March 9, 2025 • 34 mins
Steve Flaherty doesn't just talk about entrepreneurship—he embodies it. As founder and CEO of NECO Tech, he's pioneering sustainable asphalt solutions while simultaneously helping build Delaware County's entrepreneurial ecosystem through his work with Ohio Wesleyan University.
"The number one thing is grit," Flaherty explains when asked what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur today. This perseverance philosophy has guided his remarkable journey from MBA student to "ecopreneur," developing innovative road materials that reduce carbon footprints without sacrificing performance. Through methodical research, strategic patience, and what he calls "founder therapy" with fellow entrepreneurs, Flaherty navigated the challenging path from concept to commercial success.
What makes Flaherty's perspective particularly valuable is his dual experience on both sides of public-private partnerships. Having served as a township trustee, he articulates with rare clarity the economic realities that make thoughtful development essential for community prosperity.
The story behind NECO Tech perfectly illustrates Flaherty's entrepreneurial philosophy. Rather than rushing an unproven concept to market, he "kept showing up" at industry events for years, building relationships and refining his approach until securing over $3.1 million in non-dilutive capital through Air Force research contracts. This patient, performance-based approach exemplifies his definition of sustainability: "Being better than we were yesterday without negatively impacting tomorrow."
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, community leader, or simply someone interested in how Central Ohio is evolving, this conversation offers valuable insights into building businesses and communities that last. Discover how grit, innovation, and strategic thinking are reshaping our region's future, one sustainable road at a time.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Central Ohio Matters, the podcast where
we delve into the issues thatshape Central Ohio's future.
Each episode features in-depthconversations with local leaders
, visionaries and changemakersdriving progress in our region.
These conversations offerinsights into the challenges our
communities face and thesolutions being crafted to move
them forward.
Here are your hosts, michelleGatchel and Ryan Rivers them
(00:25):
forward.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Here are your hosts, michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers
.
All right, we've got a greatepisode for you today.
We are going to Delaware, ohio,and we're going to talk to
Steve Flaherty.
He's the CEO and founder ofNikko Tech, a professed
ecopreneur and ecosystem builder.
And, steve, thank you so muchfor joining Ryan and I.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, no, happy to be here.
Thanks for the time.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You know, gosh, you are the pure example of an
entrepreneur, but you also arefantastic at helping other
entrepreneurs get their foot onthe ground and run, and you're
working with Ohio Wesleyan,which is where you are now as
part of their entrepreneurialcenter.
Tell me a little bit, or tellus a little bit, about what it
(01:15):
takes to be an entrepreneurright now.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, well, I mean, it takes a lot, you know, I
think it's a loaded question,but I'd say the number one thing
is grit.
You know perseverance.
I mean the obstacles that getthrown at you are not, you know,
of the normal variety, so youhave to be willing to take the
punches and keep going.
(01:38):
I truly think that that's oneof the defining factors between
successful people, successfulentrepreneurs, and
non-successful entrepreneurs, isyou just have to keep going.
It's not so much that companiesnecessarily fail, it's that
they're not given the right.
(01:58):
You know resources, energy,time, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So I think perseverance and grit is, you
know, is paramount, and whenwe're talking resources, you
know what is the hardest, someof the hardest things for
entrepreneurs to come by.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, well, I mean.
So the number one answer isalways going to be capital.
Right, you need, you need, youneed capital to to do anything.
However, you know capital comesin many forms, and so you often
get questioned about you knowwhat's the best way to finance a
business, and you know, do youtake a bank loan?
Do you, you know, getgovernment grants?
Do you?
You know, figure out, you know,revenue, sales, et cetera, et
(02:39):
cetera.
The answer is all of them right.
So the best way to do it is allof them so, but it is a.
It's a lonely journey A lot ofthe times.
You know so because you'reyou're doing a little,
especially you know when you're.
You start out you might be asolopreneur and then you know
you add a team, but you're doinga lot of things behind the
(02:59):
scenes, you're wearing many hats, and so it's easy to get
blinders on and focus only onyour business and not look
outward to understand the kindof the wayfinding of the
resources that exist out there.
So you know that's a challenge.
You know whether it's becauseyou're so focused on the
business or you know you thinkyou've got all the answers
(03:23):
because nobody else canunderstand what you're doing.
I think we often get blinderson and not look outward.
So the resources exist frommentors.
Asking someone who's been whereyou want to go Doesn't have to
be the same industry, doesn'thave to be the same archety you
know archetype or anything, butjust getting you know mentorship
(03:46):
from other people.
I'm a huge fan of what I woulddub.
I've done buddy sessions ormastermind groups where you talk
to other entrepreneurs and youknow you call it, you know,
founder therapy Because a lot ofthe times you know it's hey,
I'm going through this and Idon't, I don't know where to
start, I don't know where.
(04:06):
You know it's hey, I'm goingthrough this and I don't know
where to start, I don't knowwhere.
You know what the finish linelooks like and a lot of the
times other entrepreneurs havebeen through those same or
similar journeys.
That, even if it's justlistening, you know it's someone
that you know you can talk toand relate with, that you know
you can talk to and relate with.
So it's a magnitude of things.
(04:26):
But you know, I would say youknow resources are out there and
that's the biggest thing youknow.
You mentioned me helping otherentrepreneurs.
It's it's really about payingit forward.
I've had a number of olivebranches that have been extended
to me that there was no fairtrade at the time.
There's no way I could havegiven them enough money, enough,
(04:47):
you know, revenue contractwhatever to exchange for the
piece of information or theresource that they extended to
me.
So I think there's a rule ofreciprocity that exists, if that
makes sense amongst you know,kind of all entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So with the Ohio Wesleyan Entrepreneurial Center.
It was created as a uniquecollaboration with private and
government entities, correct?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, well, you've got the university itself.
So which is behind me here?
So it's located on campus atOhio Wesleyan, and then both the
city and the county arepartners and participants in the
ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And then do they also bring in local private entities
to that as well.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, so they create the hub for where private
companies can be created.
So the idea is that theycreated the space where the
innovation can happen.
So, whether you want to, justyou know there's offices, you
know that you can lease andparticipate in, but then just a
(06:05):
it's kind of a hive of activity,right?
So there's local people thathost different events.
You know whether it's meetupgroups, whether there's classes
you know we've had Saturdayclasses for you know real estate
and you know your next homebusiness or whatever it may, be
all out of here.
So it's designed to be anentrepreneurial gathering point
(06:28):
for the community.
So Delaware County at large andCentral Ohio at large, quite
honestly, Great.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So, Steve, outside of the entrepreneurial world, I
know you've spent some time asan elected official and on the
public side what do you see asthe biggest challenges for
Central Ohio and as far asgrowth and expanding our
(06:56):
business community?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, I was going to say the biggest challenge is
handling growth right, both froma a infrastructure perspective
of you know what we need to notonly, you know, keep the
companies here, but attract newcompanies.
I know not everybody alwayswants to hear about change and
development, but that iscritical to our lifeblood and
(07:19):
our future.
You know it's.
It's a hard area in the sensethat you know.
So, the political affiliationyes, I was a township trustee in
Berlin.
