See what Hartford has to offer 
In Bloomberg’s new U.S. State Innovation Index, Connecticut was ranked as the nation’s fourth most innovative economy behind California, Massachusetts, and Washington, respectively.
The rankings were based on six equally weighted metrics: research and development intensity, productivity, clusters of companies in technology, STEM jobs, populous with degrees in science and engineering disciplines, and patent activity.
The Upward Living co-living space will be located at Located in downtown Hartford at 196 Trumbull Street, Hartford, CT.
Hartford co-working space Upward Hartford announced a new initiative: Upward Living.
Upward Living will house incoming cohorts taking part in the Upward Labs accelerator program, as well as the startups in Hartford’s Stanley+Techstars Additive Manufacturing Accelerator.
Located in downtown Hartford at 196 Trumbull Street, the co-living space will be free to occupants. According to Upward CEO Shana Schlossberg, the apartments and community spaces are currently being built and will be "move-in-ready" by July 1.
Upward Hartford was recently ranked #7 Co-working Space in America, according to Big Seven Media. In 2017, Upward transformed 34,000 square feet in Hartford’s iconic “Stilts Building” into an innovative space for ambitious change-makers and entrepreneurs.
To learn more about Upward Living , read 'Upward Living' to House Startups in Downtown Hartford, written by Joe Cooper and posted on Hartford Business Journal April 5, 2019.
This story by Rick Green originally appeared in the Hartford Courant April 15, 2019.
Hartford ranks fourth in the nation among metropolitan areas with the most female entrepreneurs, according to a new analysis of Census data.
The Hartford, West Hartford, East Hartford metropolitan statistical area ranks behind only St. Louis; Austin, Texas; and Providence in the percentage of female-owned startups.
According to the ranking, the Hartford area has 498 startups that are owned by women, with 3,547 employees.
About 31% of startups were owned by women, according to an analysis by Seek Business Capital, a Los Angeles financial firm that makes loans to small businesses. While startups owned by women are increasing, just 24.5% of new startups are owned by females, according to the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs. Women own approximately 20% of all businesses nationwide.
The top 10 metro areas for female-owned startups:
Interested in learning more about female entrepreneurs, leaders, and business owners? Check out IDH Women in Business
Hartford InsurTech Hub meeting. (Photo courtesy: Startupbootcamp)
Hartford InsurTech Hub’s Demo Day will take place April 26 at the Bushnell Performing Arts Center.
This year’s theme is AMPLIFY. “We're excited to strengthen the insurance community by amplifying the importance of InsurTech and how innovative ideas can make some noise in the insurance industry,” notes Hartford InsurTech Hub.
The event will showcase 10 Hartford InsurTech Hub startups and celebrate their transformation and the results they have achieved since the program began in February.
These InsurTech startups are fostering insurance innovation and providing a great platform to trigger a surge of entrepreneurial activity in Hartford. The 10 companies were selected from an initial 1,000 applicants. The innovative startups hail from Switzerland, Australia, South Africa, Israel, from Canada, and the United States.
At Demo Day, attendees will hear these startups’ stories, interact with the founders, and network. Seats at the event will be limited, so early registration is encouraged.
Register to attend Hartford InsurTech Hub's Demo Day and learn more about the presenting startups.
Learn more about Hartford InsurTech Hub
VISIT: hartfordinsurtechhub.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter
WATCH: Hartford InsurTech Hub’s Demo Day 2018
Casa Rossa Landscape & Construction, LLC co-founders Jeffrey and Emily Kyle.
Social media works. Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price connected with Casa Rossa Landscape & Construction, LLC co-founders Jeffrey and Emily Kyle via a Facebook post from IdleWilde Printing Company. Nan met with the two to discuss startup processes and challenges.
NAN PRICE: Have you always wanted to own a business? How did the idea come about?
JEFFREY KYLE: Landscaping has been in my blood since I was a child. My grandfather was a union bricklayer and my father has a small landscaping company. I worked for my father during high school and throughout college. I worked for other landscape and construction companies over the years, where I learned how to do asphalt, concrete, irrigation installation and maintenance, and some hardscape.
