Carson Barth started knocking on doors with a squeegee, turned it into the highest-rated cleaning company in the county, and dropped out of college to keep his business growing.
Porter Krumpe walked out of high school at sixteen with a 1.1 GPA. Two years later he had cleared six figures in real estate.
Neither Barth nor Krumpe waited for permission. On the evening of Tuesday, Aug. 11, the young professionals join together for a panel discussion to tell you how they did it — and it costs $5 to pull up a chair.
The event is called LaunchPad, an entrepreneurship and networking night built for the people who have dreamed of starting their own venture, but never knew how to get started.
It takes place at The Syndicate, 213 S. Main St., Bellefontaine, starting at 6:30 p.m., with a live Q&A, real stories from people who have actually built something, and straight answers to the business questions that don't have a clean Google result.
There's free food — and a giveaway with real stakes: a grand prize worth more than $1,000 in in-kind services, aimed squarely at getting one attendee's business off the ground.
For $5, somebody in that room walks out with a running start.
The people at the front of the room
Barth, who founded LaunchPad, is the throughline. His window-cleaning side hustle, Clear Solutions, grew fast enough that he rebranded it Peak Property Care, bet on it full-time, and closed his first year in the black serving homes and businesses across Logan County.
He has since added a second lane as an insurance advisor at CoverLink. His whole arc is the pitch: you can build it here, without leaving.
Krumpe — now CEO of PortBuys Houses LLC — is the proof that the diploma track isn't the only track. He tried website design and door-to-door window cleaning and then found his footing buying and wholesaling foreclosures. The guy with a GPA nobody would brag about turned into a real estate business owner before he could legally rent a car.
They're joined by two panelists who know the entrepreneurship road from further down the path.
Jacob Schroeder, CPA, founder and CEO of Ascend Consulting and co-founder of Orca Advisor, has spent his career helping owners stop drowning in the books and start scaling the work they love — the numbers side, translated for people who'd rather be building.
Will Zell, a Columbus investor, co-founded the Ohio State spin-out AssetWatch and helped it raise more than $175 million. Today, he runs Vessel, backing early-stage founders — including Ohio startups — from first idea through product-market fit.
Between the four of them, the room covers every rung of the ladder from a hunch to a real company.
Why it's worth your Tuesday night
Downtown Bellefontaine has been rebuilding its own momentum for a few years now, storefront by storefront, and LaunchPad runs on the same current — the stubborn idea that Logan County can grow its own builders instead of exporting them.
If you've got a notion you keep talking yourself out of, this is the cheapest, lowest-risk way to test it against people who've already made the jump.
Worst case, you're out $5 dollars and a Tuesday night. Best case, you walk out with the answer you've been circling for months — or the grand prize that finally gets your idea off the ground.
IF YOU GO
What: LaunchPad — an entrepreneurship & networking night for young builders
When: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 6:30 p.m.
Where: The Syndicate, Bellefontaine, 213 S Main St, Bellefontaine, OH 43311
Who: Anyone ages 16–30, from first idea to first customer
Prize: Grand-prize giveaway: $1,000+ in in-kind services to help launch one attendee's business
Cost: $5 online — free food included
