Part One
Over the last 20 years, nearly 100% of all net new jobs in the American economy have been created by new companies-startups less than 5 years old. Big, established corporations make money by finding efficiencies, often by increasing productivity and shedding jobs. The point is, if we want a vibrant local economy capable of generating jobs, it's essential that we find ways to encourage innovation and financially support entrepreneurs.
Yet, the 2010 Region by the Numbers report issued by Agenda 360/Vision 2015, revealed that when it comes to the availability of venture capital, the mother's milk of entrepreneurs, metropolitan Cincinnati ranks near the bottom, tenth out of twelve of our peer regions.
The passage of the third Fronter Program by Ohio voters in 2002, and extended in 2010, is critical to changing that situation. Six years ago, Cincy Tech was founded to focus on first stage seed funding. Now, a new organization, Cintrifuse, has entered the region's innovation ecosystem. Cintrifuse will provide a range of mentoring and educational services to innovators and entrepreneurs in their organizational, seed stage. It will also help organize the next round of early stage funding for companies that have moved beyond the seed stage. And ultimately, Cintrifuse hopes to create a regional innovation campus in the middle of Over the Rhine.
Dan Hurley was joined on the show by Jeff Weedman, who has led Cintrifuse since its launch last July. He is an executive on loan from Procter & Gamble. At P&G, he began the Entrepreneual Global Licensing Department charged with commercializing the company's treasure trove of patents generated by its research labs. In recent years, he led the External Business Development, working with researchers outside the company who want to partner with P&G.
Hurley was also joined by Tim Schigel, the director of the Fund of Funds for Cintrifuse. Earlier, Mr. Schigel directed Blue Chip Venture Company, the city's largest venture company and is also the founder of Share-This, a web sharing platform.
Part Two
Of all the communities in the metropolitan region, Greenhills stands out as special. In the midst of the great depression, the federal government used the most modern urban planning principles to develop 3 new towns, one of which was Greenhills, Ohio.
This weekend, Greenhills begins a year long celebration of its 75th anniversary.
To talk about Greenhills and what will happen this year, Dan was joined by Jeff Halter, a member of the city council and one of the leaders of the anniversary celebration.
