JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog

It’s been exciting to see a groundswell of activity in Washington focused on encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation (such as the creation of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, of which Ray is a member). 

The most recent example that I noticed was legislation introduced that would provide a 25% tax credit for angel investors who invest in small or early-stage businesses that have received SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grants. The investment, which would be limited to half the size of the SBIR grant, would require a holding period of at least three years. Even though a three year investment is typically within the exit expectations for any angel investor (on the early side, in many cases), it’s nice to see legislation structured that reflects an understanding of the need for long-term investment. I also like to see incentives in place to encourage private investment when federal dollars are already being invested.

Apparently this bill (called The Innovation Technologies Investment Incentive Act) was based on the best practice learning of a biotech tax credit available in Maryland which has helped small, young biotech companies raise $50 million in investment. I also noticed one of the legislators sponsoring the bill was new Congressman and successful entrepreneur Jared Polis, the founder of Proflowers.com and Bluemountain.com (both of which had multimillion dollar exits) and represent one of the country’s hottest new entrepreneurial hubs: Boulder, Colorado.  

Another piece of legislation based on best practices…the Business Incubation Promotion Act, introduced in September of 2009 with the intent of encouraging and funding the establishment of more business incubators. Now let’s get that out of committee!

Cathy Belk is the Chief Relationship Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business and relationship management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.

Content provided by Josh Gordon of Knotice, a JumpStart Ventures Portfolio Company, and The Lunch Pail, a blog by Knotice 

For Akron, Ohio, the transition from Rubber Capital to something else has been gradual. Once a thriving centerpiece of industry in the United States, many rubber companies have moved from the region, though Goodyear remains. The legacy of rubber is still all over the city. In fact, I am writing and posting this article in a refurbished B.F. Goodrich building. The Spaghetti Warehouse that now sits across the parking lot from the cluster of buildings that contain Knotice’s headquarters was once the world headquarters for the rubber giant when it first got its start in March of 1871.

As the rubber companies moved away from the region in the 1990s, Akron’s economy needed to transition to a more service based economy. The entrepreneurial, lunch pail mentality fortunately still thrives within the city, paving the way for a successful transition that is bearing more fruit now than ever before.

As successful economic development and job growth thrive within Akron, many benefit. Improvements have been made in the job market with successful and fast growing businesses beginning to populate once dormant buildings along Main Street, and residential real estate has also seen a positive impact. In fact, NBC’s Today Show recently highlighted Akron, Ohio as the second best residential real estate market in the country, taking into account job opportunity, housing costs, and house size for the investment.

“Not the old rubber capital,” remarked the real estate expert who made an appearance on the show. “Akron has research, financial, and high-tech businesses moving in. Jobs are easy to get in Akron.”

Good jobs plus cost-efficient real estate is the right mixture to keep talent in Akron and attract more.

Economist Joe Cortright, president of Impresa Economics, recently spoke in Akron about the many opportunities the city has within its grasp. Cortright is an expert in attracting quality talent to ambitious cities with opportunities. Cortright underscored the importance of connecting researchers and talented people with good ideas.

One forward-thinking and aggressive way to attract and maintain a strong talent pool in Akron is to provide a business environment talented people can thrive in both short and long-term. The city is taking many steps in the right direction on this front, with one of the larger steps coming in the form of the Connect Akron downtown Municipal WiFi project. The goal of the project is to blanket the Main Street corridor and surrounding areas in downtown Akron with free WiFi enabling professionals to work on the go and congregate to encourage new business growth and development. The network seamlessly links the university downtown, too, enabling students to access the school’s network throughout the city - not just on campus.

Community transitions can be slow at times, especially when transforming the economic foundation of a region. Akron was once a thriving hotspot in the Midwest, and is well on its way to becoming that again - and Knotice, recently named Akron’s fastest growing company, is happy to be playing a small part!

Knotice, a JumpStart Ventures Portfolio Company, is an on-demand software firm that, with their breakthrough software platform Concentri™, delivers direct digital marketing solutions designed to maximize ROI through process automation, increased relevance, and improved performance. Visit their blog, The Lunch Pail, for more thoughts from the team at Knotice.

PerfectPitch, the national competition in which entrepreneurs pitch their ideas via a video submission and can end up presenting to the country’s leading venture capitalists, debuted in 2009 with truly 2009 marketing techniques (including the opportunity for an entrepreneur to pitch based on who submitted the best Twitter pitch).

It’s now back again and as with last year, entrepreneurs who are able to react quickly have an advantage. (The deadline is August 26th, which is two weeks away). Here’s what you do:

• Submit your pitch ONLINE - a pitch may include a written description, photos, and video about your BUSINESS or IDEA
• Deadline for submissions is August 26th, 2010. Early applicants will receive helpful feedback and may make edits to improve their pitches
• Judges will review all pitches – Top 3 win prizes and an invitation to pitch LIVE to investors and the audience of the PerfectBusiness Summit 2010

You can find full details here on entering, including the list of investors representing over $10 billion in assets who will be judging. (Did I mention that JumpStart’s own Ray Leach is one of the judges, as is North Coast Angel’s Todd Federman and venture capitalists from leading investors such as DFJ and Google?)

Cathy Belk is the Chief Relationship Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business and relationship management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.

Entrepreneur magazine’s August 2010 edition featured a story “50 really cool cities to start your business,” or as they further detailed, “the 50 cities and 10 lifestyles energizing businesses of all shapes and size.” These types of lists are always fun to read for the selections that are surprising, or redemptive, or just plain right. I never thought of Jackson, Wyo. as a great place for entrepreneurship (it’s under the “great outdoors” category). Great to see Pittsburgh was the leader on the list of “recovery and rebirth;” the collective leaders there deserve it. And while San Diego was on the “living in paradise” list (it really is paradise there, for entrepreneurs and residents alike), I was surprised to see Albuquerque.

