It Works

It Works!

I received a call from a college senior who, with some friends, is planning to start an internet business when he graduates next year. Not a cause for celebration, or even unusual. What makes this conversation noteworthy are the answers to my questions.

This budding entrepreneur was looking for advice on the business model, help with writing the business plan and presentation, and sources of funding available in Northeast Ohio. This crew is representative of the community's definition of the target of the new entrepreneur. They are in just the right life-stage to take the risk of starting a business: no baggage such as a mortgage and family with many mouths to feed; already in the mode of living like a college student (i.e. Ramen for dinner, limited wardrobe, no sleep) because well, they are college students; no credit rating to damage (probably no credit available); and finally, fewer distractions from others in their network like aged parents, problem kids, that brother-in-law, and so on. They heard about the entrepreneurial support resources available in Northeast Ohio and sought them out. This in and of itself is very encouraging, and could be the end of the discussion, but it is not.

What really gets me amped is that the support groups he talked with all shared a similar message and all are following through with face-to-face meetings and real actions, not feeding them confusing, disparate and mis-leading information or empty promises of help.

I always ask a prospective entrepreneur who they have talked to up to that point. In this case, he had spoken with representatives from GLIDE, JumpStart, and TechLift. The company isn't ready for JumpStart's process. Yet, after evaluating their story, JumpStart made referrals to other groups in a better position to help a pre-company, company. The entrepreneur has meetings scheduled with TechLift's appropriate Entrepreneur-in-Residence and with GLIDE. The entrepreneur was able to relay the advice to date was consistent between each source and he had what he believes to be a clear course of action, which he didn't have when he started. There wasn't the usual story of confusion, frustration, wasted time, effort and in many cases money that is a prefix to most of the conversations I have with entrepreneurs.

We, the organizations dedicated to the support and nurturing of the people that are helping to build the new Northeast Ohio economy, are talking. We are sharing stories, identifying the best sources of help, creating and building the processes and methods that can shorten the learning curve and make the connections to get the ideas to commercialization and into the market faster, and in some cases getting them to failure quicker. This is great news! We should celebrate with a tall cold RooBrew. (More on that later)