You know campaigning andtalking to people and just
listening to residents, andyou've got one you know that you
(07:48):
walk up to and they're like hey, you know, yeah, I'll support
you, just don't ever put anyparks in here.
You know we like the land theway it is and you know you go
right next door to the next doorneighbor and he's like you know
I'll support you, but can youbring some parks here?
You know we're missing all theamenities that we had over in
XYZ.
You know, ville, and we don'thave that here, and so it's it's
(08:09):
a blend, it's a blended area.
You've got, you know, peoplethat move here that want the
fields to stay fields.
You know, which does noteconomically help us out in the
future.
So, because, if you, if you lookat it from just a logical
standpoint of how taxpayerdollars are spent, especially in
the local jurisdictions.
So the cities have income tax,the townships do not.
(08:30):
So you get down to the cost ofmaintaining a residential
neighborhood.
Eventually the township ispaying for that out of their own
pocket or their own generalfund.
The maintaining of the roadsand the properties, those all go
away after the originaldevelopment and so it is a
losing battle.
We used to look at it for everydollar of income tax that we
(08:52):
brought in, we'd be spending$2.25 to $2.75 per residential
neighborhood for that same piece, and that's gone up with
inflation.
And you know infrastructurecosts.
For a commercial area you'dspend 50 to 75 cents.
(09:12):
So you're actually, you know,profiting off of that because
they have common accessagreements, common area
management agreements, wherethey're maintaining the space
that they have.
And then, if you do it properly, you're putting in a joint
economic development district orsomething where you're actually
participating.
The township can't be a taxcollector, but a municipality
(09:34):
can, and you're benefiting offof the economic wealth that's
created.
That's all development talk,right.
And so most residents don'twanna hear that and they don't
want the intels of the worldcoming to their local area.
They don't want that.
You know boutique manufacturingor warehouse, you know thing to
go up.
What you have to keep in mindis that's what progresses us
(09:56):
forward.
That's what puts Ohio on themap.
People are wanting to locatehere.
So if you look at thepopulation curve, there's been
maps going around lately abouthow most of Ohio is draining or
losing population, except forthe Columbus cluster, a little
bit down by Cincinnati and alittle bit up by Cleveland, and
(10:19):
that speaks to the economicdevelopment that is being done.
But that's job creation.
That's security.
Economic development that isbeing done, but that's job
creation.
That's security.
That's what allows us to makesure that we're able to cover
the maintenance on your roads.
So when people want to talkabout how the roads are bad, and
you know potholes everywhereand everything, it's like that's
because the localinfrastructure, tax and state
(10:41):
funding and everything hasgotten, you know, reduced over
time and so we have to make upfor it in other ways, which
usually is economic development.
And you know new businesses,new growth, and so it's tough
because you're in a place thatyou're watching cornfields turn
into parking lots and you knowmanufacturing centers or retail,
(11:03):
or you know any other X, y, zapartments, right Houses.
It's a tough battle but I thinkwhen you look at it logically
and you look at not necessarilythe, don't focus so much on the
pure zoning aspect of things, ofwhat's coming or what business
(11:27):
would be located there, but morehow what we try to do in Berlin
, serving both as trustee andthen on the zoning board for six
years to the developers don'tbring me more rooftops, Like,
bring me community, because Ican't, I don't.
You know we didn't have a parksdepartment.
Some of the townships haveparks department.
(11:47):
The cities obviously do.
But don't just bring merooftops.
You know some of the cities incentral Ohio want that because
it's income tax.
We want community.
Preserve our rural core and ourrural character, understanding
that we're going to be growingand expanding, that that field
is no longer going to be a field.
(12:08):
So bring the community and thatfield feel as much as you
possibly can with us.
So you know, have communitycenters.
You know if you you look at,like the Evans Farm development,
that that that first towncenter area is bustling.
So you're seeing people comingto those gathering points,
(12:31):
usually breweries or somethingor restaurants.
But they're coming to thosegathering points.
They're hosting their ownneighborhood events, their own
Christmas tree lightings, stuffthat the township and or the
cities used to have to pick up.
And I think that's where we seekind of the suburban sprawl.
If you will, going is to whereyou have these interconnected
(12:52):
neighborhoods that are hostingtheir own community things,
their own functions.
Their own functions, not justan organization, an HOA, that
just collects your dues andmaintains the front landscaping
or something, but truly creatingcommunity for all of us to be
able to.
You know, I've got five kids.
We don't, we don't have that inour neighborhood.
(13:13):
You know, we've looked at.
You know, moving to that, youknow, because we don't have the
community stuff, we go to thetownship events and everything.
But you look at neighbors.
Then you know, you go to theschools and they're like, oh
yeah, our neighborhood's havinga blah, blah, blah and it's like
, oh, you know, like duringCOVID since I own a food truck
(13:34):
business as well, you know wehad food trucks come out.
You know, and you know, do thefood truck thing in the
neighborhood and that was aboutthe closest we got to the quote
the community neighborhoods.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So it's a tough space to be, you need fish of all
different sizes in the pond.
But strategically for thefuture of Central Ohio, what, in
your opinion, is the mostdesirable or strategic of your
larger scale operations?
What types of businesses do youthink would be the most
attractive for Central Ohio asour identity going forward?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, no.
So obviously, me, me, my, myown humble opinion here.
I think commerce is good.
I think Central Ohio, you know,we, we a logistics center
because of the, if you, you know, hear the stats, you know you
can reach anywhere within, youknow, a day or two travel of
(14:29):
Columbus, ohio, and they say thesame thing about Indianapolis,
nashville, atlanta, et cetera.
But we are a logistics hub.
I think that should stick toour edges, our fringes.
So, you know, up at Marion, youknow, exit 141, there or 140,
great logistic hub, right, keepit out of the congestion of the
(14:50):
city, out on the west side, downon the south side, in Obetz and
Grove City and everything Ithink we've surrounded ourselves
with kind of those logisticalhubs which makes sense Inside,
particularly Delaware County.
You look at our, you know the,the affluency in Delaware County
, the, the, the job base, the,the people that live here and
(15:11):
the opportunities.
We are a, you know, typicallywe have a higher educated
working class, a professional,you know, class.
I, you know, looked at whenHonda, you know, is the largest
economic development project inOhio history, and then Intel got
announced and I was on zoningand I actually, I guess, leaked
(15:35):
a little bit.
I heard that Intel was kind ofcoming or something I suggested.
I heard a chip factory wascoming.
I suggested that it was Intel,and then the Gazette called me
out and said I said it two weeksbefore they announced it and
all that, but but if you look atthat yeah, yeah, so you, just
when you, when you're, whenyou're playing in different
circles, you, you put two andtwo together.
(15:56):
So I mean it's not like I hadinsider information or anything.
You just you hear rumblings andyou, where there's smoke
there's fire.
But Intel is the largesteconomic development project in
Ohio history, right From ainvestment standpoint.
Andrel just announced, and sothey're now the largest single
job creator, which is, you know,which is great.
(16:17):
Andrel would not have come herewithout Intel coming here.
So because they need access tosome of those chips for the
automation that they're doing.
