Tim Schigel is an entrepreneur, investor, and connector who has spent his career helping founders turn bold ideas into high-growth companies. As the Founder and Managing Partner of Refinery Ventures, Tim focuses on helping entrepreneurs accelerate through the “early-scale” stage — the crucial phase between product-market fit and sustained hypergrowth.
Tim began his journey as a founder, creating ShareThis, one of the first social media platforms to reach over 500 million users worldwide. He later launched and led the Cintrifuse Syndicate Fund, a fund of funds backed by Cincinnati’s corporate community, where he built partnerships with leading venture firms and helped startups raise nearly $150 million.
Today, through Refinery Ventures and as a co-founder of the Great Lakes Venture Summit, Tim is dedicated to building stronger connections between the coasts and the Midwest. Drawing on his experience across Silicon Valley and the heartland, he shares actionable insights on leadership, scaling, and creating innovation ecosystems that last.
The Great Lakes Super Region does not lack the raw ingredients for a generational technology economy. It has the population, universities, industrial customers, technical talent, research institutions, operating knowledge, and economic scale.
What it lacks is system behavior.
To reclaim its role as one of the world’s most important innovation economies, the region needs five things...
