A high-profile Ohio tech startup aiming to bring AI companies to Columbus will postpone their entertainment and tech festival in the wake of layoffs and a pending lawsuit accusing the company’s founder of firing former executives to avoid sharing in future profits.
OH.io Ventures Inc., an artificial intelligence startup that officially launched in February, is now looking toward 2027 at the earliest to host its entertainment and tech festival. The company drew attention with its announcement to attract at least 100 AI startups to the Columbus region over the next five years. They also announced they would be holding their tech and entertainment festival in October 2026 to attract national and global attention to Columbus that would bring together founders, investors, and industry leaders.
Alex Husted, son of U.S. Sen. Jon Husted and OH.io interim managing director, told The Dispatch May 5 that the goal is still to turn Columbus into the country’s leading AI hub, but current company leadership needs to “regroup internally” and reevaluate their priorities before continuing with the festival.
“Our main objective is to source great [AI] companies to Ohio,” Husted said. The company is considering hosting the event sometime in 2027, but Husted said they had not hammered out a particular timeline.
The delay in the tech festival comes after three former employees filed a lawsuit against the nascent startup on April 14 in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, accusing the company’s billionaire founder, Ratmir Timashev, of luring them from lucrative jobs to draw publicity and then firing them to avoid sharing in future profits. OH.io has filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed with prejudice.
The company also laid off a total of 10 people in mid-April, representing around a quarter of its staff, according to Melanie Sloan, a spokesperson for the company.
Reporter Shahid Meighan can be reached at [email protected], at ShahidMeighan on X, and at shahidthereporter.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OH.io delaying October 2026 tech, entertainment festival