But if you look at that, as youdraw a line from Marysville to
the east side, over in LickingCounty, it goes right through
Delaware and so we call that theinnovation arc and the thought
(16:39):
there is.
You know you don't necessarilyhave to define the exact
businesses you know sure I'dlove to is.
You know you don't necessarilyhave to define the exact
businesses you know sure I'dlove to live.
You know land like NVIDIA orsomething you know up here for
the workforce or whatever.
But you look at companies likeVertiv.
You know three years ago was a$6 billion market cap company.
Now you know is almosteclipsing, until the sell off
(17:01):
the other day with the AI scare.
You know they're almost $60billion and they're a long-term
company headquartered inWesterville, a customer
innovation and production centerout in Delaware in the
industrial part.
That is, the companies that youdon't hear about.
(17:21):
You might see the name, youknow.
On community sponsorships, yougo down to Ohio State.
They have a you know a publictailgate down there.
You know where.
You know they've got it fortheir employees, but you know
you go up and want to get a hotdog, you know they'll serve you
one.
You know you just say hi.
Those are the types ofcompanies that we want that are
going to participate.
They might be, you know, notfrom here, but they're going to
(17:42):
locate here.
They're going to bring peoplehere.
They're going to employ ourresidents and our citizens and
provide new opportunities for,you know, our kids and then
participate in the community.
So I think that's more.
What we create is that placewhere that can occur.
(18:07):
So the industrial parks andstuff that we were looking up at
3637 with the Berlin BusinessPark, I was hellbent to get a.
The World Bank actually hassomething called an
eco-industrial park, where itdoesn't matter what you put
there from a what companystandpoint matter what you put
there from a what companystandpoint, they are held to
standards that are governed anda framework that's laid out by
(18:28):
the World Bank.
That, if it's, you know, youcould put a lead factory there,
right, dirty lead factory.
It would be the cleanest andgreenest lead factory in the
world, you know so, if theycould meet the standards.
So, and it's about sustainabledesign, it's about corporate
pathways, it's about loweremissions and everything, and so
I think that's the trends thatwe're we're seeing is that you
know this clean tech stuff, not,you know, not going all tree
(18:52):
hugging.
You know green stuff, all likethat, but just being responsible
, being responsible for you knowthe, the economic development
and the community.
So we define.
You know the economicdevelopment and the community.
So we define.
You know, at Niko, you know ourcompany sustainability, which I
don't think just applies toemissions and all that.
(19:13):
Being sustainable means thatyou are forever.
You know continuing right, butbeing sustainable is being
better than we were yesterdaywithout negatively impacting
tomorrow.
So I think that's what we wantto attract.
We want companies that aregoing to come here, stay here,
be here, have their familieshere and be part of our
(19:35):
community and not be a vacuum onany of our resources or
infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, so, steve, you mentioned Nikotech and I want to
talk to you about that because,in a way, like when you were
getting started and you werethinking about the concept for
this, decarbonization ofpavement was a big part of this
right.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean it was.
It was about being exactly.
You know how I just definedsustainability.
We looked at it.
You know I was not.
You know, yes, I drive a Tesla,but it's not because of its
environmental friendliness.
My license plate is powered bycoal.
So if you see that, if youhappen to see that driving
around it's probably a blurbecause I like it for its speed,
(20:18):
you know it's fun to drive that.
You know I've got 12 minutecommute to my office and 12
minutes back.
That is my me time, separatingbetween the chaos of five kids
at home and, you know, makingsure that I'm a good provider
and father and husband and beingCEO of a, of a, of a startup
(20:41):
company which brings its ownstresses Right.
So that is my exhilarating time.
That's why I bought the Teslaits own stresses, right.
So that is my exhilarating time.
That's why I bought the Tesla.
But yeah, no, it started with,you know, being more sustainable
.
Looking at you know something Igrew up down the street from a
vice president at Kikosing.
I thought all the orangebarrels were Kikosing projects,
(21:01):
so I thought they were like thebiggest company in the world
because you saw orange barrelseverywhere.
But you know looking at howthat could be done more
sustainably, not necessarilyjust from an emission standpoint
, but just an efficientstandpoint.
You know, every single place Igo and as soon as someone finds
out we do asphalt or you knowthey, they're like, well, shit,
(21:23):
you should come here, fix theseroads, like everybody has bad
roads right.
That's like the notoriousuniversal you know gotcha.
So it was.
How can we, you know, play apart to make that easier, better
and quite honestly, I mean Ilove that industry.
It is true American grit.
Those people in that industrywork hard.
(21:47):
I know there's the old clicheof, you know, one person doing
all the work and five peoplestanding around.
It's not like that.
I mean it's blue collar andit's tough work and it's
American work, which is awesome.
So I love being part of thatindustry and I love, you know,
playing a piece and it'sevolution industry, and I love
(22:10):
you know playing a piece andit's evolution.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
So research and development, wise, coming up
with an asphalt that does useless of the carbon.
And the issues how or where didyou start?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Well, so it actually came out of my MBA back in 2008.
I was down at the University ofLouisville.
I'd gone to Miami Universityand I got a job here.
That company acquired a companydown in Louisville.
Never being down there, I wentand visited.
I asked if they had an ice rinkand they said they had two.
(22:42):
And that's all I needed becauseI didn't play hockey still.
And so I went down there and itwas because of playing hockey
that I actually met some of theguys from the Louisville club
team and they were like, hey,why don't you come play for us?
And I'm like, well, I've goteligibility left.
Yeah, I'll come play hockey.
How many classes do I got totake?
And I found thisentrepreneurship MBA In 2008.
(23:06):
Entrepreneurship was was was outthere and cool, but it was
internal at at schools likethere.
They weren't huge departments,there weren't these you know,
massive internalentrepreneurship competitions
and such and so, but what theydid have was intercollegiate
(23:26):
entrepreneurship competitions.
And so our professor hadoffered us, you know, to either
stay in classes all the time orgo out and compete on the
venture circuit and that wouldcount, you know, for credits and
you could take either path.
And I'm like, well, shit, Idefinitely want to do that.
And so we we went out and wecompeted all over the world,
really, with technologies.
(23:49):
We had to pick something and,through one of our partners in
the group, we got paired up onteams, voluntold who to be with,
and one of the partners waspervy to a technology that was
waste plastics and asphalt.
And I was working ininfrastructure at the time, you
(24:09):
know, selling into theinfrastructure market,
municipalities, governments,contractors, etc.
And that I got it and I'm like,well, yeah, that makes sense.
And you know, I know a littlebit about the infrastructure and
I was a huge SimCity fangrowing up, so you know, I know
how the roads got built, youknow, and they needed the pipes
underneath them in the, you know, before the houses went up.
(24:30):
And you know, if you build ahotel without water, you weren't
, you know, you'd bankrupt yourcity.
So, yeah, so we competed withthat and we pivoted it a couple
times with things and I turnedit into a plastic resin during
the 2008 through 2010 kind ofoil crisis because it was a
(24:50):
larger market.
And you know, we exploreddifferent things.
We got down to 2000,.
You know, 2010,.
