AOL co-founder Steve Case promotes Cincy start-up scene

This time, Case's hour-long visit last week was more of a check-in sandwiched between other meetings in town, but it was long enough to inspire folks like William Thomas. Thomas, a Cincinnati native and graduate of Wittenberg University, is a co-founder of MORTAR, which helps underserved businesses and entrepreneurs succeed. "Since the last time he was here in 2014, the ecosystem has been built out significantly," Thomas said. "MORTAR was just getting started, OCEAN (a faith-based business accelerator) was not started, Hillman (a business accelerator focusing on minority- and women-owned businesses) wasn't wasn't even here." "Three years later the ecosystem is starting to thrive," he said. "It is building up, and more and more organizations are taking part in what's going on here in the Cincy start-up scene."