
Flywheel does.
Joan Kaup (00:49):
Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub is a community of
social driven entrepreneurs,experienced and talented
coaches, angel investors,philanthropreneurs, and subject
matter experts. These folksshare resources, energies, and
ideas to help socialentrepreneurs build and scale
(01:11):
businesses that have both afinancial return and a social
impact. The Double Bottom LineMy name is Joan Kaupp. I am the
host of On the Fly! Today, wehave a special member of our
community at our microphone.
Liz Keating is currently thevice president of government
(01:33):
affairs and advocacy with theCincinnati, USA Regional Chamber
of Commerce. She first becameengaged with Flywheel while she
served as one of Cincinnati'scity council members, where she
was focused on housing, itszoning, limitations, and
restrictions. With her support,Flywheel Social Enterprise Hub
(01:56):
facilitated a housing hackathonto generate and identify
innovative thinking about how toaddress the shortage of
affordable housing in our city.Here to talk about all of that
and more is Flywheel executivedirector Donna Zaring and Ms.
Liz Keating.
Donna Zaring (02:16):
Hi, Liz.
Liz Keating (02:17):
Hi.
Donna Zaring (02:18):
You know, I think it's been three years since we
first met. It's kind of hard tobelieve time really flies. But
we met when you were arelatively new city council
member, and I was working atCentrifuge. One of my first
projects was working with you asa council member on an
innovation hackathon
Liz Keating (02:37):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (02:38):
To reduce litter in our neighborhoods. That was a
really great project for whichFlywheel was a key partner and
was just one of the manyinitiatives that you spearheaded
as a council member to createmore innovation in government.
Talk a little bit about that.Tell us a little bit about, why
did you wanna change the mindsetof government during your time
(03:01):
as a council member?
Liz Keating (03:02):
I just think there's so much opportunity to
drive innovation withingovernment. Like, there are so
many different challenges. Andif you get government to start
thinking in the way ofinnovative businesses and
partner with startup ecosystemin the Cincinnati region, we can
drive that innovation andactually save a lot of taxpayer
dollars that can then be spentin so many other cool visionary
(03:24):
projects. And so I wanted to tryto create that kind of
atmosphere and that mindset tobe able to just have that better
partnership. You've gotgovernment.
You've got the startupecosystem. You've got the
business community. And how doyou start utilizing all of the
different talents and expertisethroughout the region to be able
to drive that innovation ingovernment. And so when we got
(03:47):
the other council members toagree to fund something like
this, because it was sodifferent and something that was
totally outside of normalgovernment, We got it to fund
it, and then we looked at what'sthe first project that we can do
that is interesting to communitymembers. And litter is a huge
problem in Cincinnati.
And we have so many differentgroups in Cincinnati that work
(04:11):
to clean up neighborhoods, tocombat litter. And then the city
spends millions every singleyear, and it doesn't really move
the needle. So let's use thisbecause it impacts everybody. We
can get more people engaged withwhat's going on at the city, but
then also bring in theseinnovative minds in the startup
(04:31):
ecosystem. And then the businessminds within the business
community come together alongwith the people who work in
government who are deep expertsin this area, but they're not
given the space to be able tothink outside the box and drive
new innovation and create newsolutions.
Donna Zaring (04:50):
Mhmm. Yeah, I I remember how exciting it was
when we got the different groupswithin city government together
really for the first time totalk about the litter challenge
all in the same room. We've saidthe word hackathon a few times
and you and I know what that is,but some of our audience may not
know what a hackathon is. Howwould you describe a hackathon?
Liz Keating (05:12):
I would say so I think it's several pieces. And
you bring all these groupstogether, and then you have a
facilitator who helps firstbreak down what the problem is
and then create that problemstatement of what you're trying
to solve for. And then you putout that problem statement out
to the community. And you canhave community members. You can
(05:33):
have startups.
You can just have entrepreneurs.You can have students that come
in to basically hack at thatproblem statement and come up
with new solutions. And so thatfirst one with Litter, I think
we did it a week long. We didoffice hours with different
experts from the city. We didoffice hours with innovators,
with successful startups andentrepreneurs to ask questions,
(05:55):
to gather data.
We shared data between differentgroups, like Keep Cincinnati
Beautiful that understandslitter cleanup throughout the
city. And they have access todata with Keep America Beautiful
nationwide. We had the citydepartments, our Office of
Environment Sustainability. Wehad public services that does a
(06:16):
lot of the bulk pickup andlitter pickup. Pulling all that
together.
And then during those officehours, innovators, those teams
can ask questions, make surethey're on the right path for
the solving of the problem. Andthen we have pitch day. And
that's what you ran. Well, youran the whole thing. But then,
really, the coolest part is youbring everybody together.