We graduated and we're lookingat this thing, you know, we had
created a real company.
You had to create a real LLC orC Corp or something in order to
compete.
So we had a real company and wehad venture terms thrown at us
(25:14):
and I and I looked at it andthey call it the valley of death
and entrepreneurship, right?
So how deep is the valley ofdeath?
How wide is it?
And 2010,?
Nobody was talkingsustainability and construction
or infrastructure, or you know,honestly, a lot of mainstream
companies, right?
So they were just talking about, you know, sustainability.
Nobody really knew what itmeant and a lot of it got
(25:36):
politicized and it's like oh, ifyou like that, you must be a
tree-hugging vegan, you know.
And it's like no, like you can,it's okay to be sustainable
without a R and a D attached toyou.
But what it told me was themarket wasn't there yet.
And if a market's not there, Ido know one thing that it's
going to cost you a lot of moneyto either wait it out or pull
(25:59):
it to you, right?
And so that was a decision intime at that moment that I was
not willing to jeopardize myfamily and, you know, wasn't
comfortable yet my own skin, youknow, young, 25 year old, I
think at the time, you know.
So, you know, still cocky andignorant to you know a lot of
the world and yeah, I decided tonot pursue it and put it on the
(26:26):
back burner.
But to the point I mentionedearlier, what I did is I kept
showing up.
I went to the trade shows inthe asphalt industry.
I went to the events, I talkedto labs, even out, when my W2
job, I was selling automatedmeter reading systems or pipe
valves and fittings tomunicipalities, I'd see a paving
(26:48):
crew in town and I'd stop on myway, you know, to or from the
customer and I just I pickedtheir brain.
I'm like, hey, what do you guysthink?
And I, so you kept the pulse onthe industry right, just to see
where it is.
And I mean, you know, there'sprobably some weird people out
there that saw me stop at apaving site and I was asking you
know, hey, what do you thinkabout sustainability?
They're like get out of here,kid.
Like you know, we don't give ashit about that.
(27:09):
And um, the uh, uh, you justwatched it evolve and watched
what the trends going throughthe industry were.
Um, you know, I used to get toldyou know that be careful, kid,
because you might end up in aquarry.
Um, because we like repavingroads every seven years, and
it's like, oh, okay, well, I'drather not, but okay, but you
(27:35):
know you start looking at thingsas total cost of ownership,
which is ultimately what kind ofled me to.
You know, trustee, you know Isaw where Berlin was headed and
where it was at and felt anobligation and my wife's one to
not take too much.
You know me talking and notdoing at home.
(27:57):
So you know she didn't want tohear me.
You know complain about it.
So she's like, well, what areyou going to do about it?
You're either going to, youknow, stop talking about it
because I don't care, or you'regoing to go do something.
And it's like, okay, I'm goingto run for trustee, um, and so
that gave the other side of theperspective, uh, from from
Nika's uh, uh, uh state.
So that was four years astrustee that you know.
(28:19):
I was now on the flip side.
Instead of being the persontrying to provide the services,
I'm the person trying to providethe services, I'm the person
paying for the services, whilebeing fiscally responsible to
the township's money, but also,you know, working with, you know
for the residents, to make surethat we had good infrastructure
.
So that, honestly, was probablyone of the best things for from
(28:42):
NECO's take, I didn't have NECOat the time, you know, in a
company format.
It was, like I said, justshowing up at the time.
You know, in in a companyformat.
It was, like I said, justshowing up and kind of, you know
, keeping pulse of the industry.
I didn't launch it in itscurrent form until 2019.
But it did allow me to.
You know, they say there's twosides to the street, so
literally got to see both sidesof the street.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, great, so you jumped in.
Do we have any NECO Tech roadsin Delaware?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Not yet.
So we are.
No, I'm just kidding, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Delaware County's got very stringent engineers.
We're working on.
We just launched our first, ourfirst full scale asphalt plant
in September.
First, our first full scaleasphalt plant in September.
So we're in the testing and we,you know, we paved some parking
lots out there and we're doingsome internal testing with stuff
where the asphalt industry isone that does not forget.
So you do not want to shootyourself in the foot.
(29:40):
So we are doing this.
I guess we've got a little bitmore luxury that we can do it
with a performance-basedapproach where we didn't have to
just go out and create a bunchof revenue.
We've been, fortunate enough.
I helped get the companynon-dilutive capital through Air
(30:01):
Force research contracts.
So back to the financing thing.
We would have had to take along, you know a large amount of
venture capital to start this.
Instead we found ourselves, youknow, through glutton and
punishment, but landed some AirForce contracts.
Those were R&D contracts.
We licensed some technologiesfrom the Army Corps of Engineers
(30:24):
and we've done 16 Air Forcecontracts over the last five
years, not performing like workon those bases, like traditional
government contracting.
These are R&D contracts wherewe brought innovation and
technologies that we had eitherlicensed or conceptualized and
then took them through an R&Dcycle, licensed or
(30:48):
conceptualized, and then tookthem through an R&D cycle that
allowed us to fund over $3.1million of non-dilutive capital
which allowed us to have thatkind of runway to be able to
pursue the asphalt plant sidehow it should be.
So, in my opinion, beingperformance-based right, so not
just putting stuff out there andthen evolving it over.
Be so, in my opinion, beingperformance based right, so not
just putting stuff out there andthen evolving it over time.
(31:09):
And you know your first productis not great and then you, you
know, change it.
Roads are, you know, notforever, but they're, they're
there, they should last a while.
So it's really allowed us tohone our product and we signed a
large investment deal last year.
We've got a partnership withone of the world's largest
asphalt producers and we've gota path to scale to, you know, 50
(31:33):
plus locations over the nextsix years, which none of that
would be like.
It's funny because my wifealways gets on me about.
You know the different eventsthat I go network at, or you
know, speaking at a conferenceor having a conversation in a
random.
You know the different eventsthat I go network at.
Or you know speaking at aconference or having a
conversation in a random, youknow, grocery aisle.
Because I see something andtalk to someone, right, and I
(31:53):
can tell you every singlepivotal point that, as small as
it may have been, we would notbe here in the same capacity as
we are now without thatconversation or event, or
networking dinner or randomgrocery store conversation.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, great.
Well, we need to wrap this up,but how can people find out more
?
One about Ohio Wesleyan'sEntrepreneurial Center?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So I would say, come down, you know, to the center.
It's open during school hours.
Now A lot of the people are inand out, but Phil Smith is the
executive director at the center.
So finding him on campus ormaking an appointment with him
to check it out, you know, or ifI'm here, happy to you know,
show someone around.
But, and you can also find usout there on the website, you
(32:44):
know, at the DelawareEntrepreneurial Center.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Okay, and as far as NECOTECH, how do people find out
more information about that?
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yeah, necotechcom and all major social medias.
We're NECOTECH N-E-C-O-T-E-C-H.
And yeah, we're headquarteredout of the Entrepreneurial
Center, so people can't catch usin here, but our asphalt
plant's down on the south side,so we spend a lot of time at
both places.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
South side of Delaware.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
South side of Columbus, down on Frank Road.
