11.24.2009
Cornucopia of Entrepreneurial Energy
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.