Emily and I had been thinking about starting our own business for a while and it seemed like the right path for us. I’ve learned so many different things over the years and I’ve always had an entrepreneurial mindset.
EMILY KYLE: It made more sense for us to start something from scratch. We like the business aspect of it too, not just doing the manual work and landscaping. We want to learn more about owning and growing businesses.
My bachelor’s degree is in landscape architecture and I’ve done a lot of small-scale landscape design, so, I’ve been able to help with project ideas.
NAN: What’s your biggest startup challenge?
EMILY: One of the difficulties about starting a landscaping company is the price of new equipment. With a new business, you’re starting from the bottom. You can’t buy all your equipment right away because you don’t have enough work immediately coming in to pay for those items, whether you’re taking loans out or you’re paying in cash.
You have to be smart. For us, starting at a small scale makes the most sense for now. If you overpay for big project-type equipment, you may not get the work because you haven’t built a clientele yet. Starting small has been the most affordable way for us to get started. We plan to build from here.
NAN: How are you building your clientele?
JEFF: I started with no clients whatsoever. My first client was a commercial project. It was a lucky break because they have a lot of visibility. We documented that work by posting photos on social media, and some of the company’s employees became clients. People saw the quality of the work and it just blew up from there.
Our business is located in New Hartford, but I grew up in West Hartford, so I have a lot of connections there. So far, a lot of our work is in West Hartford, Glastonbury, Newington, Manchester, and Canton.
That’s the thing too, when we were starting out, it was all word-of-mouth referrals. Starting out, my mindset has been: Use what you have and take what you can get. It was important to get our name out there and make those connections. They could be potential leads. You never know.
NAN: Aside from word-of-mouth, how are you marketing?
JEFF: Social media has been huge. Emily handles that for us. We started our Facebook and Instagram pages right away and started posting. Our content includes planting projects, mulch installations, concrete work, pruning, and lawns I’ve cut. Clients, friends, and family were sharing the page and recommending us.
EMILY: We have lawn signs we install, but that’s not where we’re getting the majority of our clients. We’re getting leads from word-of-mouth and social media. Social media is 2019. We’re happy to make posts because people connect with them. People love updates and they love social media. If they don’t hear from you, they don’t know you’re out there.
So, we’re heavily relying on social media, but a lot of our marketing has been word-of-mouth and reviews—people love reviews—and it’s helped us grow the business substantially.
NAN: You filed your LLC in May 2018, so you’re still fairly new. Tell us about the beginning months of launching the business. What have you learned so far?
JEFF: This year was challenging because I wanted to make sure I was reinvesting business income properly. I have a 48” commercial walk-behind mower I use and maintain. I bought a few small pieces of equipment I knew I’d be able to profit from. Buying equipment is the hardest thing, because it costs so much. Reinvesting your money properly is probably the most important thing.
EMILY: And realizing you have to say no to some people. We’ve had so much interest at times we’ve had to turn people away because right now it’s just Jeff physically working. We haven’t hired employees yet.
In other businesses, you just keep growing. In this type of business, you have to wait if you don’t have enough help and you’re physically doing all the work. Also, in the beginning, you might not have the equipment yet to accommodate someone’s needs, so you have to turn some work away.
We grew faster than we were prepared for and we can’t accommodate everything right away. I know we’ll be able to, but it takes time.
NAN: Aside from financing, what do you need most to move your company forward?
JEFF: Good-quality employees in coming years. If you have good-quality employees you know are going to show up and give 110%, you can take on more work.
NAN: Any advice for those thinking of launching a small business?
JEFF: Starting from the bottom is always a challenge. Be smart with your money. Ask other successful people for advice, even if they’re not in the same industry.
EMILY: Right. We’ve gotten advice and financial guidance from family members and other business owners.
