JumpStart: IdeaExchange Blog

Since joining JumpStart back in 2006 and being charged with identifying strategies to engage more of our region’s minority and women-led businesses, one of my primary objectives has been to encourage our community’s diverse entrepreneurs to increase their level of involvement in regional events and activities. There is terrific information being shared on a regular basis at these events, but unfortunately too few of our region’s diverse entrepreneurs are in attendance to receive this information. Far too often, mainstream events focused on raising angel and venture capital and growing larger scale firms fail to attract a diverse audience of attendees that is more representative of our region’s population. I have written a number of articles, blogs, and newsletters on this topic, but fundamentally nothing will change until our region’s diverse entrepreneurs decide to get engaged. Without question our event planners and community leaders need to make sure that these events are promoted and publicized through a diverse set of media channels and partners, but ultimately the decision rests with the individual to decide to attend or not.

JumpStart has taken some very exciting steps over the past few years in putting on diverse and collaborative events with such leading national organizations as The Marathon Club and The Initiative For A Competitive Inner City (ICIC), and I am thrilled to announce that we are partnering again to ensure that we build on this momentum. Rather than put on a separate event as we have done in the past, the president of the Marathon Club (and now also JumpStart board member), Carmen Ortiz-McGhee, and I are joining forces with the International Economic Development Council and the Ohio Early Stage Capital Summit for two exciting and timely events taking place next month in Columbus. Carmen and I will be leading and facilitating panel discussions at these events focusing on the specific issues that disproportionately impact high growth minority and women entrepreneurs, and it is essential that more of our community’s diverse entrepreneurs are in attendance to get connected. For more information on each conference, please visit the following pages: IEDC Conference Information, Ohio Early Stage Summit Information. I am both thrilled and honored to take part in these events this year, and truly hope to see all of you there.

I would also like to announce an exciting opportunity being put on by another of our national partners, ICIC, which is hosting its 7th annual Inner City Capital Connections Conference (ICCC) this coming November 15-16th in Los Angeles, California. The ICCC is a unique opportunity for inner city based businesses and entrepreneurs to gain direct access to investors and other funding sources that are specifically committed to growing larger scale businesses in the core urban centers of our country to help revitalize our nation’s inner city economies. Entrepreneurs interested in attending and presenting their business to investors at the event should log on to www.icic.org, or contact Hyacinth Vassell at hvassell@icic.org or via phone at 617.297.3120.

The time to get involved is now! Let’s get up, get going, and get engaged in these uniquely designed events that just might be the difference between success or failure in these rapidly and constantly changing economic times. 

Darrin is Chief Economic Inclusion Officer of JumpStart and President of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors. He founded and ran his own strategic planning and management assistance firm and spent 16 years in the commercial banking and finance industry. Darrin has an MBA from Baldwin-Wallace College and an undergraduate degree from Mount Union College. He has led a series of workshops and seminars on matters of economic development and diversity.

One of the speakers at last week’s Minority Business Early-Stage Capital Summit (which was amazing, by the way) was Deborah Shufrin from The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC). Her 40 minute presentation was packed with facts about inner city businesses across the nation and as a comparison, those in the Cleveland market. (By definition, inner cities are urban cores with high poverty and unemployment rates, and low median income levels). For everything I thought I knew about this topic, this research blew me away. All marketers love insightful facts, so I thought I’d share the top 5 things that surprised me about revitalizing inner cities through entrepreneurship.

As background, ICIC studied the characteristics of companies located in the largest 100 inner cities which met the following criteria: 1) had at least 10 employees, and 2) had grown from $200,000 in revenues to at least $1 million in revenues in the last 5 years. There were 557 companies included in this study, which covered 10 years of data. (I’ll call them the ICIC 100 below).

1. A small number of early-stage high growth firms in the inner city can create dramatic job growth. The ICIC 100 firms created 63,000 jobs between 1999 and 2007. By comparison, 458,000 firms across all inner cities in the U.S. lost 49,300 jobs.
2. Place matters. It’s actually not true that you can create jobs anywhere and all locations benefit similarly. To create jobs for inner city residents, it is much more efficient to do so with companies located in inner city locations. ICIC’s data shows that to create 100 jobs for inner city residents, you need companies that hire 450 people located in the inner city, whereas you need companies that hire 850 people in the rest of the central city and 1,450 people in the broader region.
3. Entrepreneurs leading these companies are participating to their communities. 70% of the leaders of the ICIC 100 have lived in inner cities at some point in their lives, and 30% are living there now. They recognize the importance of creating businesses, and jobs, directly in these neighborhoods.
4. These entrepreneurs are highly educated! 77% have an advanced degree vs. 23% of U.S. small business owners.

5. These firms have higher productivity and lower turnover than comparable U.S. companies their size. This is perhaps not surprising because on average, they offer higher compensation as well as better benefits (healthcare, bonuses, and retirement plans) compared to U.S. firms overall. They also spend 2x as much on training.

It has made intuitive sense to me that entrepreneurship in urban locations is one way to create jobs for inner city residents, and should be part of the urban agenda for that reason. Here, the facts prove it out. So how can we encourage more entrepreneurship in inner cities in Northeast Ohio? The Summit isn’t just enough, and the JumpStart Inclusion Advisors are here but can’t do it alone. What ideas do you have?

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.

