Ray Leach, CEO, JumpStart Inc. in Cleveland

The goal of the tech belt is a region, a physical place where community development corporations are working. The tech companies create jobs but a Yes We Can attitude can transform our communites. Erase your mental picture of what your company is, which is what I did with JumpStart. I found Innovation Works in Pittsburgh in 2004 and they welcomed me and shared all of their inside information, their initial vision and faults. It was transformational for us and created a real bond. We don’t have a programmatic partnership but we talk every day. Not just CEOs. On staff level we talk and it prevents us from making mistakes. Many of you working in neighborhoods probably have similar issues even though people and politics are different. If this helps you find another organization like yours in the Tech Belt it can help you in many ways and save you money.

We have a document, The Tech Belt Initiative, that speaks to tech based initiatives in NEO and Pitts and how similar and how many dollars leveraged but hopefully this is the first ofr 40 papers. Goal is to have a game plan to take to our elected officials and local business leaders to convince them how we can have impact on the region.

We’re supposed to find big ‘elephants’ big companies. 80 percent of nation’s GDP based on companies that attract early stage high risk capital. And if that sector is underperforming as it has in the last few years we’re going to have economic troubles. 

We connect entrepreneurs to those who can help them and investing in companies in the region. Made 45 investments 12 million which has attracted 70 million in private invest. We invest in companies that don’t otherwise get invested in. We saw what Innovation Works has done and basically copied their playbook. Special focus on minority and inner city entrepreneurs. Thirty percent of companies we’ve invested in are minority owned. We’re involved in new program collaboration i.e. if you need a specialized CEO and to attract that person and that person might attract 20 mil in investment. We’re looking at opening an office in Silicon Valley in partnership with SW Pennsylvania to attract C-level officers and the tens of millions of investment dollars here. We’re also working on national issues – the National VC Assoc. we’re working with them on national policy issues whether tax reform to enable our region’s to grow.