(06:39):
That was at Union Hall. And wehad so many teams compete. And
they pitch their idea. And thenyou have a panel of judges that
ask questions. And then at theend of the day, have the
champion.
And then you take that idea andyou try to start implementing it
within government. And it wascool because we had, I think,
junior high students all the wayup to octogenarians that wanted
(07:00):
to get together and just findsomething new to learn about and
try to pitch new ideas of how toclean up their neighborhood.
Donna Zaring (07:07):
We did. I think the winner was the freshman in
high school, maybe?
Liz Keating (07:11):
Yeah. We had teenage girls who got together,
who they're part of a group thatdoes a lot of innovative work.
And then we also had I thinkthey were second place. And then
the winner was a partnership ofcity employees, neighborhood
leaders, and just communitymembers who were genuinely
interested and had their ownideas because they live the
(07:31):
experience of having litter ontheir doorstep and on their
streets and in their yards everysingle day. And they wanted to
pitch new ideas of how to cleanit up.
Joan Kaup (07:40):
And one participant, Lucas Williamson, created he's a
startup. He has a company calledProduct Refinery, and they do
all kinds of manufacturing forstartup companies. They created
the cleanup cart.
Liz Keating (07:56):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (07:56):
And his prototype actually, didn't that go on to
receive some, funding from MainStreet Ventures?
Liz Keating (08:04):
He did. He got funded from his idea that came
out of the hack, which madeneighborhood cleanups far more
efficient with his product withthe cleanup cart. Yeah. So it's
incredible the different thingsthat and business opportunities
that are created out of thesehacks in addition to helping
government and then offset thecost of government to be able to
clean these things up and thenthat ripple effect in the
(08:28):
community. When you're gettingrid of litter, you're creating
more neighborhood pride.
You're creating healthieratmosphere for kids to grow up
in. There's a huge differencebetween kids that grow up and
everything is green and theyhave trees and it's nice and
it's fun to be outside. And kidswho walk outside every single
morning and right at theirdoorstep, people are just
(08:48):
dumping. And the disrespect forthem and their neighborhood and
where they live versus beingable to create a much better
environment for them creates farbetter outcomes for those kids
long term.
Donna Zaring (09:02):
Yeah, I thought that was really eye opening when
we were working on this projecttogether. Not only can a
hackathon, create newopportunities for startups, to
to build business, startups likeProduct Refinery, but it also,
you know, can create public,government innovation. But at
(09:23):
the same time, the whole processcreated a lot of empathy and
awareness for perspectives andexperiences that people in our
community have that one mightnot always think about. And so I
thought that was really animportant outcome from the
hackathon that perhaps we hadn'tinitially thought about. That's
not the only hackathon that wedid together. We also worked on
(09:46):
a project to try to create morerecycling
Liz Keating (09:49):
Mhmm.
Donna Zaring (09:50):
In Cincinnati. And you worked with Flywheel on a,
hackathon around housingstability. So so there's so many
things that we can innovatearound, in government and in
business. Tell us about how whatyou're doing now and, how you're
(10:12):
continuing that innovative workin your role today.
Liz Keating (10:15):
Absolutely. So ever since I left the city, I'm with
the Cincinnati Regional Chamber.We represent 15 counties in
three states, and that's about,I think, 2,200,000 people, so
that entire business ecosystemin this region. And my job is
I'm vice president of governmentaffairs and advocacy. And my
(10:36):
work is to figure out whatpolicies at the local, state,
and federal level have impact onthe business community so we can
react to policies that arecoming up and how it will impact
the business community so we canpush against it or push for it.
And we can also be proactive andoffer up ideas of here's things
that can help us and here'sthings that matter to us. So
(10:58):
things that are important isgoing to be like housing. We
need to be able to continue togrow as a region so that we can
drive more tax revenue so thatwe can have more money to spend
on things to make our regionmore vibrant and a better place
to live. We want to be able torecruit talent to come here so
that our companies continue togrow and thrive. We need to make
(11:20):
sure we take care of the peoplewho live here so it is a good
environment because that is ourfuture business leaders.
And, if we're taking care of thekids when they're young in the
most formative years and they'regrowing up in healthy
environments and staying inschool and have great schools,
then our businesses are going tobe able to be taken care of
because they're going to thrivelater on in life. Another area
(11:42):
that I'm very passionate aboutthat we work on is childcare.
That's a huge barrier for entryinto the workforce, but if we
can get people working, they canget the paychecks. Going home
create more stability forfamilies. Businesses can be far
more productive.
