Business Growth and Attraction

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Several regional initiatives are improving Northeast Ohio’s ability to attract, grow and retain companies. These efforts are generally focused in three areas:

  • Entrepreneurial Assistance
  • Research Commercialization
  • Company Attraction

There is considerable overlap among those three areas of work, with many organizations and initiatives serving all three at various times.

Entrepreneurial Assistance

JumpStart Inc. is the largest regional effort focused on improving the region’s overall climate for entrepreneurs. Formed in 2004, it provides business consulting, networking and assistance services to entrepreneurs throughout Northeast Ohio. Its ideacrossing.org web site serves as an online matchmaking service for businesses. In addition, JumpStart is an early-stage venture capital firm investing in start-up companies with the potential for rapid growth. You can view JumpStart’s portfolio of companies here.

BioEnterprise works with early stage companies in the health care market to accelerate their growth and attract venture capital. Unlike JumpStart, BioEnterprise does not directly invest in companies. Rather, it helps companies attract venture capital. When BioEnterprise was formed in 2002 the region’s health care companies were raising about $30 million in venture capital a year. In the first six months of 2007, the region’s health care companies raised nearly $200 million. Northeast Ohio is now home to a number of promising early-stage bioscience companies. They join health care giants such as Invacare, Phillips Medical, Hitachi, Steris, in helping to make this region a global center for health care businesses.

NEOinc is a collaboration of the region’s five business incubators that assist the growth of technology-based enterprises. The incubators are Braintree in Mansfield; Youngstown Business Incubator; MAGNET in Cleveland; GLIDE in Elyria; and the Akron Global Business Accelerator. The incubators each serve their surrounding communities and the region. Two of the incubators target specific markets: YBI works with business-to-business software companies and MAGNET’s incubator works with manufacturing companies.

Entrepreneurs Edge helps existing middle market companies with programs and services.

Entrepreneurs Education Consortium promotes entrepreneurship among the region's college and university students.

NEO411.biz is an online resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses in Northeast Ohio.

There also are numerous entrepreneurial assistance programs run by the region’s chambers of commerce and federal programs, such as SCORE.

Research Commercialization

NorTech works with the region’s research centers to help them both attract research funding and to convert that research into new industries, companies and products.

NorTech’s Technology Leaders Group brings together representatives from Northeast Wright Projects and Wright Centers of Innovation that are funded through the state’s Third Frontier program to develop commercialization and business development opportunities. For example, NorTech helped Kent State University launch its Centennial Research Park where companies are working to develop the next generation of flexible liquid crystal displays.  

Company Attraction

Team NEO works with the region’s chambers of commerce and local governments to attract and grow businesses in Northeast Ohio. Team NEO markets the region to growing companies and to the site selectors that help companies decide where to grow. Team NEO collaborated on the development of the Cleveland Plus marketing campaign, which promotes the region to visitors and businesses.