Okay, okay, great Yep that'sour first one, and then we'll be
building a few more in Columbusand then expanding out from
there.
But it all starts here, yeahbut it all starts here.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah Well, Steve, I want to thank you so much for
joining us and giving us allsorts of insights into the
entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
No thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Thank you, Steve Take care.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Central Ohio Matters.
Be sure to like, share anddownload.
We cover government policies,healthcare challenges, housing
and business developments,transportation solutions,
education and innovation.
If you know of a good story weshould be talking about, go to
the radio station website andfill out a contact form Directed
to Michelle Gatchel, host ofCentral Ohio Matters.
(34:03):
Thank you.
Welcome to Central Ohio Matters, the podcast where
we delve into the issues thatshape Central Ohio's future.
Each episode features in-depthconversations with local leaders
, visionaries and changemakersdriving progress in our region.
These conversations offerinsights into the challenges our
communities face and thesolutions being crafted to move
them forward.
Here are your hosts, michelleGatchel and Ryan Rivers them
(00:25):
forward.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Here are your hosts, michelle Gatchel and Ryan Rivers
.
All right, we've got a greatepisode for you today.
We are going to Delaware, ohio,and we're going to talk to
Steve Flaherty.
He's the CEO and founder ofNikko Tech, a professed
ecopreneur and ecosystem builder.
And, steve, thank you so muchfor joining Ryan and I.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, no, happy to be here.
Thanks for the time.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
You know, gosh, you are the pure example of an
entrepreneur, but you also arefantastic at helping other
entrepreneurs get their foot onthe ground and run, and you're
working with Ohio Wesleyan,which is where you are now as
part of their entrepreneurialcenter.
Tell me a little bit, or tellus a little bit, about what it
(01:15):
takes to be an entrepreneurright now.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Yeah, well, I mean, it takes a lot, you know, I
think it's a loaded question,but I'd say the number one thing
is grit.
You know perseverance.
I mean the obstacles that getthrown at you are not, you know,
of the normal variety, so youhave to be willing to take the
punches and keep going.
(01:38):
I truly think that that's oneof the defining factors between
successful people, successfulentrepreneurs, and
non-successful entrepreneurs, isyou just have to keep going.
It's not so much that companiesnecessarily fail, it's that
they're not given the right.
(01:58):
You know resources, energy,time, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
So I think perseverance and grit is, you
know, is paramount, and whenwe're talking resources, you
know what is the hardest, someof the hardest things for
entrepreneurs to come by.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, well, I mean.
So the number one answer isalways going to be capital.
Right, you need, you need, youneed capital to to do anything.
However, you know capital comesin many forms, and so you often
get questioned about you knowwhat's the best way to finance a
business, and you know, do youtake a bank loan?
Do you, you know, getgovernment grants?
Do you?
You know, figure out, you know,revenue, sales, et cetera, et
(02:39):
cetera.
The answer is all of them right.
So the best way to do it is allof them so, but it is a.
It's a lonely journey A lot ofthe times.
You know so because you'reyou're doing a little,
especially you know when you're.
You start out you might be asolopreneur and then you know
you add a team, but you're doinga lot of things behind the
(02:59):
scenes, you're wearing many hats, and so it's easy to get
blinders on and focus only onyour business and not look
outward to understand the kindof the wayfinding of the
resources that exist out there.
So you know that's a challenge.
You know whether it's becauseyou're so focused on the
business or you know you thinkyou've got all the answers
(03:23):
because nobody else canunderstand what you're doing.
I think we often get blinderson and not look outward.
So the resources exist frommentors.
Asking someone who's been whereyou want to go Doesn't have to
be the same industry, doesn'thave to be the same archety you
know archetype or anything, butjust getting you know mentorship
(03:46):
from other people.
I'm a huge fan of what I woulddub.
I've done buddy sessions ormastermind groups where you talk
to other entrepreneurs and youknow you call it, you know,
founder therapy Because a lot ofthe times you know it's hey,
I'm going through this and Idon't, I don't know where to
start, I don't know where.
(04:06):
You know it's hey, I'm goingthrough this and I don't know
where to start, I don't knowwhere.
You know what the finish linelooks like and a lot of the
times other entrepreneurs havebeen through those same or
similar journeys.
That, even if it's justlistening, you know it's someone
that you know you can talk toand relate with, that you know
you can talk to and relate with.
So it's a magnitude of things.
(04:26):
But you know, I would say youknow resources are out there and
that's the biggest thing youknow.
You mentioned me helping otherentrepreneurs.
It's it's really about payingit forward.
I've had a number of olivebranches that have been extended
to me that there was no fairtrade at the time.
There's no way I could havegiven them enough money, enough,
(04:47):
you know, revenue contractwhatever to exchange for the
piece of information or theresource that they extended to
me.
So I think there's a rule ofreciprocity that exists, if that
makes sense amongst you know,kind of all entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
So with the Ohio Wesleyan Entrepreneurial Center.
It was created as a uniquecollaboration with private and
government entities, correct?
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah, well, you've got the university itself.
So which is behind me here?
So it's located on campus atOhio Wesleyan, and then both the
city and the county arepartners and participants in the
ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And then do they also bring in local private entities
to that as well.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well, so they create the hub for where private
companies can be created.
So the idea is that theycreated the space where the
innovation can happen.
So, whether you want to, justyou know there's offices, you
know that you can lease andparticipate in, but then just a
(06:05):
it's kind of a hive of activity,right?
So there's local people thathost different events.
You know whether it's meetupgroups, whether there's classes
you know we've had Saturdayclasses for you know real estate
and you know your next homebusiness or whatever it may, be
all out of here.
So it's designed to be anentrepreneurial gathering point
(06:28):
for the community.
So Delaware County at large andCentral Ohio at large, quite
honestly, Great.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
So, Steve, outside of the entrepreneurial world, I
know you've spent some time asan elected official and on the
public side what do you see asthe biggest challenges for
Central Ohio and as far asgrowth and expanding our
(06:56):
business community?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah, I was going to say the biggest challenge is
handling growth right, both froma a infrastructure perspective
of you know what we need to notonly, you know, keep the
companies here, but attract newcompanies.
I know not everybody alwayswants to hear about change and
development, but that iscritical to our lifeblood and
(07:19):
our future.
You know it's.
It's a hard area in the sensethat you know.
So, the political affiliationyes, I was a township trustee in
Berlin.
You know campaigning andtalking to people and just
listening to residents, andyou've got one you know that you
(07:48):
walk up to and they're like hey, you know, yeah, I'll support
you, just don't ever put anyparks in here.
You know we like the land theway it is and you know you go
right next door to the next doorneighbor and he's like you know
I'll support you, but can youbring some parks here?
You know we're missing all theamenities that we had over in
XYZ.
You know, ville, and we don'thave that here, and so it's it's
(08:09):
a blend, it's a blended area.
You've got, you know, peoplethat move here that want the
fields to stay fields.
You know, which does noteconomically help us out in the
future.
So, because, if you, if you lookat it from just a logical
standpoint of how taxpayerdollars are spent, especially in
the local jurisdictions.
So the cities have income tax,the townships do not.
