JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog

Everyone knows that we are in tough economic times right now. Perhaps no group is feeling this more than college students — particularly recent graduates or those anticipating graduation in the next few years. News reports consistently say that 2009 has shaped up to be the worst job market for new grads in years.

On the other hand, a recent NorTech report said that high technology is one of the very few sectors in Northeast Ohio that is adding jobs. It is common knowledge that job growth across the U.S. will be from “new economy” and small, high growth companies. JumpStart, BioEnterprise and a myriad of other organizations have added a huge amount of energy to our entrepreneurial environment and economy, and it is now beginning to show results in terms of employment. We can’t instantly make up for an auto company that’s laid off 1,000 people, but there are new opportunities at Northeast Ohio’s small, growing companies. Northeast Ohio needs to retain our young talent, both those who grew up here and those who came here for school, to fuel our technology and entrepreneurial economy growth.

In light of all this, JumpStart’s TechLift Advisors business unit has sponsored and promoted a number of internship programs this year. As part of these programs, we are hosting a free event on Tuesday, August 6, from 5-8 pm, to help current students and recent grads understand the opportunities at and connect with small entrepreneurial companies. Our panel discussion, “Starting Your Career at an Entrepreneurial Technology Company,” will feature hiring managers from entrepreneurial companies and recently hired new grads.

This event is open to current college students or recent grads only. If you know of a student or recent grad who would like to know more about starting their career at an entrepreneurial company in Northeast Ohio, please direct them to register.

Also, if you are one of these small and growing entrepreneurial technology companies and you are looking to make a hire and make a difference to this young generation, please contact the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (NOCHE).

Chris Mather is President, JumpStart Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Previously, he managed a number of technology initiatives in Northeast Ohio for NorTech. Before entering the economic development world, Chris ran a number of technology companies in Northeast Ohio and New England, including Ion Optics Inc., where he raised $6.7 million in venture capital, and Apsco Inc. and Gould Instrument Systems. Prior to that, he spent 13 years in sales, marketing and management roles with Hewlett Packard after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Electrical Engineering.

I just vacationed on the north shore of Lake Erie and returned to work yesterday to find three reports in my email inbox that made for an upbeat morning, which I needed (read on, and you’ll learn why). 

First, Youngstown is on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine’s August issue as one of the Top 10 best cities for entrepreneurs. Jim Cossler, head of the Youngstown Business Incubator, and Turning Technologies (ranked as one of the fastest growing software companies in the country), are two key reasons for the ranking. Jim is the evangelist of all evangelists. We tried to recruit him here when JumpStart was first formed, but he loved his job too much to do anything else, and we had to respect that. He knows the strengths of the tech corridor that Youngstown, at the mid-point between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, represents, and he builds on those strengths with a focus and relentlessness that is fun to watch. Congrats to the Youngstown entrepreneurial and tech community on this win!

Second, Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor is listed as the 15th city in Forbes Magazine’s recent “America’s 100 Best Cheap Cities” list, which includes the subtitle “Get more for less in these bargain boomtowns”. What’s more, the magazine lists nine more Ohio cities, giving Ohio ten cities that are in the top 100. From what I can tell, no other state has more cities that qualify as “boomtowns where you can get more for less”. These cities are Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron, Dayton, Toledo, Youngstown, Canton, Mansfield, and Lima. Of course I recognize, as does the magazine itself, that cheap cities may very well be cheap because unemployment is high or some other structural/economic factor is sub-optimal. However, the magazine also says that it is seeing the technology industry shift towards these lower cost cities and that this is “all part of a larger shift with tech that you’re going to see in the U.S.” At JumpStart, we live our lives every day working towards this, so we live and breathe this emerging reality; it’s great to see others beginning to recognize it. 

Third, the Pew Charitable Trusts’ recent Clean Energy Economy report ranks Ohio in the top 5 states in the country for number of jobs in the Clean Energy Economy. The Clean Energy Economy is a huge part of forecasted job growth over the next five to ten years and longer, and so to be a Top 5 state bodes well. Combined with Northeast Ohio’s already recognized healthcare strengths, we may well be positioned for a good decade (maybe even a great one?). The report highlights Axentis, right here in Cleveland, as a company whose software monitors greenhouse gas emissions. One of our Venture Partners, Ted Frank, was co-founder and President of Axentis, and its Chairman (and co-founder), Steve Lindseth, is one of our favorite regular speakers on the topic of growing a company and raising capital. Congrats to them for being highlighted.

Now back to why I needed to have an upbeat morning…During vacation I was supposed to be reading about the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership, but instead I got engrossed in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Now I return to work this morning no better a leader and all scared-like and depressed to boot (have you read In Cold Blood?). I would like to take this opportunity to reframe my wayward vacation ways, however. You see, rather than just reading about leadership, I like to believe I was actually practicing it: while I was away not reading what I was supposed to be reading, Youngstown became tops, Cleveland became a boomtown, and Ohio became a Cleantech mecca! Now that’s some serious leaderly delegating, eh? :-) 

Becca Braun is President of JumpStart Ventures. She founded and led a number of early-stage companies and organizations, as well as worked as a private equity investor and management consultant. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her BA in Linguistics from Harvard University. She is keenly interested in the intersection of wealth creation and broad-based regional economic growth.

The JumpStart Connect email newsletter from last December took a look at the accomplishments of JumpStart and its portfolio companies (now the companies which make up the JumpStart Ventures portfolio). On June 30th, JumpStart finished its fiscal year, and is now quickly approaching its 5 year anniversary. With these major milestones in mind, I took another look at these company accomplishments.

