Miami University celebrates alumni entrepreneurs

OXFORD, Ohio — Being a start-up business can be challenging, but owners don’t have to go through the growing pains alone. Across Ohio, there’s a new collaboration that is bringing businesses together and celebrating their success stories.

What You Need To Know

• Miami University announced its inaugural RedHawk50 list of the fastest-growing companies started by Miami graduates 
• The hope is to celebrate these businesses and get them involved with students 
• The owners of Rooted Grounds say they are honored to be included in the list
• COhatch is the ninth fastest-growing company on the RedHawk50 list 

Patsy and David Knopf have perfected the cup of coffee. It’s nine years in the making, and they’ve come a long way after starting in their garage.

“It was great; we’d come home from work and then we’d be like it smells so wonderful in our garage!” Patsy said. “And now we have to come here to smell the smells.”

And a lot of Rooted Grounds’ success is thanks to their alma mater, Miami University, like first jobs and communities that paved their way.

David and all employees of Rooted Grounds do blind taste tests on coffee batches to make sure everything tastes just right. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“I think that gave me my experience that enabled us to survive being entrepreneurs. It’s hard,” David said.

“That kind of helped me understand the importance and the roots of being involved in a community,” Patsy said. “And that’s a lot of the basis of our company where we’re rooted in the community in every market that we serve.”

And thanks to their experiences and success, Rooted Grounds was named one of the 50 businesses in the inaugural RedHawk50, which celebrates the 50 fastest-growing companies built by former Redhawks.

Rooted Grounds roasts their coffee in small batches in-house. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“We felt honored and excited and we, you know, we were curious, like who were all the other companies,” Patsy said. “And we just kind of thought, that’s such a neat thing to be able to meet all these other Miami alums just to see what they did and what they’re doing.”

With 360 companies nominated in the first year, leaders at Miami are excited to see how this program can grow and help current students succeed.

“Bringing alumni back who have succeeded at taking a risk and starting something new provides the opportunity for students, a 20-year-old, to look and see what seems like, an impossibility become possible,” Tim Holcomb the chair of the department of entrepreneurship at Miami University and director of the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship said.

Alumni like Matt Davis, the CEO and Co-Founder of COhatch out of Columbus. The co-working business has grown so much in the last eight years, with 30 locations and more in the works. He’s glad to be an example to students.

Matt Davis has grown COhatch to 30 locations and counting. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“I think the more examples you give people and obviously the network allows them to connect and we want people to be a part of what we do, but the more visibility it can create to the programs that they’re doing, the more success stories you can have in entrepreneurship will inspire the next generation for sure,” Davis said.

While Davis is proud of the growth of his company, he’s even prouder to be a RedHawk and named to the RedHawk50 list. He sponsors a scholarship program and goes back to Oxford to speak to the senior capstone class each year.

COhatch is more than a co-working space- it’s a community to connect with others. (Spectrum News 1/Katie Kapusta)

“It’s probably one of the more rewarding things that we do,” Davis said. “Especially if I can drag my kid and make them listen too!”

The inaugural RedHawk50 list included both COhatch and Rooted Grounds, along with 48 other companies. It’s a way to pave the way for current RedHawks.

“It’s really, really important to us, almost on a selfish basis, to have that engagement, to bring the alumni back to campus and have them get involved with our program,” Holcomb said.

Miami University has already announced that they will make this an annual list and will start accepting nominations for the second list in June.