(08:30):
So you get down to the cost ofmaintaining a residential
neighborhood.
Eventually the township ispaying for that out of their own
pocket or their own generalfund.
The maintaining of the roadsand the properties, those all go
away after the originaldevelopment and so it is a
losing battle.
We used to look at it for everydollar of income tax that we
(08:52):
brought in, we'd be spending$2.25 to $2.75 per residential
neighborhood for that same piece, and that's gone up with
inflation.
And you know infrastructurecosts.
For a commercial area you'dspend 50 to 75 cents.
(09:12):
So you're actually, you know,profiting off of that because
they have common accessagreements, common area
management agreements, wherethey're maintaining the space
that they have.
And then, if you do it properly, you're putting in a joint
economic development district orsomething where you're actually
participating.
The township can't be a taxcollector, but a municipality
(09:34):
can, and you're benefiting offof the economic wealth that's
created.
That's all development talk,right.
And so most residents don'twanna hear that and they don't
want the intels of the worldcoming to their local area.
They don't want that.
You know boutique manufacturingor warehouse, you know thing to
go up.
What you have to keep in mindis that's what progresses us
(09:56):
forward.
That's what puts Ohio on themap.
People are wanting to locatehere.
So if you look at thepopulation curve, there's been
maps going around lately abouthow most of Ohio is draining or
losing population, except forthe Columbus cluster, a little
bit down by Cincinnati and alittle bit up by Cleveland, and
(10:19):
that speaks to the economicdevelopment that is being done.
But that's job creation.
That's security.
Economic development that isbeing done, but that's job
creation.
That's security.
That's what allows us to makesure that we're able to cover
the maintenance on your roads.
So when people want to talkabout how the roads are bad, and
you know potholes everywhereand everything, it's like that's
because the localinfrastructure, tax and state
(10:41):
funding and everything hasgotten, you know, reduced over
time and so we have to make upfor it in other ways, which
usually is economic development.
And you know new businesses,new growth, and so it's tough
because you're in a place thatyou're watching cornfields turn
into parking lots and you knowmanufacturing centers or retail,
(11:03):
or you know any other X, y, zapartments, right Houses.
It's a tough battle but I thinkwhen you look at it logically
and you look at not necessarilythe, don't focus so much on the
pure zoning aspect of things, ofwhat's coming or what business
(11:27):
would be located there, but morehow what we try to do in Berlin
, serving both as trustee andthen on the zoning board for six
years to the developers don'tbring me more rooftops, Like,
bring me community, because Ican't, I don't.
You know we didn't have a parksdepartment.
Some of the townships haveparks department.
(11:47):
The cities obviously do.
But don't just bring merooftops.
You know some of the cities incentral Ohio want that because
it's income tax.
We want community.
Preserve our rural core and ourrural character, understanding
that we're going to be growingand expanding, that that field
is no longer going to be a field.
(12:08):
So bring the community and thatfield feel as much as you
possibly can with us.
So you know, have communitycenters.
You know if you you look at,like the Evans Farm development,
that that that first towncenter area is bustling.
So you're seeing people comingto those gathering points,
(12:31):
usually breweries or somethingor restaurants.
But they're coming to thosegathering points.
They're hosting their ownneighborhood events, their own
Christmas tree lightings, stuffthat the township and or the
cities used to have to pick up.
And I think that's where we seekind of the suburban sprawl.
If you will, going is to whereyou have these interconnected
(12:52):
neighborhoods that are hostingtheir own community things,
their own functions.
Their own functions, not justan organization, an HOA, that
just collects your dues andmaintains the front landscaping
or something, but truly creatingcommunity for all of us to be
able to.
You know, I've got five kids.
We don't, we don't have that inour neighborhood.
(13:13):
You know, we've looked at.
You know, moving to that, youknow, because we don't have the
community stuff, we go to thetownship events and everything.
But you look at neighbors.
Then you know, you go to theschools and they're like, oh
yeah, our neighborhood's havinga blah, blah, blah and it's like
, oh, you know, like duringCOVID since I own a food truck
(13:34):
business as well, you know wehad food trucks come out.
You know, and you know, do thefood truck thing in the
neighborhood and that was aboutthe closest we got to the quote
the community neighborhoods.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
So it's a tough space to be, you need fish of all
different sizes in the pond.
But strategically for thefuture of Central Ohio, what, in
your opinion, is the mostdesirable or strategic of your
larger scale operations?
What types of businesses do youthink would be the most
attractive for Central Ohio asour identity going forward?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, no.
So obviously, me, me, my, myown humble opinion here.
I think commerce is good.
I think Central Ohio, you know,we, we a logistics center
because of the, if you, you know, hear the stats, you know you
can reach anywhere within, youknow, a day or two travel of
(14:29):
Columbus, ohio, and they say thesame thing about Indianapolis,
nashville, atlanta, et cetera.
But we are a logistics hub.
I think that should stick toour edges, our fringes.
So, you know, up at Marion, youknow, exit 141, there or 140,
great logistic hub, right, keepit out of the congestion of the
(14:50):
city, out on the west side, downon the south side, in Obetz and
Grove City and everything Ithink we've surrounded ourselves
with kind of those logisticalhubs which makes sense Inside,
particularly Delaware County.
You look at our, you know the,the affluency in Delaware County
, the, the, the job base, the,the people that live here and
(15:11):
the opportunities.
We are a, you know, typicallywe have a higher educated
working class, a professional,you know, class.
I, you know, looked at whenHonda, you know, is the largest
economic development project inOhio history, and then Intel got
announced and I was on zoningand I actually, I guess, leaked
(15:35):
a little bit.
I heard that Intel was kind ofcoming or something I suggested.
I heard a chip factory wascoming.
I suggested that it was Intel,and then the Gazette called me
out and said I said it two weeksbefore they announced it and
all that, but but if you look atthat yeah, yeah, so you, just
when you, when you're, whenyou're playing in different
circles, you, you put two andtwo together.
(15:56):
So I mean it's not like I hadinsider information or anything.
You just you hear rumblings andyou, where there's smoke
there's fire.
But Intel is the largesteconomic development project in
Ohio history, right From ainvestment standpoint.
Andrel just announced, and sothey're now the largest single
job creator, which is, you know,which is great.
(16:17):
Andrel would not have come herewithout Intel coming here.
So because they need access tosome of those chips for the
automation that they're doing.
But if you look at that, as youdraw a line from Marysville to
the east side, over in LickingCounty, it goes right through
Delaware and so we call that theinnovation arc and the thought
(16:39):
there is.
You know you don't necessarilyhave to define the exact
businesses you know sure I'dlove to is.
You know you don't necessarilyhave to define the exact
businesses you know sure I'dlove to live.
You know land like NVIDIA orsomething you know up here for
the workforce or whatever.
But you look at companies likeVertiv.
You know three years ago was a$6 billion market cap company.
Now you know is almosteclipsing, until the sell off
(17:01):
the other day with the AI scare.
You know they're almost $60billion and they're a long-term
company headquartered inWesterville, a customer
innovation and production centerout in Delaware in the
industrial part.
That is, the companies that youdon't hear about.
