Cincinnati: City-as-a-Lab

On a clear Friday morning at Lunken Airport, a small crowd of city leaders, founders, university innovators, and venture partners gathered to watch a robot glide across the tarmac. To the casual observer, it may have looked like just another tech demo. But to those in the know, it was something much bigger: a symbol of how Cincinnati is reimagining what it means to build a city—and who gets to help build it.

The robot belonged to Airtrek Robotics, a startup born out of the University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub and now scaling rapidly with support from Cintrifuse’s Venture Velocity program and a growing circle of public and private champions. But the real story wasn’t just about robotics. It was about relationships.

Because in Cincinnati, just like across much of the Midwest, that's where innovation starts.

Innovation Moves at the Speed of Trust

Cincinnati’s greatest asset isn’t its size or cost of living, which are pretty great assets, but it’s our ability to collaborate.

Here, innovation isn’t siloed. Startups, city leaders, universities, investors, and civic institutions work in sync, not sequence. That coordination creates an environment where founders are more than just observers of a regional strategy, they’re central to it.

What sets the Midwest apart is how quickly and meaningfully those relationships take shape. It’s not unusual for a founder to pitch a solution on a Monday and be connected to the right city department by the end of the week. That pace is possible because the ecosystem is built on trust—and trust shortens the distance between idea and action.

The City-as-a-Lab initiative didn’t invent this approach. It codified what was already happening: a city willing to test new ideas early, partners aligned around shared goals, and a network that makes collaboration the default, not the exception.

This isn’t about flashy one-off wins. It’s about building a system where startups and civic leaders solve problems together: faster, smarter, and with fewer barriers in the way.

The Airtrek Example: What Happens When Systems Align

Airtrek Robotics isn’t a coastal import, it was built here. The co-founders connected through University of Cincinnati’s 1819 Innovation Hub and prototyped in the University’s Makerspace. They refined their business model through the UC Venture Lab, joined Cintrifuse’s Venture Velocity cohort-based program when they were ready to scale, and secured investment from Cintrifuse Capital. Then they landed a pilot with the City.

Each step was made possible because the region’s ecosystem is synced. The university, city government, investors, and support orgs are operating from a shared playbook: support founders early, and remove friction wherever possible.

That clarity is paying off. Airtrek has since received a $200,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Development, earned national attention at SXSW, and secured multiple regional pilots.

“This isn’t just a robotics story,” said J.B. Kropp, CEO of Cintrifuse. “It’s a case study in what happens when you design an ecosystem around collaboration. Airtrek moved fast because their support system was able to move fast with them.”

From One Pilot to a Platform

Airtrek’s Lunken demo was the first public example of City-as-a-Lab, but it won’t be the last.

The initiative is designed to offer startups access to civic test environments—from airports to transportation, housing to infrastructure. It’s built on a simple premise: if a startup has a solution to a civic problem, the region will help it prove, refine, and scale.

The City doesn’t operate this alone. Cintrifuse acts as the connective tissue, coordinating across government, academia, private sector, and the startup community to source problems, identify pilot-ready tech, and broker the relationships needed to get ideas off the whiteboard and into the real world.

This works in Cincinnati because stakeholders aren’t pulling in different directions. Economic development is tied to entrepreneurship. Innovation efforts span sectors. And startup support isn’t about one-off programs—it’s about sustained, founder-first infrastructure.

The StartupCincy Ethos

Zoom out, and the story of Airtrek Robotics is part of something much bigger: the StartupCincy movement.

StartupCincy is more than a brand. It is a blueprint for how the Cincinnati region supports its entrepreneurs. The movement is powered by a broad network of partners, including universities, corporates, investors, city leaders, and dozens of support organizations. These groups work together to help startups grow more efficiently.

This is Cincinnati’s advantage. While the region may not have the size of the coasts, it has the ability to move in coordination. When founders connect with the right people at the right time—whether it’s a pilot partner, a research lead, or a mentor who has scaled before—they gain traction faster. That traction leads to momentum. Momentum leads to scalable companies.

StartupCincy shows up in hands-on programs like Venture Velocity. It fills packed rooms during StartupCincy Week. And it lives in the everyday work of people across the region who are united by a shared goal: to make Cincinnati one of the best places in the Midwest to launch and grow a high-growth company.

This effort is not about slogans or isolated wins. It is about building a system that meets founders where they are and helps them move forward. With fewer barriers and more support, growth happens faster. When the ecosystem works together, companies like Airtrek Robotics don’t just grow. They accelerate.

That is why Cintrifuse and its partners are investing in founder development, not just funding rounds. It is why city leaders are opening doors to real pilot opportunities. And it is why so many across the region are aligned on a common vision: to make Cincinnati the most startup-friendly city in the Midwest, especially for high-growth, high-impact companies.

‍Kate Hursh-Wogenstahl is Director of Marketing & Communications at Cintrifuse in Cincinnati, a non-profit organization focused on accelerating startup growth in that city. Kate trained as a designer, building her career in non-profit marketing and engagement, eventually working as a Creative Director before joining Cintrifuse. She received her Masters from Purdue and Bachelor’s from the University of Cincinnati.