I would also recommend being savvy right away with record keeping. Nobody teaches you about that. In this type of business, taxes are challenging and you’re writing off items for the business. There are things you don’t fully understand right away. Recordkeeping is huge for anyone who runs their own business. It’s so critical, but no one teaches you that.
Start getting used to saving and organizing everything. It will make your life so much easier. That’s the hardest part of the business from my perspective, keeping track of everything. It’s about establishing good habits.
NAN: Let’s talk about your future vision.
EMILY: We want to grow. Jeff plans to get his Home Improvement Contracting (HIC) license. I have my real estate license. We want to evolve into doing property management in addition to landscaping and construction. We want to be a one-stop shop to accommodate most property needs.
JEFF: We plan to have investment properties down the road and be able to do everything in house. It may take some time, but that’s our ultimate goal.
Learn more about Casa Rossa Landscape & Construction, LLC
Connecticut serial entrepreneur James Stalker is CEO of The Enterprise Universe.
Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price spoke to James Stalker, CEO The Enterprise Universe, about his entrepreneurial journey—from India, to New Mexico, to Connecticut.
NAN PRICE: Have you always known you wanted to run your own company?
JAMES STALKER: The entrepreneur bug started when I was in college studying mechanical engineering in India, where I grew up. I knew I was going to be on my own developing something, but it took a lot longer than I would have preferred. I went to graduate school, got my Ph.D., and I worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory for several years, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a member of the technical staff.
NAN: How, when, and why did you transition into entrepreneurship?
JAMES: Two things happened around 2001. First, I was mentoring students who were interested in interning at Los Alamos National Lab. One day, I was telling a student he needed to follow his dreams and it struck me: I was doing my research and getting a comfy check each month, but I wasn’t really following my dream.
I went home and I told my wife I was going to start something on my own. That’s always been what I wanted to do. She was on board with my decision. The other thing was my daughter’s birth. I realized working at the Lab I was spending too much time away from her. She was only a year old when I left Los Alamos National Lab and started (Regional Earth System Predictability Research, Inc. (RESPR) in 2002.
NAN: How did you develop the business concept for your first startup?
JAMES: I knew I had a good research background developing products. I was already helping some folks in renewable energy and I felt my cutting-edge research could push the envelope in the renewable energy sector.
Between 2002 and 2004 I developed a product line based on RESPR atmospheric simulation technology and launched multiple divisions over the next few years since, including WindForces, SunCloudConfluence, GREEN based Consulting, and PerpetualIdeation.
Two other companies I most recently started are Smart Energy Load Centers Corp. (SELC), which is developing renewable energy technology solutions for personal and business computing, and Weather-Climate Knowledge Rewards, which I started last year.
NAN: All your companies fall under the umbrella of your latest initiative, The Enterprise Universe.
JAMES: Yes. The umbrella company’s vision is to provide the ingredients for technology companies to succeed. The ingredients are: technology expertise, business development expertise, and funding. The proportion depends on the type of business. For example, all my companies tend to have more technologists than finance people. My plan is to eventually start acquiring other businesses that will gel with my overall vision.
NAN: Let’s talk about your evolution from New Mexico to Connecticut. How did you end up here?
JAMES: Again, it was about my daughter—and my family. When my daughter graduated from high school last year, she chose to go to the University of Rochester, which is quite far from New Mexico. My wife is a chemistry professor, and she ended up accepting a position in the department of chemistry at the University of Connecticut. The kind of business I have, I can do it anywhere. That’s how we landed here in August 2018.
NAN: How did you become integrated into the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Connecticut?
JAMES: Being a businessman for 15+ years in New Mexico, I became well-known and built many relationships—from people in government to those in local universities.
I didn’t want to take 15 years to do the same thing here! I was trying to find some shortcuts and I thought there has got to be some better ways to do this. I reached out to Jennifer Murphy at UConn’s Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, who connected me to Joe Ercolano, at the Connecticut Small Business Development Corporation (SBDC).