(17:21):
You might see the name, youknow.
On community sponsorships, yougo down to Ohio State.
They have a you know a publictailgate down there.
You know where.
You know they've got it fortheir employees, but you know
you go up and want to get a hotdog, you know they'll serve you
one.
You know you just say hi.
Those are the types ofcompanies that we want that are
going to participate.
They might be, you know, notfrom here, but they're going to
(17:42):
locate here.
They're going to bring peoplehere.
They're going to employ ourresidents and our citizens and
provide new opportunities for,you know, our kids and then
participate in the community.
So I think that's more.
What we create is that placewhere that can occur.
(18:07):
So the industrial parks andstuff that we were looking up at
3637 with the Berlin BusinessPark, I was hellbent to get a.
The World Bank actually hassomething called an
eco-industrial park, where itdoesn't matter what you put
there from a what companystandpoint matter what you put
there from a what companystandpoint, they are held to
standards that are governed anda framework that's laid out by
(18:28):
the World Bank.
That, if it's, you know, youcould put a lead factory there,
right, dirty lead factory.
It would be the cleanest andgreenest lead factory in the
world, you know so, if theycould meet the standards.
So, and it's about sustainabledesign, it's about corporate
pathways, it's about loweremissions and everything, and so
I think that's the trends thatwe're we're seeing is that you
know this clean tech stuff, not,you know, not going all tree
(18:52):
hugging.
You know green stuff, all likethat, but just being responsible
, being responsible for you knowthe, the economic development
and the community.
So we define.
You know the economicdevelopment and the community.
So we define.
You know, at Niko, you know ourcompany sustainability, which I
don't think just applies toemissions and all that.
(19:13):
Being sustainable means thatyou are forever.
You know continuing right, butbeing sustainable is being
better than we were yesterdaywithout negatively impacting
tomorrow.
So I think that's what we wantto attract.
We want companies that aregoing to come here, stay here,
be here, have their familieshere and be part of our
(19:35):
community and not be a vacuum onany of our resources or
infrastructure.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, so, steve, you mentioned Nikotech and I want to
talk to you about that because,in a way, like when you were
getting started and you werethinking about the concept for
this, decarbonization ofpavement was a big part of this
right.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Yeah, yeah, no, I mean it was.
It was about being exactly.
You know how I just definedsustainability.
We looked at it.
You know I was not.
You know, yes, I drive a Tesla,but it's not because of its
environmental friendliness.
My license plate is powered bycoal.
So if you see that, if youhappen to see that driving
around it's probably a blurbecause I like it for its speed,
(20:18):
you know it's fun to drive that.
You know I've got 12 minutecommute to my office and 12
minutes back.
That is my me time, separatingbetween the chaos of five kids
at home and, you know, makingsure that I'm a good provider
and father and husband and beingCEO of a, of a, of a startup
(20:41):
company which brings its ownstresses Right.
So that is my exhilarating time.
That's why I bought the Teslaits own stresses, right.
So that is my exhilarating time.
That's why I bought the Tesla.
But yeah, no, it started with,you know, being more sustainable
.
Looking at you know something Igrew up down the street from a
vice president at Kikosing.
I thought all the orangebarrels were Kikosing projects,
(21:01):
so I thought they were like thebiggest company in the world
because you saw orange barrelseverywhere.
But you know looking at howthat could be done more
sustainably, not necessarilyjust from an emission standpoint
, but just an efficientstandpoint.
You know, every single place Igo and as soon as someone finds
out we do asphalt or you knowthey, they're like, well, shit,
(21:23):
you should come here, fix theseroads, like everybody has bad
roads right.
That's like the notoriousuniversal you know gotcha.
So it was.
How can we, you know, play apart to make that easier, better
and quite honestly, I mean Ilove that industry.
It is true American grit.
Those people in that industrywork hard.
(21:47):
I know there's the old clicheof, you know, one person doing
all the work and five peoplestanding around.
It's not like that.
I mean it's blue collar andit's tough work and it's
American work, which is awesome.
So I love being part of thatindustry and I love, you know,
playing a piece and it'sevolution industry, and I love
(22:10):
you know playing a piece andit's evolution.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
So research and development, wise, coming up
with an asphalt that does useless of the carbon.
And the issues how or where didyou start?
Speaker 3 (22:22):
Well, so it actually came out of my MBA back in 2008.
I was down at the University ofLouisville.
I'd gone to Miami Universityand I got a job here.
That company acquired a companydown in Louisville.
Never being down there, I wentand visited.
I asked if they had an ice rinkand they said they had two.
(22:42):
And that's all I needed becauseI didn't play hockey still.
And so I went down there and itwas because of playing hockey
that I actually met some of theguys from the Louisville club
team and they were like, hey,why don't you come play for us?
And I'm like, well, I've goteligibility left.
Yeah, I'll come play hockey.
How many classes do I got totake?
And I found thisentrepreneurship MBA In 2008.
(23:06):
Entrepreneurship was was was outthere and cool, but it was
internal at at schools likethere.
They weren't huge departments,there weren't these you know,
massive internalentrepreneurship competitions
and such and so, but what theydid have was intercollegiate
(23:26):
entrepreneurship competitions.
And so our professor hadoffered us, you know, to either
stay in classes all the time orgo out and compete on the
venture circuit and that wouldcount, you know, for credits and
you could take either path.
And I'm like, well, shit, Idefinitely want to do that.
And so we we went out and wecompeted all over the world,
really, with technologies.
(23:49):
We had to pick something and,through one of our partners in
the group, we got paired up onteams, voluntold who to be with,
and one of the partners waspervy to a technology that was
waste plastics and asphalt.
And I was working ininfrastructure at the time, you
(24:09):
know, selling into theinfrastructure market,
municipalities, governments,contractors, etc.
And that I got it and I'm like,well, yeah, that makes sense.
And you know, I know a littlebit about the infrastructure and
I was a huge SimCity fangrowing up, so you know, I know
how the roads got built, youknow, and they needed the pipes
underneath them in the, you know, before the houses went up.
(24:30):
And you know, if you build ahotel without water, you weren't
, you know, you'd bankrupt yourcity.
So, yeah, so we competed withthat and we pivoted it a couple
times with things and I turnedit into a plastic resin during
the 2008 through 2010 kind ofoil crisis because it was a
(24:50):
larger market.
And you know, we exploreddifferent things.
We got down to 2000,.
You know, 2010,.
We graduated and we're lookingat this thing, you know, we had
created a real company.
You had to create a real LLC orC Corp or something in order to
compete.
So we had a real company and wehad venture terms thrown at us
(25:14):
and I and I looked at it andthey call it the valley of death
and entrepreneurship, right?
So how deep is the valley ofdeath?
How wide is it?
And 2010,?
Nobody was talkingsustainability and construction
or infrastructure, or you know,honestly, a lot of mainstream
companies, right?
So they were just talking about, you know, sustainability.
Nobody really knew what itmeant and a lot of it got
(25:36):
politicized and it's like oh, ifyou like that, you must be a
tree-hugging vegan, you know.
And it's like no, like you can,it's okay to be sustainable
without a R and a D attached toyou.