But as I skimmed the list, I realized it quickly: not a single community in Ohio was on the list. Clearly, I have my media relations work cut out for me. But just to make sure that the Entrepreneur folks don’t have to work too hard to learn about the assets of Ohio — or Northeast Ohio in particular — I thought I’d go ahead and list my contributions here. (And please be sure to let me know what I’ve missed)!

• The great outdoors: “…where peaks and valleys are more than just points on the graph”
  Northeast Ohio actually does have peaks (such as in Summit County) and valleys (such as the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, ranked as the eighth most visited national park in the country alongside parks like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon), but it may be less well-known that Northeast Ohio is actually an outdoorsman’s dream, with lakes and rivers (as well as one of the Greats - Erie) for fishing, thousands of acres of parks nicknamed the Emerald Necklace, and hundreds of thousands of acres for hunting. Lorain and its larger western neighbor, Sandusky, not only offer several of the best trout fishing clubs but also has the GLIDE incubator and the Lorain County Community College Innovation Fund, a pre-seed fund investing $25,000 and $100,000 grants in promising entrepreneurial companies from across Northeast Ohio.
• City life: “higher costs, higher stakes but even higher visibility”
  There are not really any places in Northeast Ohio where “higher costs” is a reality; cost of living in this region indexes 93 relative to the national average. But obviously, the biggest city here with the biggest visibility is Cleveland itself, and almost 50% of JumpStart Ventures’ 48 portfolio companies are located in the city of Cleveland. When you consider all the ecosystem elements in Cleveland — from CWRU to Founders’ Café and Gorilla Group, from JumpStart and MAGNET to Cuyahoga County’s Opportunities Technology Fund — Cleveland should make the list.
• Recovery and rebirth: “cities on the mend, where even the smallest business can make a big difference”
  I’m always very impressed with Akron. With its own incubator (the Akron Global Business Accelerator), an investment fund for Israeli companies looking to expand in Akron, and the reinvention of the downtown area (including the minor league Akron Aeros, new restaurants, and early-stage companies such as ECHOGEN Power Systems), Akron has really transformed itself from the former “Rubber Capital of the World” to the new “polymer capital of the world” (so to speak).
• Living in paradise: “why wait until retirement to enjoy a life of sun, surf, and sand?”
  Aside from golf courses, there’s still plenty of sand and sun (at least in the summer months) up on Lake Erie, with some of the most beautiful beaches in some of the eastern suburbs of the city. Also on the eastern side of Cleveland are the communities that get the most snow in the winter (in case that’s your version of paradise). The eastern suburbs of Cleveland - including Mentor, Mayfield, and Willoughby, — are home to some of the fastest growing biotech companies in the area, such as STERIS, QED, and Neuros Medical. The area’s proximity to Cleveland Clinic and other healthcare cluster participants, along with very pleasant places to live, make it worth noticing.
• Creative centers: “…where creativity and capitalism make sweet music together”
  Oberlin is one of the most creative places in the country, with its brilliant, quirky counter-culturalism embraced by both its students and its residents. Oberlin College’s unique entrepreneurship programs (which include funding for student-run businesses) have not only created a few student-run startups, but attracted other companies — such as Greenfield Solar — to savor the culture. And don’t forget the Oberlin Conservatory, which really is generating sweet music.
• Family-friendly: “…where company and family can both grow up right”
  Everywhere in Ohio is family-friendly, but nowhere more so than Northeast Ohio. One of my favorite thriving entrepreneurial centers for families is Chagrin Falls, nestled in the rolling hills 30 miles southeast of Cleveland. Good public schools, a charming town center complete with natural waterfall, and a burgeoning entrepreneurial community including standouts such as CerviLenz make this one worth the list.
• Off the grid: “…where entrepreneurs have the latitude to forge their own paths”
  Youngstown offers one of the best examples of this I’ve noticed for years. With its location halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, the YBI, and focus on B-to-B software development, Youngstown State and its student community, and the revitalization of various parts of the city, it’s an area ripe for entrepreneurs desiring to make their own way.
• Green scenes: “where capitalism meets eco-consciousness”
  Wooster, in the heart of Wayne County 45 miles west of Akron, is the home of ABSMaterials, one of the companies providing solutions to BP to clean up after the gulf oil crisis. The technology came right out of the College of Wooster’s chemistry lab, which isn’t a surprise given the initiatives run by the Center for Entrepreneurship at the college — whether they include brainstorms on Thursdays (complete with popcorn) or entrepreneurship programs for the area’s incarcerated.
• College towns: “start a business, and learn a thing or two”
  As if Wooster and Oberlin weren’t enough, there are a host of other college towns in the area all fostering entrepreneurship individually and together — from Berea (Baldwin Wallace College) to Hiram (Hiram College), from Ashland (Ashland University) to Painesville (Lake Erie College), and many others. But one of the best examples is Kent, which balances a quaint college town feel with the resources and heft of the state’s third largest university, Kent State. The University’s Center for Entrepreneurship has led to office hours for entrepreneurs and the start of the region’s own incubator, in addition to local entrepreneurial superstar Kent Displays.
• Small towns, big opportunities: “small ponds where your business can be a big fish”
  Have you been to Canton? Besides the Football Hall of Fame, this small city has a historical legacy of entrepreneurship. The three largest private employers there of the last 100 years — Timken, Diebold, and Hoover — were all started by entrepreneurs who found a community more than excited to embrace their ideas. The city’s leaders are energizing entrepreneurship again, and entrepreneurs interested to start high-growth businesses will find themselves more than embraced.

Cathy Belk is the Chief Marketing Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.