COLUMBUS — A Columbus venture platform with an unusual pitch for growing tech companies has named a veteran Central Ohio executive to lead it.
OH.io Ventures Holding Inc. announced that Kevin Pohmer, most recently president of the Hexure insurance platform, has been appointed chief business officer. The venture was launched in February by entrepreneur and Ohio State University benefactor Ratmir Timashev.
Timashev, who founded Aelita Software and Veeam Software, has committed $100 million of his own money to invest in 100 local startups over the next five years. The venture platform aims to accelerate artificial intelligence and software startups by supplying the marketing and sales know-how those companies need to find customers and grow revenue.
Pohmer, a New York native who settled in Central Ohio two decades ago and earned an MBA from Ohio State, says the hardest thing for software founders is selling the product into the market. OH.io’s pitch is to give startups what it calls a go-to-market engine so they can scale.
Timashev has said the number-one problem founders face is building a go-to-market strategy — something he wishes had existed when he was building his own firms. His stated vision: turning Columbus into the next tech hub.