APPENDIX
Case Study: Cleveland and JumpStart Inc. Background Like many regions in America’s industrial heartland, Cleveland and Northeast Ohio have faced decades of economic adjustment and struggle as once powerful manufacturing industries have declined and collapsed. Since the 1970s, the region has embraced multiple approaches to economic development and revitalization, such as a focus on tourism, new sports stadiums, eds and meds, and other approaches. Beginning in 2004, a group of foundation executives and community leaders chartered the Fund for Our Economic Future with an explicit mission of reinventing the region’s approach to economic development and to “transforming a decrepit Rust Belt into a 21st century knowledge economy.” 31 The Fund brought together more than 100 organizations to support several shared goals: 1) Attract businesses and help them grow 2) Improve the education and job training of the workforce 3) Bolster racial inclusion by helping minority business development 4) Implement regional policies to support growth while improving government efficiency The Fund invested in numerous organizations to support these varied objectives, and local leaders acknowledge that not all of these investments panned out. However, they do share a strong consensus that their efforts to invest in business development have proved highly successful. This effort, led by JumpStart, Inc., is profiled below.
Key Organizations: JumpStart, Inc. JumpStart Inc’s initial mission was straightforward but challenging: build a world-class entrepreneurial ecosystem in Northeast Ohio. JumpStart operates as a venture development organization that provides technical assistance to small businesses and technology companies, supports a regional network of service providers, and invests directly in promising local companies. JumpStart currently supports a number of programs focused on business development. These efforts help companies and entrepreneurs at all points of the business growth continuum. Aspiring entrepreneurs can tap into the Build My MVP programs, a six-week workshop series to help develop minimal viable product concepts. The twelve-week Small Business Impact program supports more expansive business planning and development work, and the Small Business Blueprint program helps founders speed their company’s growth trajectory. Along the way, various other types of mentoring, coaching, and technical assistance are readily available. These coaching services are also accompanied by robust mix of funding sources. In addition to offering connections to banks and other funding sources, JumpStart manages three venture funds that provide investments ranging from $250,000 up to $1.5 million. Many of the programs developed by JumpStart were the first of their kind, and these efforts won numerous awards for innovation in economic development. Today, the types of strategies first pioneered by JumpStart are considered to be “best practices” for building inclusive and robust entrepreneurial ecosystems.
31
John Dorschner, “A Big Job: Retooling Northeast Ohio’s Economy,” Report prepared for the JohnS. and James L. Knight Foundation, 2007, p. 2. Available at: https://knightfoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/06/2007_12_10_Northeast_Ohio_scribe_report.pdf. 38
