FIG. 40The application
Four questions.
Not a grant-writing exercise.
The application is intentionally short, and it is judged on substance, not polish.
FIG. 41The questions
Everything we ask.
- Q-01Who are you? Tell us about you and your business: what you do, where you are, who you serve.
- Q-02What is the need? What problem are you trying to solve, or what opportunity are you trying to reach?
- Q-03What is the ask? What exactly would the money buy (subscriptions, API credits, cloud spend, tooling), and roughly how much?
- Q-04What would it change? If this is funded, how does it change your ability to do business?
FIG. 42Selection
How applications are scored.
Every application is evaluated on two co-equal halves. Neither one alone decides the outcome.
Half 1 · Substance
Does the ask make sense?
Does the budget match the stated need? Is the plan coherent? Is the impact plausible? This half carries as much weight as everything else combined.
Half 2 · Priority
Who the program exists for
Priority goes first to businesses that are both woman- and minority-owned, then minority-owned, then woman-owned, then Ohio microbusinesses, then small businesses.