Background and Ownership

Background
From 1984 to 1999, Jim Fisher, founder and president of IdeaStar, operated a creative communications firm that provided multimedia programs and presentations for Fortune 500 and mid-tier corporations in Northeast Ohio. In early 1995, Web site development was added to the list of services and they became one of the first companies in the area to produce corporate Web sites. During the next four years, the company's focus migrated completely to the Web.

In late 1999, Jim’s firm was folded into IdeaStar Inc. One of its first moves was to bring in Wayne Largent as its Vice President and Chief Technical Officer. Wayne recruited a team of top programmers to augment IdeaStar’s creative staff.

Together they began to build new Web innovations for startup companies as well as for internal development.  These included GalaxyBuilder: a Web site builder application, CorpMeetings: an event registration system, and Pulsar: an email newsletter management program. All of these innovations have been successfully licensed to local and national organizations.

Today, IdeaStar focuses its service offerings toward four markets: insurance, manufacturing/distribution, events and performing arts, and, small enterprise.  The company has won numerous national awards for its work bringing leading-edge Web technology to the insurance field.  For clients with global manufacturing operations, IdeaStar has built a bi-lingual enterprise portal between factories in China and distribution in the United States.  And, IdeaStar has integrated and maintained a highly successful event ticketing system for a major perfoming arts center in the Midwest.

IdeaStar's award winning software development team consists of degreed and certified professionals with years of experience. They are fully capable of developing and hosting applications on both Linux and Microsoft platforms.

In 2004 IdeaStar acquired the customer assets of Netforce Development Inc. of Shaker Heights, OH.   This move brought new customers, technology and talent to IdeaStar.

In 2005, IdeaStar was named a Weatherhead 100 company as one of the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio.  Over a five-year period IdeaStar had a sales growth rate of 144% and employment growth rate of 67%.

By combining both creative design and innovative technology solutions, the company continues to experience strong and sustained growth.

Ownership
IdeaStar Inc. is an independently owned and operated Subchapter S business in the State of Ohio. Incorporated in 1999 we employ up to 30 full-time professionals at our offices in Cleveland. Sole owner is Jim Fisher, also its President.