And then you get more taxrevenue going to the government,
which then can then spend it onbig ideas, big things to create
(12:03):
a much more vibrant community.
Donna Zaring (12:05):
Wow. Yeah, you're absolutely right. The childcare
I'm a working mom, also. I knowyou are. It's it's always top of
mind at all stages of yourchild's development. You know,
balancing those needs can bereally challenging. And we do
miss out on a lot when we wedon't have parents in the
workforce because they don'thave access to that childcare.
Liz Keating (12:27):
Absolutely. So the data is, in Ohio, it's a
$3,900,000,000 economic impactwithout So that is loss of
productivity. That is people notentering the workforce or taking
on more hours or being employedfull time. There was a survey
done recently that shows 70 notseventeen, seventy seven-zero
(12:51):
percent of mothers in Ohio wouldwork more or go back into the
workforce if they had access toquality, reliable child care. So
think about that impact.
And so that, I think, is areally cool opportunity in the
future to drive more innovationin that space because there's
been so many groups working onthat for so long. And businesses
(13:13):
feel the impact. And then thehuman services that have been
advocating for this for a reallylong time, they feel the impact.
And there's an opportunity tocome together with the startup
ecosystem in the same way we didbefore with litter and recycling
to innovate here. And if youlook at policy from the state
level, they have to deal withthese urban areas and the
(13:36):
childcare challenges in an urbanarea, which a majority of them
are going to be center based,and then the challenges of child
care in these rural areas, whichare going to be more in home,
you know, the neighborhood housethat has the few kids on the
street or the grandmother thathas multiple children in the
home, and being able to balancethat.
So I'm excited to try to figureout where we can innovate in
(13:58):
that space and bridge that urbanrural divide and be able to
create policy that impacts andcan help and enhance child care
in both atmospheres. Wow.
Donna Zaring (14:10):
It's fantastic to know that the business
community, like the Chamber ofCommerce, is a great
representation of the businessesin our region. And, you know, it
sounds like you're reallydriving some creative thinking
there on how we can create anenvironment where businesses can
(14:32):
thrive. And that involves someof these social issues. Right?
So Flywheel is a socialenterprise hub, and we're all
about championing innovation inspaces that are social. And so
it's great to hear that theChamber of Commerce is tackling
some of these things that willenable businesses to thrive on a
(14:54):
number of different levels.
Liz Keating (14:55):
That's why flywheel is so important because if you
have that mindset ofunderstanding and bringing in
that innovative mindset and thetalent that you recruit in your
ecosystem and then pull in thesebusiness challenges or
government challenges, you cansolve so many problems and
create better economy, createbetter outcomes for just the
(15:17):
people that live here, people inour region, people in our state
or across the country. Andthat's why what you do is so
critical to being able to solvesome of these problems and just
think of it in a completelydifferent way than the people
who have, you you almost havethe tunnel vision of people
thinking the same thing all thetime. So I love the bright
minds, the new ideas that comein from the work that Flywheel
(15:40):
does.
Donna Zaring (15:41):
We always say that there's no greater disruptor
than an entrepreneur.
Liz Keating (15:46):
Absolutely. Important. And that's why I love
this convening of the minds thatyou get from something like a
flywheel or Syntravuz ingovernment, local governments,
and in the business community.There's so much opportunity
there.
Donna Zaring (16:01):
Let's go back and and dive a little deeper into,
startup founders and the waythat they can innovate, around
social issues. Let's talk aboutthe housing stabilization
hackathon. How did that come tobe? What was what was the driver
of the idea?
Liz Keating (16:19):
So the way the city of Cincinnati funds human
services is it's it kind of isall over the map, and a lot of
nonprofits will submit proposalsof how they're going to spend
the money. And a lot of times,most of them get the same amount
of money, but it's so manydifferent nonprofits that you're
funding. So you're spreadingthat money very thin, and you
(16:42):
are taking care of the problem,reacting to the problem, but
there's no money left to reallygo after the problem farther,
much farther upstream to try toget to the prevention stage. And
so what we decided is we wantedto just try something new. It
was a pilot. And we took a bigchunk of the money and put it
(17:03):
aside and created what we calledthe Impact Award. So rather than
like $20,000 $50,000 here, here,here, here with all these
groups, we kind of skimmed someoff the top and took $1,000,000
and said, Okay, over the courseof three years, we'll give you
$1,000,000 to the bestapplication. And we put out a
problem statement. And theproblem statement was, How can
(17:25):
we prevent eviction? Becausewhat we know is it costs about
$800 to keep someone in theirhome.
