Sramana Mitra: What did you do after college? Ned Hill: I had a painting company while in college. That was successful and there was a person who heard about me
I seldom get to interview an entrepreneur who is candid about his mistakes. Yet, people tend to learn more from failures than from successes. In this story, you will see how Ned built technology looking for a problem to solve, an absolute no no.You will also see the negative impact of not validating your product idea upfront. Read on. This is a unique interview. Sramana Mitra: Let's start at the very beginning of your journey. Where are you from? Where were you born and raised? What kind of background? Ned Hill: I was born in Massachusetts and raised by a single mother. I have an older brother. It was a good upbringing for an entrepreneurial bent. We were poor. I had a father who's a genius. He had a Harvard MBA with full scholarship but never did anything with it. I didn't see him. It was a good lesson to me as a child of what not to become as an adult. It doesn't matter how smart you are if you don't put in the work. I always had that in the back of my mind.
From Crain's Akron Business: The city continues to lose residents, and with a housing shortage, worrisome crime and strained relationships between police and citizens, Akron's next mayor will face big challenges.
Like the rest of the country, Northeast Ohio is facing trying economic headwinds. Ned Hill, professor of economic development in Ohio State University's John Glenn College of Public Affairs, believes there will be a 'shallow recession' in the near future, which in turn will help drive a technological transformation in the region's industrial and manufacturing sectors.