Each fall, the top startups from across the country come to Cincinnati to connect with leading brands in their industry at an event called Brand Fusion. During the event, 50 startups met with around 40 major marketers like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Ford, Fifth Third, and FC Cincinnati. The event draws brand marketers and venture-backed startups from across the country to spend two days in the region. It was the ninth time Brand Fusion was held, and over that time, 297 big companies and 431 venture-backed startups have participated in nearly 3,300 individual meetings. In 2012, the first year the event took place, it was launched in connection with The Brandery but is now co-hosted by Blue North, Cintrifuse, and StepStone Group. Last year was the first time the event took place at TQL; the event offers free registration to startups and tech companies. The night before, Opal Rooftop in Covington hosted a welcome dinner, which featured spectacular views of Covington.
“It’s not about monetizing the relationship between brands and startups,” Blue North Executive Director Dave Knox and Brand Fusion founder said. “It shows the collaborative nature of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky ecosystem as a whole.”
Companies get 15-minute meetings to discuss ideas, kind of like speed dating.
“Each meeting is curated based on what that startup’s able to accomplish and what the brand’s looking for,” Knox said. “Every meeting either should be directly solving what somebody’s looking for, or it’s at least going to inspire them a different way to look at something. It’s ultimately about business development and hopefully them doing relationships together, but it’s really meant to evoke emotions and thoughts and creativity.”
Fidelity Private Shares, one of the event’s sponsors, recently created a private shares division. They operate equity management platform and data room software so startups can manage their cap table and funding.
“It’s been great to support the Cincinnati metro area, northern Kentucky area, and all the founders who have come,” Matt Hiler, Fidelity’s Vice President, Solutions Architect at Fidelity Investments, said. “It’s great to meet them and see them come from all different parts of the country.”
The event centered on both local and national companies, including Fidelity, which has a campus in Covington.
“When you think about companies like Procter & Gamble, it allows some of these founders to create direct relationships with important companies that are national from a branding standpoint,” Jason Hammond, Fidelity’s VP and business partner manager, said.
The Baltimore-based StepStone Group also sponsored Brand Fusion.
“As one of the most active investors in the venture capital ecosystem, StepStone has access and insight into innovative startups that are reinventing marketing and commerce,” said Huff Millard, managing director of StepStone. “The opportunity to connect those companies with forward-thinking marketing executives from global companies is truly a privilege, and few events do this more effectively than Brand Fusion.”
Sarah Sanders’ company Native AI is based between Cincinnati and New York City.
“We are a growth-stage startup, and we work with brands and market research firms, so large companies like ones that are here today and traditional market research firms that work with brands as well,” she said. “We help them manage qualitative data, and we have AI solutions. We’ve been in the business of AI for four years, so we’re not necessarily new with the hype, but we help them more efficiently manage qualitative data and create synthetic data.”
Sanders is from Cincinnati and moved back to Cincinnati, aka the brand capital, from NYC.
“There’s a great network for me to leverage and build our business, not just from New York City as a big tech hub, but in this city,” she said.
Adam Weber locally works as CMO for Hungryroot, a nation-wide meal delivery service. He was thrilled to be a part of the event.
“I think Brand Fusion is well-organized, and I was impressed by the amount of companies that they were able to attract and get in here,” Weber said. “If you’re at a company, you learn about all these other services and companies and technology and innovation that’s happening. If you are a startup, you get access to anything from Hungryroot to Ford or Kroger or Procter & Gamble. It’s a pretty neat arrangement on both sides.” However, Peter Ricca from Moonlite.ai gave the best review: “Brand Fusion was incredibly valuable,” he said. “I’ve attended over a 100 trade shows and networking events in my career, and this is up there as the best I’ve ever attended.”
