For too long, tech has been a bit of a 'middle child' in the region, squished between government, manufacturing, biomedical and sports. For half a day on Wednesday, more than 150 people gathered in downtown Cleveland to talk about collaborating, finding tech talent and raising capital for one reason: Today, nearly everything revolves around technology.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - For half a day on Wednesday, more than 150 people gathered in downtown Cleveland to talk about collaborating, finding tech talent and raising capital for one reason: Today, nearly everything revolves around technology.
Yet, debate and discussion has been largely missing from the regional tech scene. Entrepreneurs, civic and political leaders, and private investors came together for a first-time event at Jones Day law firm in what was dubbed as the TechniCLE Speaking Summit.
"For too long, tech has been a bit of a 'middle child' in the region, squished between government, manufacturing, biomedical and sports," said Jim O'Hare, managing partner of BioMedia LLC, and one of the event participants.
With a goal of breaking down barriers and spreading information, serial IT entrepreneur Charles Stack suggested as a panelist in one of three sessions that there need to be action items and less familiar talk. Stack is co-founder and CEO of Flashstarts, an accelerator and venture fund for software start-ups.
Ray Leach, chief executive officer of JumpStart Inc., shared possible lessons from collaborations in Michigan and Cincinnati. Then he told the group that the Ohio Third Frontier will soon release a request for proposal that would provide at least $60 million to investment funds headquartered in Ohio.
The internationally recognized technology-based economic development initiative is continuing to invest in seed and early stage tech companies, and plans to make loans to invest in funds with a one-to-one match, Leach said. Since 2002, Third Frontier has invested $1.2 billion in a variety of companies, but $250 million has gone to early stage seed funds and entrepreneurial support services.
"That's where they're getting the biggest bang for their buck," Leach said. "They've decided to focus more on early stage tech companies."
Raising awareness about the growing tech industry is becoming a theme with many groups. Last month, TechWeek was celebrated in Northeast Ohio. What started with about 500 people at six events in a five-day period in 2011, has turned into about 4,300 participants in April. With tech operations, entrepreneurship and careers promoted through networking, education, recruitment, exhibitions, and award events, the goal was to build awareness of the region's tech vibrancy.
The TechniCle event opened with lots of discussion about the need to reach students early to expose them to the huge opportunities with tech careers. Panelists talked about the need for tech companies to play a bigger role in advising colleges on the tskills needed for tech careers. They also talked about difficulties in attracting immigrants and why they are sought after nationwide.
In recent years, there have been four big buyouts of Ohio tech companies by major corporations. Immigrants were among the founders of three of the four. The companies created jobs in the local economy -- and then sold for hundreds of millions of dollars, increasing local wealth.
Mark Kvamme, cofounder and partner at Drive Capital, said about $1 billion was invested in Ohio tech companies that were recently sold to major corporations. They include Explorys and Toa Technologies in Northeast Ohio, and CoverMyMeds in Columbus.
"You need to celebrate that and tell the world that to drive capital," he said. "You can build world-class tech companies in Cleveland. You've done it.
"So all you entrepreneurs out there, you can get venture capital. It's hard, but you can get it," he said.
Reginald Cash, an entrepreneur of a start-up B-to-B software company called Markers, said he just moved to Cleveland from New York and was glad he came to the event. However, he said, it would have been more interesting to hear first person accounts from founders of companies. His business creates software for companies so they can better track and solicit institutional investments.
"I think a lot of times when VC's talk (venture capitalists) and they're obviously sitting on pools of capital that they want to deploy, it's easy to oversimplify the challenges of attracting them to investing in businesses. So to avoid that danger it would have been nice to get more of a founder's perspective to get both sides of the table."
So, what's next?
Lev Gonnick, of the Cleveland-based broadband provider OneCommunity, put out a call to action for tech collaborations in preparation for the Republican National Convention.
"So the real question is what is the Cleveland experience and how can the technology community support the amazing visitor experiences, the amazing food scene in Cleveland, the amazing healthcare innovation work that's going on, and all the smart city technologies," he said. "We should leave delegates with an unforgettable Cleveland experience. And now's the time to start working on it."