Funding Our Future
Posted by ThePlus - 12.02.2011
Rebecca O. Bagley, President and Chief Executive Officer of NorTech, a regional nonprofit technology-based economic development organization, recently contributed a blog post to Forbes.com where she discusses the need to develop the next generation of entrepreneurs. In her piece, she mentions some of the successful Northeast Ohio programs that are helping to do just that. Organizations mentioned include: JumpStart, JumpStart America, the Startup America Partnership, The Burton D. Morgan Foundation and Blackstone Charitable Trust LaunchPad initiative.
Below is an excerpt from the Forbes.com blog post. To read the blog in its entirety, click here.
As we near the end of the year, it seems natural to begin thinking about next year: What will it bring? What are my goals? What do I hope to accomplish?
From an economic development standpoint, we tend to think about how to grow our economy. How do we create jobs? How do we drive investments into our regions? How do we make life better for ourselves, our families, our neighbors, our communities?
There is a virtual mountain of empirical data showing that the most powerful economic engine on our planet is the entrepreneur. CNN recently reported that, new companies “have generated 60 to 80 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade.”
So, where are tomorrow’s entrepreneurs today? The simple answer is that they’re everywhere. More so than just finding them, the real trick is how to assist them in realizing their dreams. Once more, some of our future thinkers are thinking along those lines.
NorTech and the programs mentioned in her post are just a few examples of Northeast Ohio’s economic development system at work. Visit www.ThePlus.us frequently to learn more about how groups like NorTech, JumpStart, MAGNET, BioEnterprise and Team NEO are working to grow our region’s economy.
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