Joe connected me to Nerac President Kevin Bouley. Joe believed my vision was well aligned with Kevin’s activities supporting the development of technology-based new ventures. He was right. Kevin and I had a 20-minute phone call and that was it. He said: You’re coming here, and we are doing things together. I have an office at Nerac and I’ve been attending some of his XCellR8 meetings.
Kevin, made a lot of contacts for me. I’ve been building relationships with two research groups from UConn engineering. One is focused on weather simulation, the other is in the renewable energy area.
And, through my wife’s connections, I also talked with an environmental group connected to UConn.
NAN: Let’s talk about your future goals—in a sense, you’re building your universe.
JAMES: That’s right. Aside from my personal vision, one of my goals is to help and inspire the entrepreneurial community.
NAN: How so?
JAMES: I’ve developed nine key fundamentals for entrepreneurs to be successful and would like to start presenting monthly presentations for local entrepreneurs. I just want to share my experience.
NAN: How are you building that audience?
JAMES: Kevin has a lot of it already. And I connected with Mike Roer at the Entrepreneurship Foundation. He invited me to talk to them to see if my presentation makes sense for them. They have many universities as members, so I can plug into those resources too.
Personally, my five-year plan is $100 billion investment, with $20 billion going into weather options, $40 billion going into renewable energy, and $40 billion going into world mapping using my RESPR technology to essentially give more capability to companies in many countries to optimize their own natural resources. I want to do that for companies in every country over a period of time. That’s really the vision.
In terms of Connecticut, I want to collaborate with economic development organizations. My technology can help them reach their target. But they need to solidify their vision and goals. If we can pool together the workforce—local entrepreneurs and university professors—if all of us come together we can reach any target. That’s what I want to bring to Connecticut. Not just building my own business, but building business in Connecticut.
By Nan Price, Content Manager, MetroHartford Alliance
Daniel Weiner, Ph.D., Vice President for Global Affairs at the University of Connecticut, spoke about the ways in which UConn is fostering global connections and making an economic impact in Connecticut.
UConn students in Bradenburg Germany, participate in the EuroTech German International Engineering Program.
NAN PRICE: Tell us about your role at UConn and the importance of cultivating global affairs.
DANIEL WEINER: When I came to UConn six and a half years ago, I was offered a job to lead “International Affairs.” I requested that the title change to Global Affairs because phrasing as “international” creates a false dualism between domestic and international, whereas global embeds the local.
The way we approach global affairs is to start at home. So, while my job is to establish and nurture the global footprint of the University of Connecticut, we’re very conscious of the reality that a global perspective needs to start locally.
If you look at Greater Hartford—and Connecticut more broadly—there’s a lot of global business. We also have a remarkable diversity of people from all over the world speaking multiple languages.
We need to think of this as a comparative advantage. There’s a structural labor shortage throughout the country and the types of labor we need are going to require immigration. Multicultural Greater Hartford is part of our attraction. In Connecticut overall, one of our advantages is we are viewed as an open, multicultural, tolerant, global space. Diversity and innovation are the oxygen of this country—we need the best and the brightest from everywhere, whether they come from Willimantic, Bangladesh, or Singapore.
NAN: In what ways does UConn create a global impact?
DANIEL: UConn is global. We have more than 225 MOUs in 163 institutions in more than 50 countries around the world. As part of our global strategy, we partner with cutting-edge research universities around the world and develop top-notch locations for students to study abroad.
And UConn draws in students from all over the world; one example is the UConn School of Business in Hartford, which provides a global feel and changes the character of the city.
One of the reasons international students come to Connecticut is because we have exceptional universities. They also come with the hope that they can stay in Connecticut, get jobs here, and either live here permanently or stay for part of their career.
Hartford used to be a place where you came to work and left at night—maybe on the weekend you would come to the city to see a performance or attend a sporting event. Greater Hartford is finally becoming a destination for young people to consider as a place to live, engage with the city, and develop a career.
When I hire someone from out of state to come work at UConn, I always enjoy talking them about Greater Hartford because they’re usually very positive. It’s important that people coming here have a positive feeling about the place and give us a fresh perspective.
