A lot of new faces here this week. Welcome aboard. We will see you soon, 1k. The subscriber count keeps moving in the right direction, which tells us something important: more people across northwest Ohio are actively building careers, companies, and wealth. That’s the cohort that actually moves regional growth, not the press releases.
On the operations side, we hope everyone survived the weekends snow event. Shoveling nine inches plus drifts remains a low-ROI activity, though some of us still insist on running it in-house. As for the economy backdrop, the signals are… mixed. Are we strapping into a rocket ship, or duct-taping a leaky faucet? Markets, metals, and sentiment all say different things. Sorting signal from noise is the job. Let’s get into it.
💪 This Week’s Shoutout:
This week, we’re tipping our hat to Wendy Gramza, President of the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce.
I had the chance to spend the better part of a morning at the Chamber last week, and it was immediately clear that Wendy has a real pulse on the region. She understands the players, the pressures, and the momentum—and that perspective comes honestly. Wendy started her career as an intern at the Chamber and now finds herself at the center of much of what’s happening across Northwest Ohio.
She’s thoughtful, well-connected, and deeply invested in the success of the region; not just in theory, but in practice.
Wendy; thank you for being an advocate, a connector, and a supporter of Toledo Money. We appreciate the work you do and the role you play in moving this region forward.
Local Stock Market | 📈
Owens Corning | $OC ( ▲ 2.96% )
Dana Incorporated | $DAN ( ▲ 2.3% )
The Andersons | $ANDE ( ▲ 1.44% )
Owens Illinois | $OI ( ▲ 0.49% )
Welltower Inc. | $WELL ( ▲ 1.34% )
Marathon Petroleum Corporation | $MPC ( ▲ 3.72% )
First Solar | $FSLR ( ▼ 6.84% )
From an Attic to the Vistula District
Last week, I spent time in the Vistula District; specifically at the headquarters of Nemsys.
If you grew up in North Toledo, the building itself may bring back memories. Nemsys is rooted in what was once a church; home to a CYO basketball court that plenty of locals still remember. Today, that same space houses a managed services firm focused on networking, cybersecurity, and consulting, serving clients well beyond Northwest Ohio.
What stood out wasn’t just the business; it was the path.
Nemsys traces its origins back to a piece of software written by a few neighborhood friends in someone’s attic. That early work eventually led to a sizable acquisition. And rather than stopping there, that success became a catalyst—fueling reinvestment into surrounding storefronts and residential real estate now known as Ostrich Towne.
If you haven’t spent much time in the Vistula District, that’s understandable. The corridor is still evolving. But what’s already been developed is remarkably intentional. The reuse of space, the density, the mix of residential and commercial—it’s cohesive. In fact, it’s developed to the point where you briefly forget you’re in Toledo in the way people often expect Toledo to feel. (And yes, I still need to eat at the BBQ spot down there.)
For business owners, the relevance of Nemsys goes beyond real estate.
This is a team with the scale and credibility to help organizations reduce operational costs; particularly through advisory work and pragmatic applications of AI. Their approach is refreshingly direct: deliver quick, visible wins. The belief is that long-term contracts don’t move businesses forward, results do.
Which brings us back to a broader point raised recently in a Letter to the Editor about Toledo’s future.
If we want cohesive investment in this city, it doesn’t start with chasing the next shiny project. It starts by supporting the investments already made. It starts by pointing to examples, like Nemsys and the Vistula District, and saying: this works. And if we want others to invest in Toledo, we should incentivize and replicate this kind of thoughtful, locally anchored development in other corridors.
This is how cities grow, not through one-off wins, but through confidence, continuity, and capital staying close to home.
Sometimes the blueprint is already built. We just need to recognize it, and support it.
Startup Survival vs. Scale📈
Most startups fail. A small minority do very well.
According to long-running datasets from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and large VC meta-studies:
~20% of startups fail in Year 1
~50% fail within 5 years
~65–70% fail within 10 years
Roughly 30–35% survive past a decade
Survival, however, is not the same as success. The question lies behind how many people can actually withstand the heat to make it to the 5-year mark OR the 10-year mark.
How long does it take to reach $1M in revenue?
Across industries, data from SaaS benchmarks, Inc. 5000 surveys, and small-business longitudinal studies show:
Median time to $1M in annual revenue: 5–7 years
Top decile performers: 2–3 years
VC-backed, product-led companies: often faster, but with higher failure rates
Bootstrapped, service or niche businesses: slower, but more likely to survive
In plain terms:
Reaching $1M is harder than starting the business. Surviving long enough is harder than both.
Toledo Money Take
Here’s the deal. This is good news for Northwest Ohio. Our region is built to produce bootstrapped, service-driven, and niche businesses. The kind that may grow slower in the early years, but compound hard once they find footing. You trade speed for durability. And over time, durability wins. The real question isn’t whether your idea is good enough. It’s how long you can stay in the game. Most businesses don’t fail because the market disappears. They fail because the founder runs out of patience, cash, or conviction one wall too early. You never know what’s behind the next barrier you push through. Business is a sport. It’s hard by design.
And that’s exactly why sticking it out is an advantage here.
If Northwest Ohio increases the number of people willing to build, endure, and stay the outcomes compound well beyond any single company.
📬 Forward Thinking
Our referral program exists for one simple reason: to make sure as many business professionals in Toledo as possible are speaking the same language.
Toledo Money is designed to raise the collective floor; shared context around finance, economics, deals, hiring, and the forces shaping this region. The more people reading it, the sharper the conversations become. At work. Over coffee. At dinner. In rooms where decisions actually get made.
So here’s the trade…
Refer a few friends who should be reading Toledo Money. When they subscribe (25 verified subscribers), you get rewarded; with gift cards to local restaurants and coffee spots that elevate your regular rotation. The kind of places you already recommend without being asked.
Same signal. Bigger network. Better meals along the way.
💵 Money Snacks
Here are a few headlines we are snacking on
Gold just cleared the shelves. The ultimate Wall Street comfort trade jumped as much as 2.5% yesterday, blasting through the $5,000-per-ounce mark and flirting with $5,100 at the highs. That puts gold on pace for its strongest year since 1979, the last time inflation fears and geopolitical chaos dominated headlines. When uncertainty spikes, investors don’t browse. They grab gold and run.
The The Toledo Blade is leaving its long-time headquarters. The move ends a physical chapter that’s been part of Toledo’s media landscape for decades. According to reports this is not an exit from the market. The Blade will continue operating in Toledo. The timing is notable. It follows the recent shutdown of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which is another news paper owned by Block Communications.
The former Sears / Elder-Beerman site in Toledo is lining up for new tenants. If City Hall and the business side can get aligned, expect a Dick’s House of Sport and, more notably for weekend road-trippers, Trader Joe’s is eyeing Toledo as a potential neighbor. For anyone tired of the Ann Arbor grocery pilgrimage, that alone would be a win. More broadly, this is another signal that national brands are finally taking a serious look at Toledo rooftops.