But what it told me was themarket wasn't there yet.
And if a market's not there, Ido know one thing that it's
going to cost you a lot of moneyto either wait it out or pull
(25:59):
it to you, right?
And so that was a decision intime at that moment that I was
not willing to jeopardize myfamily and, you know, wasn't
comfortable yet my own skin, youknow, young, 25 year old, I
think at the time, you know.
So, you know, still cocky andignorant to you know a lot of
the world and yeah, I decided tonot pursue it and put it on the
(26:26):
back burner.
But to the point I mentionedearlier, what I did is I kept
showing up.
I went to the trade shows inthe asphalt industry.
I went to the events, I talkedto labs, even out, when my W2
job, I was selling automatedmeter reading systems or pipe
valves and fittings tomunicipalities, I'd see a paving
(26:48):
crew in town and I'd stop on myway, you know, to or from the
customer and I just I pickedtheir brain.
I'm like, hey, what do you guysthink?
And I, so you kept the pulse onthe industry right, just to see
where it is.
And I mean, you know, there'sprobably some weird people out
there that saw me stop at apaving site and I was asking you
know, hey, what do you thinkabout sustainability?
They're like get out of here,kid.
Like you know, we don't give ashit about that.
(27:09):
And um, the uh, uh, you justwatched it evolve and watched
what the trends going throughthe industry were.
Um, you know, I used to get toldyou know that be careful, kid,
because you might end up in aquarry.
Um, because we like repavingroads every seven years, and
it's like, oh, okay, well, I'drather not, but okay, but you
(27:35):
know you start looking at thingsas total cost of ownership,
which is ultimately what kind ofled me to.
You know, trustee, you know Isaw where Berlin was headed and
where it was at and felt anobligation and my wife's one to
not take too much.
You know me talking and notdoing at home.
(27:57):
So you know she didn't want tohear me.
You know complain about it.
So she's like, well, what areyou going to do about it?
You're either going to, youknow, stop talking about it
because I don't care, or you'regoing to go do something.
And it's like, okay, I'm goingto run for trustee, um, and so
that gave the other side of theperspective, uh, from from
Nika's uh, uh, uh state.
So that was four years astrustee that you know.
(28:19):
I was now on the flip side.
Instead of being the persontrying to provide the services,
I'm the person trying to providethe services, I'm the person
paying for the services, whilebeing fiscally responsible to
the township's money, but also,you know, working with, you know
for the residents, to make surethat we had good infrastructure
.
So that, honestly, was probablyone of the best things for from
(28:42):
NECO's take, I didn't have NECOat the time, you know, in a
company format.
It was, like I said, justshowing up at the time.
You know, in in a companyformat.
It was, like I said, justshowing up and kind of, you know
, keeping pulse of the industry.
I didn't launch it in itscurrent form until 2019.
But it did allow me to.
You know, they say there's twosides to the street, so
literally got to see both sidesof the street.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yeah, great, so you jumped in.
Do we have any NECO Tech roadsin Delaware?
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Not yet.
So we are.
No, I'm just kidding, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Well, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Delaware County's got very stringent engineers.
We're working on.
We just launched our first, ourfirst full scale asphalt plant
in September.
First, our first full scaleasphalt plant in September.
So we're in the testing and we,you know, we paved some parking
lots out there and we're doingsome internal testing with stuff
where the asphalt industry isone that does not forget.
So you do not want to shootyourself in the foot.
(29:40):
So we are doing this.
I guess we've got a little bitmore luxury that we can do it
with a performance-basedapproach where we didn't have to
just go out and create a bunchof revenue.
We've been, fortunate enough.
I helped get the companynon-dilutive capital through Air
(30:01):
Force research contracts.
So back to the financing thing.
We would have had to take along, you know a large amount of
venture capital to start this.
Instead we found ourselves, youknow, through glutton and
punishment, but landed some AirForce contracts.
Those were R&D contracts.
We licensed some technologiesfrom the Army Corps of Engineers
(30:24):
and we've done 16 Air Forcecontracts over the last five
years, not performing like workon those bases, like traditional
government contracting.
These are R&D contracts wherewe brought innovation and
technologies that we had eitherlicensed or conceptualized and
then took them through an R&Dcycle, licensed or
(30:48):
conceptualized, and then tookthem through an R&D cycle that
allowed us to fund over $3.1million of non-dilutive capital
which allowed us to have thatkind of runway to be able to
pursue the asphalt plant sidehow it should be.
So, in my opinion, beingperformance-based right, so not
just putting stuff out there andthen evolving it over.
Be so, in my opinion, beingperformance based right, so not
just putting stuff out there andthen evolving it over time.
(31:09):
And you know your first productis not great and then you, you
know, change it.
Roads are, you know, notforever, but they're, they're
there, they should last a while.
So it's really allowed us tohone our product and we signed a
large investment deal last year.
We've got a partnership withone of the world's largest
asphalt producers and we've gota path to scale to, you know, 50
(31:33):
plus locations over the nextsix years, which none of that
would be like.
It's funny because my wifealways gets on me about.
You know the different eventsthat I go network at, or you
know, speaking at a conferenceor having a conversation in a
random.
You know the different eventsthat I go network at.
Or you know speaking at aconference or having a
conversation in a random, youknow, grocery aisle.
Because I see something andtalk to someone, right, and I
(31:53):
can tell you every singlepivotal point that, as small as
it may have been, we would notbe here in the same capacity as
we are now without thatconversation or event, or
networking dinner or randomgrocery store conversation.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Yeah, great.
Well, we need to wrap this up,but how can people find out more
?
One about Ohio Wesleyan'sEntrepreneurial Center?
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So I would say, come down, you know, to the center.
It's open during school hours.
Now A lot of the people are inand out, but Phil Smith is the
executive director at the center.
So finding him on campus ormaking an appointment with him
to check it out, you know, or ifI'm here, happy to you know,
show someone around.
But, and you can also find usout there on the website, you
(32:44):
know, at the DelawareEntrepreneurial Center.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Okay, and as far as NECOTECH, how do people find out
more information about that?
Speaker 3 (32:51):
Yeah, necotechcom and all major social medias.
We're NECOTECH N-E-C-O-T-E-C-H.
And yeah, we're headquarteredout of the Entrepreneurial
Center, so people can't catch usin here, but our asphalt
plant's down on the south side,so we spend a lot of time at
both places.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
South side of Delaware.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
South side of Columbus, down on Frank Road.
Okay, okay, great Yep that'sour first one, and then we'll be
building a few more in Columbusand then expanding out from
there.
But it all starts here, yeahbut it all starts here.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Yeah Well, Steve, I want to thank you so much for
joining us and giving us allsorts of insights into the
entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
No thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 4 (33:35):
Thank you, Steve Take care.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Central Ohio Matters.
Be sure to like, share anddownload.
We cover government policies,healthcare challenges, housing
and business developments,transportation solutions,
education and innovation.
If you know of a good story weshould be talking about, go to
the radio station website andfill out a contact form Directed
to Michelle Gatchel, host ofCentral Ohio Matters.
(34:03):
Thank you.
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