If they've gotten evictionnotice, on average, it costs
about $800 to solve thatchallenge, keep them in their
home at a 90% success rate. Ifsomeone has already been evicted
(17:45):
but they're staying at afriend's house, staying at a
family member's house, they'recohabitating, it costs about
$1,600 to step in and help thatperson get back on their feet at
a ninety five percent successrate. If we wait until someone
has been evicted, they don'thave friends or family to go to,
(18:06):
and they're in a shelter or somesort of temporary housing, it
costs us $4,700 on average perperson with a success rate of
about sixty six percent toeighty two percent. So, if you
just look at strictly thebusiness side of things, it
(18:26):
makes so much sense to spend the$800 to keep someone in their
home, keep more stabilization,particularly if it's family and
kids involved. Because what yousee, especially if people get
evicted and then they're goingshelter to shelter, kids aren't
going to school or they'reswitching schools constantly.
So you can't even put numbersaround that for the long term
(18:47):
trajectory of that child ofhaving to live in those
different types of unstableenvironments. So what we said is
we put the problem statementtogether and said, help us
figure out how we can preventevictions so we can spend our
money in a much smarter way andbe able to help more people and
(19:07):
try to prevent ending up withpeople, particularly children,
in shelters later on becausethen you have far less money to
spend. We also said somethingthat'll get you higher points on
your RFP when you come back isif you team up with other
(19:29):
nonprofits and other groups inthe city. Because we wanted to
see far more collaboration andjust come up with new ideas. And
so Strategies Send Homelessness,which is a phenomenal
organization, and we're verylucky in Cincinnati to have
this.
They are a model nationwide.They have been funded by some
really prestigious groups fromacross the country. And they
(19:54):
came in and they pulled somepartners together, including
Flywheel, on this application.And they won the grant. And
that's why we launched thathackathon.
And we had entrepreneurs fromall over compete to come up with
new ideas to figure out how toprevent eviction. So if you
think of, it's not just thesocial impact, but it's more
(20:15):
efficient use of very limitedtaxpayer dollars. You have the
human impact, the long termtrajectory of these kids. But
you're also creating a newbusiness model that can be
replicated in municipalitiesaround the world. Everyone has
this problem.
There is a housing crisiseverywhere. And to be able to
innovate in that space, createthis new model, it's a win all
(20:41):
across the board for so manydifferent groups. And it helps
our business community as wellto then be able to have more
stable workforce, which helpscreate a more vibrant business
community.
Donna Zaring (20:54):
That's fantastic. Would would you say that
workforce is a top issue forbusinesses locally?
Liz Keating (21:01):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's so many
different aspects of that. Isthere you know, if they need to
be able to grow, do they havethe talent here? If they need to
bring talent in, do we have aplace for people to move? We
have a housing crisis. There's ahuge housing gap. It's hard to
recruit new people here becausethere's no place for them to
live. If you have a workforcehere, are they in stable
(21:25):
housing? If they're not stablein their housing, depending on
the pay range of your jobs orbecause you have the crunch and
you have really high demand anda short supply, housing costs
are through the roof. So a lotof people can't afford to live
in the housing that's nearbywhere they work. You need a
robust public transit system tobe able to get people to and
(21:48):
from jobs. You need really goodschool systems. So there's so
many different aspects to beable to have a strong workforce.
You need good schools anduniversities to be able to train
that.
So doing these little bits ofinnovation and partnering with
these entrepreneurs that we havein Cincinnati and programs like
Flywheel really help us solve alot of those challenges that we
(22:12):
see more in the human servicesworld. But it actually has a
massive impact on our economy,on our government, on the
businesses that are here, andcreates a more thriving, you
know, region for us. There's somuch opportunity.
Donna Zaring (22:26):
So true. Your your your vision is always so clear,
Liz. It always amazes me howclear it is to you and how
you're able to see the way tosolutions and and really
mobilize people around thosesolutions. And you did a
wonderful job of that as a citycouncil member, and we're all
(22:47):
very grateful to that. And weknow that you're going to do a
fabulous job for the, Chamber ofCommerce in the same way. So
thank you from Flywheel andeverybody in Greater Cincinnati
for all the work that you do tomake our community better, and
thanks for being here today.
Liz Keating (23:03):
Well, thank you, and thank you to Flywheel
because the work that you do isso critical. I said it earlier,
and I'll say it again. You arehelping solve so many of these
challenges. And it's so muchmore than just a program or just
one startup because of theimpact that it can have on just
human beings and the trajectoryof kids and success of
(23:25):
government and success ofbusiness in the entire region is
so critical.
Joan Kaup (23:30):
On the Fly! is produced by Joey Scarillo with
music composed by Ben Hammer,Recorded at 1819 Innovation Hub
in Cincinnati, Ohio, courtesy ofthe University of Cincinnati.
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