Wondering what was happening with the $5mil/yr funding for the State of Connecitcut (via DECD and CI) to fund building the startup ecosystem? Matt Nemerson, Kip Bergstrom held a couple of update meetings building on the earlier meetings. The deck is below for those that weren’t able to make the meeting.
I did not notice any major changes to the plan – except the timeline is pushed later to fully operational in Q3 2012. The level of detail has increased in particular, the specifics of the goals and the budget are included. Interesting to see the goals include companies growing revenue in addition to jobs. Nice to hear the expressed desire is to be more agile than the typical government program with continuous information and collaboration along the way. (Along these lines, I suggested publishing a draft of the RFP for input before formal release.)
CT Innovation Ecosystem Update Dec 22 2011
Biggest question on my mind is if it is the right timing to start an accelerator or incubator if that is what is on TV and popular right now.
David Fischer continues to offer ideas for different approaches that might attract a lot more national attention. Admittedly, this may be more difficult to get through a political process, but could have a real impact. For example, what if New Haven or the state offered a home buyers program? If you are an entrepreneur that has raised x money (or if we could identify/verify success in the past and desire to start another company – not easy I’m sure), then you get matching funds to buy a house. It can be forgivable loan over 5 years if you make it your primary residence or similar. No way to build the ecosystem like stocking more of the type you want. Definitely interesting.
What do you think of the plan? Any suggestions for improvement?
