One-stop shopping.
That's what JumpStart is offering technology entrepreneurs in Northeast Ohio with its revved up Entrepreneurial Network, launched three months ago.
"We want entrepreneurs to have to go through only one door for us to help them be successful," explains Dennis Cocco, operating manager of
JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network and director of the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE).
Funded by The Ohio Third Frontier, the Network is intended to be a single entry point for a continuum of resources for entrepreneurs in 21 counties in Northeast Ohio. It encompasses five incubators, four pre-seed and seed funds, a number of experienced business advisors and an online community of mentors and investors.
The Entrepreneurial Network replaces JumpStart's TechLift Advisors program, which ran for three years. That program consisted of a group of experienced entrepreneurs who mentored and supported entrepreneurial companies in very specific technologies.
"We still have many entrepreneurs working with technology based companies, but, with the Network, we're building on that initiative with many more points of collaboration throughout the region," he notes.
According to Cocco, the Network is a much broader program in two important areas -- collaboration and funding.
"We're now working more collaboratively with the Edison Center; the Edison incubators in Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, Mansfield and Lorain; and other economic development entities."
These include local economic development directors and port authorities,
Team NEO and the Small Business Development Corporation, begun by the federal government and supported by the Ohio Department of Development.
In terms of funding for entrepreneurs, the TechLift program was very focused on funds available only from JumpStart, Cocco says.
"With the new Entrepreneurial Network, we make entrepreneurs aware of other financial resources throughout the region and beyond, like federal grants, Small Business Administration loans and private and angel investors," he explains. "We want to help them land the venture capital they need."
The ultimate goal for the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network is simple, according to Cocco. "No entrepreneur left behind."
Source: Dennis Cocco, JumpStart and GLIDE
Writer: Lynne Meyer