During this week, Americans are considering those things for which they are thankful, and I am no exception. But while this is often a reflective, quiet exercise, I have the opposite reaction when I consider JumpStart progress; I find it incredibly energizing and exciting. Did you know…

• Last week marked the sixth anniversary of our community’s leaders determining JumpStart was necessary and taking the first organizing actions. Without their vision and maybe more importantly, their commitment to action, there would be thousands of entrepreneurs whose ideas might not have been as successful, or who might be living somewhere else.
• JumpStart was a proud sponsor of this past weekend’s “Cleveland Startup Weekend“, a 54-hour event to bring together people who want to start a high tech business. There have been Startup Weekends around the world (including Boston, Paris and Israel) but ours rocketed to the top. Northeast Ohio’s session sold out, even with more tickets added, and had the highest number of sponsors of any city in the world. As Clint Nelsen, the Seattle Partner of Startup Weekend said, “The event in Cleveland embodied everything we stand for! We were literally writing code on a boat next to a WWII submarine, two blocks from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, building new ideas and launching new startups.” Who knew, six years ago, we’d be setting the bar for the world in entrepreneurial energy.
• JumpStart Ventures companies continue to hit key milestones. In less than four weeks, three JumpStart Ventures portfolio companies - BSKLive, Neuros Medical, and MAR Systems - raised nearly $5 million in follow-on funding collectively. This is in addition to the global recognition two companies received in BusinessWeek. Once again, the region’s companies are competing and winning investment dollars and global recognition.
• This region has also been recognized as a national leader by The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and The Marathon Club. Both these organizations decided to work with us — in our region — to host next week’s early-stage capital summit focused on increasing access to capital for minority and female business owners.

Enjoy your time this week with your family and friends, and take just a minute to relax. We deserve it.

Ray Leach is CEO of JumpStart and brings his energy and leadership experiences from founding five high growth entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial endeavors in the last 20 years. Ray is a Sloan Fellow and earned an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also earned a BA in Finance from the University of Akron.

This coming December 3rd marks a very pivotal day in our region’s ongoing economic growth and development. For over three years now I have referenced our regional and national collaboration efforts in working with some of the best and brightest professionals and investors across the country that are dedicated to assisting and investing in high growth minority, women, and inner city based businesses. I am delighted to share that these organizations have partnered with JumpStart to put on what will truly be a groundbreaking event for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial stakeholders across the region and beyond.  These same organizations have been responsible for growing some of our nation’s largest and most successful diverse businesses over the past decade, and currently play a direct role in shaping Urban policy for the Obama Administration. The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), The Marathon Club, and The Institute for Entrepreneurial Thinking are partnering with JumpStart and a cast of other regional and national partners to put on: Transforming the Landscape of Business In America: A Minority Business Early-Stage Capital Summit. This one of a kind summit in Northeast Ohio will feature the following:

• A special presentation by ICIC – the national non-profit founded by renowned Harvard Economist Dr. Michael Porter, in addressing the critical role that inner city and diverse businesses play in shaping our nation’s economy, and the disproportionate impact these firms play in creating jobs and wealth for minority populations
• An Entrepreneurs Panel (Moderated by our very own April Miller Boise of Thompson Hine) – Minority equity-backed entrepreneurs will speak to their experiences in successfully raising equity capital, and address the myths, misconceptions, and realties of working with Angel, Venture & Private Equity firms
• An Investors Panel (Moderated by the President of The Marathon Club, Carmen Ortiz-McGhee) – Minority and Inner City focused Equity Funds from across the country speak to their specific investment criteria; the “do’s and don’ts” when raising capital; the emerging trends and industries attracting investment, etc.
• A Luncheon with Keynote – Dr. William Pickard, who successfully runs one of the largest minority enterprises in the nation, will deliver the keynote address. Dr. Pickard’s holdings include, but are not limited to:
  • Owning several automotive companies located in five states and Canada
  • Holding a significant ownership stake in five African-American newspapers including the 100-year-old Chicago Defender and the 77-year-old Michigan Chronicle
  • Owning multiple McDonald’s restaurants
  • Organized the Detroit Partners who are the local partners in the Detroit MGM Grand Casino
  • Serving as a Professor of Urban Entrepreneurship in Academia
• A Minority Angel Investors Panel (Moderated by the Founder & President of The Institute For Entrepreneurial Thinking, Melvin Gravely II, Ph.D.) – Successful angel investors speak to the benefits of early-stage investing as a wealth creation strategy, encourage more minorities to become angel investors, and address the critical need to have more minorities investing in high growth minority businesses
• An Entrepreneurial Showcase –- Some of the most promising early-stage minority businesses that have been working with JumpStart over the past few years give their investor presentations to attendees to provide a snapshot of some of our region’s largest minority-owned firms of tomorrow.

Wow! I don’t think I can fully capture my enthusiasm and sense of progress for our region as we continue to work towards economic empowerment for all of our region’s citizens, but suffice it to say that this is something you truly do not want to miss. In case you’re wondering whether or not this event is for you, consider the following points concerning who should attend:

• Existing minority, inner city, and woman-owned businesses (at every level) looking to grow their businesses and seeking investment partners
• Current or aspiring entrepreneurs who desire to learn more about the specific criteria investors look for when making an investment decision
• Investors looking for promising high growth minority, women and inner city businesses
• Philanthropists interested in supporting initiatives that specifically address traditionally underserved markets
• Economic development professionals seeking to better understand one of the fastest growing markets in the nation – The Emerging Domestic Market
• Current job seekers looking to explore entrepreneurship as a means to economic self-sufficiency and wealth creation
• Individuals who desire to learn more about becoming Angel Investors in high growth, emerging businesses

In short, there is clearly something for every stakeholder of entrepreneurship! This will be a one of a kind event in Northeast Ohio and space will be limited so I encourage you to register today!

Darrin is Chief Economic Inclusion Officer of JumpStart and President of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors. He founded and ran his own strategic planning and management assistance firm and spent 16 years in the commercial banking and finance industry. Darrin has an MBA from Baldwin Wallace College and an undergraduate degree from Mount Union College. He has led a series of workshops and seminars on matters of economic development and diversity.