The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Adviser helps turn ideas into businesses
Willoughby resident Kip Marlow has served as coach, adviser to many local entrepreneurs
When Kip Marlow sold his surgical instruments company in 1997, it didn’t mark the end of his involvement in entrepreneurship.
But instead of immediately setting out to start a new company of his own, Marlow shifted his focus to helping other people become successful entrepreneurs. It’s a mission that Marlow, a Willoughby resident, has carried out faithfully for the past two decades through a variety of programs.
But Marlow might not have built a reputation as a respected adviser and coach to fledgling entrepreneurs, if it wasn’t for a bad experience he had while working for someone else.
Getting started
About 45 years ago, Marlow was fired from his job as a distributor of medical products. He used that termination as the inspiration to establish his own business in 1975.
“It was like, ‘OK, go back into the corporate world, or invent your own products,’ And that’s what we did. So it became Marlow Surgical Technologies,” Marlow said.
Drawing on his knowledge of distributing medical products, Marlow’s company marketed instruments for gynecological and general surgery to customers around the world.
Marlow said he eventually invented most of the products, including eight items that were patented. While Marlow Surgical Technologies was headquartered in Willoughby, the products were made by manufacturers elsewhere.
“I would have never lasted in the manufacturing world,” Marlow said. “I just don’t have that kind of personality. It’s a different kind of person that needs to do that.”
Turning point
In 1997, Marlow decided to sell the business he had operated for nearly 22 years to Cooper Companies, a California-based manufacturer of medical devices with an international customer base.
“Actually, I was burned out,” he said. “They called me and said, ‘Would you be interested in selling?’ And I took 2 seconds and said,
‘Sure.’ “And six months later, we were gone.”
Although Marlow signed on to serve as vice president of sales for Cooper, he didn’t stay with the company for long.
“That probably wasn’t one of the smartest moves I’d ever made,” he said. “They wanted me for two years, and I quit after 18 months. And retired for a while. And that was boring.”
Next move
At that point, Marlow began thinking about new opportunities that would be a good fit for a “recovering entrepreneur,” as he described himself. He eventually decided to become a coach and adviser for smallbusiness owners and people who yearned to become entrepreneurs.
Over the years, he has shared his entrepreneurial expertise in an assortment of settings.
First, he has served as a moderator and panelist for the STS Shark Tank event that takes place the second Tuesday of each month from 5 to 7 p.m. in the back room of Willoughby Brewing Co.
STS Shark Tank — a more civil and laid-back version of the TV show bearing a similar name — was started
by Ray Kralovic, co-founder of STERIS Corp. and an avid supporter of entrepreneurial efforts in Northeast Ohio.
During each monthly gathering, people are invited to share business and product ideas with a group of experienced business owners and receive feedback. STS Shark Tank also tries to provide guest speakers on business-related topics at its meetings, Marlow said.
LakeStart begins
Although Kralovic died in 2013, his dream of starting a nonprofit organization to assist entrepreneurs was fulfilled three years later when Marlow and 10 other area business leaders launched LakeStart.
Formally known as The Raymond C. Kralovic Center for Entrepreneurship, LakeStart strives to help new business owners establish their own companies and accelerate economic growth and job creation in Lake County.
Marlow began as its president and still serves as a mentor for the group. He’s one of about a dozen mentors representing professions such as manufacturing, marketing, business consulting, accounting and law. These professionals
volunteer their services to coach and advise LakeStart clients, who come to the organization with ideas for introducing new products and/or starting new businesses.
“Most of us (LakeStart mentors) just have a great background as small-business owners,” Marlow said.
LakeStart operates in a second-floor office at Willoughby City Hall that’s rented for $1 a year. While the organization’s mentors aim to inspire, encourage and guide clients, they also attempt to paint a realistic picture of business ownership.
“We try to tell anybody who wants to start a business, ‘Look, this is not easy. Be careful of what you wish for,’ Marlow said. “Because most entrepreneurs fail the first time around.”
Sometimes, new businesses can fail because of the owner’s shortcomings.
“If you have a good idea and you can’t execute the idea and start something and roll with it, it’s not going to work,” Marlow said.
In addition, it’s a bad idea to launch a businesses with no money to get it off the ground.
“As you know, banks do not loan money most of the time for start-ups,” he said.
Producing results
Since LakeStart started three years ago, it’s helped entrepreneurs start businesses that have probably created over 100 jobs, Marlow said.
One of LakeStart’s success stories is NVeyeTech, a Willowick-based company.
Earlier this year, NVeyeTech secured a major investor, Altair Advisers, which will assist in bringing the company’s night vision system for motorcycles to market in 2019. NVeyeTech’s system will feature a camera monitor that will attach to a bike’s handlebars, enabling the rider to see much more clearly at night, a news release stated.
NVeyeTech co-owner and founder Robert Schindler has been working with LakeStart for more than a year to help bring his product to the marketplace.
Altair Advisers, based in Chicago, is a private equity firm focused on small and middle-market-, high-caliber-, industrial-growth businesses that have the potential to be transformed into larger, more valuable enterprises, the release stated.
“We are delighted and proud to help entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses,” Marlow said, in reaction
to NVeyeTech’s recent announcement.
In addition to volunteering with LakeStart, Marlow embarked late last year on a new entrepreneurial initiative, called MyBoard. He owns and operates the for-profit business consulting firm along with Jerry Cirino, a current Lake County commissioner who has served as CEO and chairman of numerous companies.
MyBoard, which provides a complete advisory board for businesses, already serves clients in professions that include medical distribution, construction, information technology, fastener distribution and funeral services.
Marlow said MyBoard clients are located in geographic areas ranging from Dallas, Texas, to Long Island, New York.
“Jerry and I have a huge amount of experience running businesses, so people know us and will call us,” he said. “And we get referrals from time to time, too.”
Although Marlow has accomplished a great deal his career, he said he has no desire to step away from his assorted entrepreneurial pursuits anytime soon.
“I will do it until I can’t,” he said. “I love it. I love the great game of business.”