Chad Delligatti — CEO of InnoSource, the Dublin, Ohio–headquartered workforce solutions company that has quietly grown into a national platform serving Fortune 500 and midsized organizations across the country.

Since joining InnoSource in 2000 as one of its earliest employees, Chad has devoted his entire professional career to building the company — helping it evolve from a regional staffing firm into a leading human resources, recruiting, onsite outsourcing, and data solutions partner employing more than 2,000 associates across North America.

In our conversation, Chad reflects on his entrepreneurial beginnings — from lawn mowing businesses in Granville to flipping Beanie Babies in college — and the pivotal decision to join a then-fledgling company called InnoSource instead of pursuing a corporate career. That decision shaped the next 25 years of his life.

We unpack how the staffing and outsourcing industry has evolved — from classified ads and fax machines, to job boards and Indeed, to today’s AI-driven recruiting workflows — and how InnoSource is entering its next chapter powered by technology.

Chad shares how their proprietary AI tools are dramatically accelerating hiring cycles, increasing recruiter efficiency, improving candidate engagement, and raising quality-of-hire — all while maintaining the “human touch” that remains central to InnoSource’s culture and differentiation.

At its core, this is a conversation about earned wisdom, resilience through change, and building something durable in Ohio.

00:00 [Welcome & Introduction: Chad Delagatti’s Entrepreneurial Journey]
01:34 [Core Values & Early Experiences: From Sweeping Floors to Lawn Care]
04:14 [Building Loyalty: Lessons from Early Business Ventures]
08:42 [Choosing InnoSource: The Entrepreneurial Fork in the Road]
13:34 [InnoSource Today: Workforce Solutions & Company Overview]
15:56 [AI Transformation: The Pivot to Technology-Driven Recruiting]
18:06 [Evolution of Staffing: From Newspaper Ads to AI-Powered Hiring]
24:22 [AI’s Impact: Changing the Recruitment Experience & Company Mindset]
30:56 [Culture & Consistency: Preserving the Human Touch Amid Change]
34:31 [Leadership Lessons: Growth, Delegation & Building a Passionate Team]

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For more on The O.H.I.O. Fund: check out & subscribe to future content @ www.theohiofund.com
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LINKS:
https://innosource.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-delligatti-621bba2/

This episode of The O.H.I.O. Fund Report features Michael and Tory Waxman — the founders of Sundays for Dogs, the Cleveland-based company designed to make dog parents’ lives easy.

What began with their own dog, Mabel, and a simple but powerful question — why does feeding dogs well have to be so difficult? — has grown into one of the most exciting consumer companies to emerge from Ohio. Led by loving dog parents Dr. Tory Waxman, a veterinarian, and Michael Waxman, a serial entrepreneur, Sundays pioneered human-grade, air-dried, zero-synthetics dog food designed to be healthier than kibble and easier than refrigerated alternatives.

Since our last recorded conversation in 2023, Sundays has scaled dramatically. Having raised more than $55 million in capital and built out a Cleveland-based R&D Test Kitchen — where our conversation today took place — Sundays has grown from a direct-to-consumer upstart into a nationally recognized brand preparing for omni-channel distribution, creating a product that dogs love while positioning themselves at the forefront of the booming pet food market and the emerging ambient fresh movement.

In our conversation, Michael and Tory share how they’ve navigated multiple chapters of scaling — including customer acquisition and brand evolution, balancing supply and demand, investing deeply in product innovation, and building a senior leadership team — while staying grounded in the mission that inspired Sundays from the start: making it easier to be an awesome dog parent. They also discuss what excites them most about the future and what comes next for Sundays as the company continues to grow.

00:00:00 - "The World's Best Dog Food is Made in Cleveland"
00:00:25 - Introduction: Sundays for Dogs
00:05:20 - Building an In-House R&D Test Kitchen in Cleveland
00:10:06 - Most Dogs Still Eat Kibble (And Why That's Changing)
00:15:09 - Marketing Evolution: How Does Sundays for Dogs Stand Out?
00:20:18 - New Recipe Launch Preview (From the Test Kitchen!)
00:21:33 - Ohio: The Surprising Dog Food Capital of America
00:25:36 - Supply Chain Stories & Lessons Learned
00:30:39 - When Demand Outpaces Supply: A Good Problem?
00:32:59 - Beyond DTC: Omnichannel Distribution Strategy
00:38:21 - How AI Will Transform How People Buy Dog Food
00:41:34 - Dogs as Family: Where Is Society Headed?
00:46:44 - Building Company Culture at Sundays
00:52:13 - The Vision: Making Sundays a Household Name
00:55:18 - Where to Find Sundays for Dogs

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For more on The O.H.I.O. Fund: check out & subscribe to future content @ www.theohiofund.com
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LINKS:
https://sundaysfordogs.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelewaxman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tory-waxman-87781b176/

This episode of The O.H.I.O. Fund Report features Brad DeHays — Founder and CEO of Connect Real Estate and Connect Housing Blocks.
Brad’s journey spans from buying small distressed properties while still in college to leading one of the most ambitious housing manufacturing platforms in the country. Through Connect Real Estate, Brad has revitalized some of Ohio’s most overlooked landmarks — transforming abandoned power plants, trolley barns, and historic buildings into vibrant new community anchors.

That same entrepreneurial vision inspired him to launch Connect Housing Blocks (CHB), a 630,000-square-foot modular housing facility anchored in Ohio, now one of the largest modular housing factories in the world. Using state-of-the-art equipment and prefabrication methods, CHB produces high-quality apartments from start to finish, eliminating nearly all measuring, cutting, and heavy lifting—the result: faster, more consistent, and more affordable housing production at scale.

In our conversation, which took place on site at CHB, Brad shares how he’s navigated multiple chapters of starting and scaling Connect, the founding insight that drove him to take on industrial-scale modular housing, how he engages communities and leverages public–private partnerships, his unique approach to talent and culture, and his vision for solving the housing crisis by massively scaling up production capability.

00:00:00 - The Birth of an Innovative Solution
00:03:50 - Understanding the Housing Crisis
00:08:56 - Reinventing Construction Processes
00:14:58 - Scaling Modular Housing Production
00:20:54 - Transforming the Construction Timeline
00:31:45 - Vision for the Future of Housing
00:35:42 - Scaling Modular Construction: A Game Changer
00:41:33 - The Future of Modular Housing: Opportunities and Challenges
00:46:16 - Design and Aesthetics in Modular Construction
00:51:55 - Labor Challenges in the Construction Industry
00:55:15 - Cultural Dynamics and Employee Empowerment
01:00:04 - Looking Ahead: Growth and Future Prospects

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For more on The O.H.I.O. Fund: check out & subscribe to future content @ www.theohiofund.com
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