Upward Hartford is one organization that’s helping with our positive message. It’s bringing in more startups and helping change the culture. Upward’s partnership with Connecticut Innovations is transformative. It enables them to invest in new companies and new ideas.
NAN: In what ways does UConn support job placement in Connecticut and contribute to the state’s economic development?
DANIEL: More than 1,000 UConn students a year participate in educational programs all over the world. We help prepare them for careers in the global market, because companies are looking for skilled labor that is also culturally competent. They are seeking global citizens.
I don’t think people realize the extent of the relationship between Connecticut and Germany for economic development. We should be talking about that—and we’re starting to.
One example is our German International Engineering Program, Eurotech, which offers a dual degree in engineering and German. In the fifth year of this program, students do an internship in Germany. These students are fluent in German and gain experience interning at an engineering firm in Germany before they return to Connecticut. There’s a lot of German industry in the state of Connecticut. These young folks receive multiple job offers.
We are now building on the successful EuroTech model blending engineering, the humanities, and language acquisition and creating new programs in China, France, and Spain. If UConn can provide those types of experiences to prepare students for the global workforce, it adds an additional incentive for global companies in Connecticut to offer jobs that keep graduates here in the state.
NAN: You recently visited Israel. Can you tell us about some of the partnerships with universities there?
DANIEL: UConn is really pleased about the relationships we’ve built with universities in Israel. We partner with their leading research institutions to create potential impact on economic development for the state and the Greater Hartford region.
I was in Israel in November for two weeks. One of the universities I visited was Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, which is one of the leaders in cybersecurity. The state of Connecticut views itself as a potential place for leading cybersecurity companies. We’re now connecting cybersecurity researchers at UConn with cybersecurity researchers at Ben-Gurion. Hopefully, those types of relationships lead to people launching companies, creating intellectual property, and potentially having companies move to Connecticut from Israel.
UConn is also working with the American Technion Society, which is a fundraising branch of The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. A UConn alumnus donated $500,000 to The Technion as a challenge. UConn and The Technion had to raise another $500,000, which we did. We now have Technion scientists and UConn scientists working on alternative energy research projects. We funded three projects this year, one of which is around fuel cells, an industry that’s very important for the state of Connecticut.
Daniel Weiner, Ph.D., Vice President for Global Affairs at the University of Connecticut
And UConn is part of the Metabolic Research Alliance (MRA), a consortium formed in 2016 that includes The Jackson Laboratory, Yale University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Researchers from all four institutions are working on metabolic research, specifically regarding diseases leading to obesity and diabetes, which is becoming a global epidemic. It’s another example of how UConn can bring top scientists together to develop innovative scientific discoveries and potentially lead to concrete economic development and new drug therapy regimes for patients.
NAN: As chair the Global Business Council for the MetroHartford Alliance, what message do you feel needs to be shared with the region?
DANIEL: I think part of what we need to do is have good data that helps us tell our story. Because at the end of the day, economic development for every state has a global component. Connecticut has some important advantages—our schools, universities, labor force, locations, and quality of life. We need to understand our state in a global context, feel proud of it, and promote it.
Fuel Love Creator and Founder Melissa Muszynski.
Fuel Love is one of many innovative startups participating in the 2019 reSET Impact Accelerator. The program is designed for entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development.
Fuel Love Creator and Founder Melissa Muszynski recently shared her startup experience with Innovation Destination Hartford.
INNOVATION DESTINATION HARTFORD: When and why did you launch your startup?
MELISSA MUSZYNSKI: I explicitly remember the morning Fuel Love launched. I was getting ready for work and closed my eyes for a minute to send positive energy to a relative going through a difficult time. Suddenly, the words “fuel love” came to my mind. It felt like the “ah-ha moment” so many business owners describe.
I visualized a logo on a shirt. It must have been my intuition saying, “launch a business to help connect people through love.” It was a surreal moment.
I followed my intuition and within days we were designing shirts. A few weeks later we were selling them in stores throughout the state. I’m a spiritual person and I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe we’re destined to do something greater than we could imagine. That’s why I created Fuel Love.
