JumpStart: Early-stage funding for Northeast Ohio start-ups

jumpstartinc.org

5 points·imp··6 comments

It's not a direct competitor to YC because they state: "On average, we invest $300,000 in our portfolio companies."

Hmm. The public sector funded regional incubator is back. There were a lot of these during the Bubble.

Are public sector funded incubators by definition doomed or is there hope that they can learn from their private sector brethren?

For startups as we use the word I'd say they're doomed. It takes some expertise to do seed-stage investing, and no one with that kind of expertise would want to work for an organization as bureaucratic as this kind of thing would inevitably be.

Does "public sector" imply government funding? This looks to me like an independent non-profit. Judging by this list of donors:

http://www.jumpstartinc.org/Giving/DonorRecognition.aspx

it seems the organization is largely funded by banks and other non-profit organizations.

Wow. I live in Akron, and have been working up a business plan. As you might imagine, there aren't as many funding opportunities in NE Ohio as there is in say, Silicon Valley. :) This is exciting.

Wow, this is a refreshing development for northeast Ohio. Growing up there, I saw steel mill after steel mill shut down, with thousands of people losing jobs and seemingly no plan for bringing jobs back. At least this effort is a move in the right direction, as opposed to waiting around and hoping for improvement as the best minds are forced to leave town to seek opportunities. This venture really excites me.

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