Times, they are a changing, and we better adapt. And to be brutally honest, change is hard, even at the personal level. Now imagine trying to change the habits of millions of people with different needs and desires, especially when some people aren’t even complaining. It isn’t easy.

Given the current state of the economy, high gas prices, huge utility price increases, the migration of high-wage manufacturing jobs, the cost of war, health care and so on, what is our state and region doing to encourage change that will help us in Northwest Ohio be more competitive in the brutally competitive, global economy? I do not believe the government can solve our problems.

But I do believe it can, through incremental steps and good policy, help private industry solve some of the problems in our society.

These incremental changes are needed now more than ever. Why? It is when the economy is in serious trouble — when risks are the greatest to society — that people will change and the reward is the greatest. In my lifetime, the time and need for change has never been more apparent than now.

The region needs to add high-paying jobs. There are basically two ways to bring good jobs to the region: company attraction and technology innovation. This is just one piece of a larger puzzle, and other organizations and institutions (e.g. UT, BGSU) are working nonstop to keep pace with change to overtake all comers.

The Ohio Department of Development’s Third Frontier Network through its Entrepreneur Signature Program was designed to create an infrastructure to aid entrepreneurs in the startup of high-tech companies. Each of the six regions in the state got more than $60 million to fund this program. Locally, the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP) established Launch as a business incubator and Rocket Ventures as an investment vehicle to help such companies.

The dollars in play locally exceed $22 million. Some of the dollars to companies are in the form of grant dollars, while other dollars come from the private sector. Both pools of money have different criteria and restrictions.

Today, I am going to talk about the Ignite! grant, which can provide up to $50,000 to early-stage technology companies for support of product development, marketing and sales.

Since inception in July 2007, the RGP has reviewed 134 technology companies with the intention of finding companies that fit in the investment buckets — either the Ignite! grant capped at $50,000 or the Rocket Ventures Fund that is capped at $750,000. So far, six companies have been funded through the programs for a dollar amount probably in the $700,000 to $1 million range. I give a range because some of the information is a trade secret and I am not privy to that information. But, within those dollars, the Ignite! grant to the tune of $200,000 has funded four companies. That is no trade secret. Public money requires transparency.

The companies that have thus  far received Ignite! grant funding are: Dox Systems, an electronic medical records (EMR) company; Blue Water Satellite, a satellite imaging company; ADS Biotechnology, a company that is working on a blood-replacement compound; and TechTol Imaging, a 3-D rotational imaging company.

Each of these companies is at various stages of the “commercialization” cycle, with Dox Systems already in the market with a full EMR product. The other three companies are in an early stage with products in development, or performing market research.

At first blush, a couple of hundred thousand dollars may not seem like a lot of money for four companies, and whether these particular companies end up fueling job growth is yet to be seen and may never happen.

Regardless, what matters is our state political and local business leadership understands that we are at the point of sink or swim. This type of program in the region and throughout the state is a radical departure from traditional economic development initiatives in the past. And the program is directly linked to innovation, supporting companies that will help create high-wage jobs.

So every time you hear a complaint that nothing is being done locally to help foster innovation and create jobs in our “knowledge” economy, please know that this region’s efforts through programs such as Launch and Rocket Ventures at the RGP are working to create traction for the local economy. It is my hope and belief that in the not-too-distant future, you are going to hear about amazing new technology businesses being created right here and that the melancholy discussion about the good old days of $20 per hour wages and lifetime employment, will be drowned out by a chorus of high fives as our region positions itself to thrive in the tech-driven economy.

Brandon Cohen is a Toledo native and local attorney who focuses much of his attention on business assistance and statewide economic development consulting through his relationship with Ohio’s IT Alliance, Inc., an Ohio Edison Center focusing on statewide IT initiatives.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under TFP Version 1.
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