While it’s never surprising to see the list of the amazing milestones the 39 JumpStart Ventures portfolio companies have achieved, I think a lot of them are secrets to those outside the walls of JumpStart! So, here is my list of secrets revealed…

The top 5 things that everyone should know about the Northeast Ohio companies that have received a JumpStart Ventures investment :

5) Over 100 patents are in place — IP protection of some kind — most often, patents — is one of the criteria the JumpStart Ventures team looks for when making an investment, so it’s not a secret that many of JumpStart’s companies have a patent. But, the number of patents, the IP strategies, and work around IP has really progressed in the last three months (as highlighted, for example, in the JumpStart Connect story Beyond Bright - Building an IP Strategy about Wireless Environment). And, to be in the triple digits on patents — especially given the average 22 months it takes to get a patent — is worth shouting about!

4) Almost 300 people are employed — These companies usually come to JumpStart with a 1 or 2 person team, so to see the ranks of jobs swelling to this number is very encouraging. As the companies continue to grow, and move from validating their products to making and selling their products, these numbers will increase exponentially. It’s not a tidal wave yet…but the swell is building.

3) Developing technology from globally-recognized sources — Entrepreneurs are not only developing their own ideas, but they are licensing or utilizing internationally ground-breaking technologies from places such as NASA, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, Cleveland Clinic, UH, University of Akron, CWRU, and the DOE’s Lawrence Livermore Lab. 

2) The Top 10 in their fields – Yes, we have companies whose technologies and solutions are recognized as one of the top 10 in their field. Some examples:

– Top 10 most visited sports website
– Top 10 pet insurance company
– Top 10 technology as reported by Popular Science magazine
– Top 10 most promising medical innovations for 2009 at last year’s national Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit

And…the number #1 biggest secret about the JumpStart Ventures portfolio companies…

1) National thought leaders and experienced serial entrepreneurs are at the helm — Case in point on this one: Brian Deagan, a thought leader in direct digital marketing and CEO of Knotice, published the article “Snapping Up Endangered Sales With On-Site Targeting” in leading trade pub E-Commerce Times this week. We have CEOs at these companies whose prior accomplishments include raising over $250 million and taking companies public. This experience is in addition to the passion, commitment, and energy required to move startup companies forward day in and day out.

There you go…it’s all out there now!

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.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could achieve all of the above in a single action? I know…I know…the “free money” thing first got your attention, but we can all agree that these are all important and good things. So, how do you do it? By using the various subsidized internship programs that are available to entrepreneurial technology companies in Northeast Ohio, that’s how.

Internships can benefit your company in a number of ways. First, employers have found that student interns can get a great deal of real work done at a very reasonable cost. The key is to define a task or set of tasks that the intern can immediately “dive into” and then provide guidance when they get stuck. When this happens, most employers have found that student interns typically exceed expectations. Interns are great for those jobs where you constantly say “yeah…we need to do that,” but you never do. 

Hiring a student intern can fill the talent pipeline for your company. When your company grows, you will need talent. An internship basically represents a “3 month interview” where you can judge whether a person fits your organization, while he or she can see how great it is to work in an exciting entrepreneurial company. Studies show that 65% of engineering internships and co-ops turn into job offers for full time employment. It’s the ultimate “try before you buy” for both parties.

Students today deal with the recurring dilemma of not being able to get the job because they “don’t have experience,” but cannot get the experience without getting the job. You can help invest in our youth by breaking this cycle, and having your company benefit as part of the deal.

Investing in our young people, those who are from Northeast Ohio as well as those who attend college in Northeast Ohio, is particularly important to our region. We have all heard about the “quiet crisis” and “brain drain” with regard to Northeast Ohio. Having the prospect of a good job in Northeast Ohio will keep our students here, and will ultimately make our region more vibrant and economically strong. 

“So what about that free money?” you ask. There are a number of subsidized internship programs for Northeast Ohio technology entrepreneurial companies that will help pay for the interns you should hire anyway:

• Third Frontier Internship Program - This program subsidizes interns from  Ohio universities and colleges and Ohio students at other colleges and universities who are enrolled in scientific, mathematics, technology and engineering programs.
  • 50% subsidy of paid wages, up to $3000 per intern
  • For more information go to www.noche.org, http://thirdfrontierintern.ohio.gov or call the program manager, Halley Marsh, at (216) 420-9292 x234
• TechLift Business Internship Program - This program, generously sponsored by the GAR Foundation, subsidizes internships at entrepreneurial technology companies for Ohio students in business applications.
  • Special consideration given to students, companies and colleges in the Summit County area
  • 50% subsidy of paid wages, up to $3000 per intern
  • For more information go to www.noche.org or contact the program manager, Halley Marsh, at hmarsh@noche.org
• Purdue University/TechLift Interns for Entrepreneurship Program - This program, partially supported by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, subsidizes summer internships at TechLift Advisors-supported companies for Northeast Ohio students of any major attending Purdue University.
  • Subsidy up to 56% of paid wages
  • For more information, contact Kate Hanna with JumpStart at kate.hanna@jumpstartinc.org

So what are you waiting for? Design an internship and sign up for one ASAP. It’s a “win, win, win, win, win” proposition!

Chris Mather is President, JumpStart Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Previously, he managed a number of technology initiatives in Northeast Ohio for NorTech. Before entering the economic development world, Chris ran a number of technology companies in Northeast Ohio and New England, including Ion Optics Inc., where he raised $6.7 million in venture capital, and Apsco Inc. and Gould Instrument Systems. Prior to that, he spent 13 years in sales, marketing and management roles with Hewlett Packard after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Electrical Engineering.