I often ask people, “Do you believe the world needs more love?” Every single person says, “Yes!” Our mission is to inspire people to do good and love more. The brand reminds people to ask themselves, “How can I make a difference?”
IDH: In your startup process, did you connect with any Connecticut business resources?
MELISSA: Yes. Early on, I connected and collaborated with other women-owned businesses, which has been critical to Fuel Love’s growth. Establishing these relationships early on enabled my brand to grow organically with the support of talented, successful business owners.
I’ve learned and grown as a business owner because of these women and the inspiring relationships we’ve created. We all see the importance of supporting one another and we’re creating a community of business owners who genuinely want to help each other. It’s positive and empowering. I hope someday I can give back others like they have to me. Larissa Lake, founder of Larissa Lake and Co./Linden and Kimberly Pedrick, founder of dwell New Haven are two business women who believed in my brand from the beginning. I cannot thank them enough.
In addition, I’ll begin two major endeavors as a new business owner this year. In February, I joined reSET’s 2019 Impact Accelerator Program, which is designed to provide entrepreneurs with access to the knowledge, networks, and resources they need to grow their businesses and their social impact. The program focuses on connecting entrepreneurs with early-stage customers and industry-specific experts and mentors, while providing them with coaching along important startup milestones.
Later in the spring, I’ll attend Cornell University to participate in its Women’s Entrepreneurship Program in partnership with Bank of America. This first-ever pilot program and strategic partnership will provide women entrepreneurs with the skills, knowledge, and resources to build, manage, and scale a successful business.
IDH: Who is your target client and how are you marketing?
MELISSA: Our customer base is primarily women in their 20s to 60s who shop for themselves and young children. Many are mothers who want to teach their children about love and kindness and believe our merchandise offers them a good starting point to have those conversations. Some of our customers have gone through challenging times in their lives and feel connected by our clothing.
We’re marketing on social media and via social media influencers, as well as in person and at major events throughout the state. We’re also growing the brand by establishing retail partnerships.
IDH: How did you develop those partnerships? And do you intend to find additional distributors?
MELISSA: Our products will be available at more shops in Connecticut (and one in Rhode Island) and we’ll be growing that list in the months to come. I made those connections by having in-person conversations with the business owners about the brands they look to collaborate with as they gear up for their fall and spring buying. We’re also selective about the stores where we sell. They all have the mindset of empowering people with merchandise that does the same.
IDH: What’s your biggest startup challenge?
MELISSA: Time! I have an enormous amount of energy, but not enough hours in the day. Being a wife and a mother to two little girls who have bigger social lives than me, while growing this company has been a major balancing act. However, with it comes the learning lesson of how to prioritize and manage deliverables in all areas of my life.
IDH: What are you most proud of that you have accomplished in the last year?
Fuel Love is one of innovative startups participating in the 2019 reSET Impact Accelerator.
MELISSA: Since our launch, Fuel Love is empowering people to offer more love, kindness, and compassion into their daily lives. We receive stories about how people are making a difference and that’s what our company strives for—seeing people fuel love.
IDH: What resources do you need most to move your company forward?
MELISSA: We would greatly benefit from collaborations with major retailers and social media influencers while creating robust and interactive communications and developing marketing and public relations campaigns.
IDH: Any advice to others thinking of launching a Connecticut startup?
MELISSA: Don’t think, just do it. Take the leap of faith and believe in yourself and the product/service you can provide. We have one life to live and we have to make it count. None of us want to look back and have regrets.
Learn more about Fuel Love
VISIT: fuel-love.com
FOLLOW: Facebook | Instagram
By Glendowlyn Thames, Executive Director CTNext
Glendowlyn Thames, Executive Director CTNext, a wholly owned subsidiary of Connecticut Innovations that supports startups and entrepreneurs with resources that fuel Connecticut’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Innovation districts have caught on all over the world as an effective vehicle for transforming the economic vitality of a community through public-private partnerships, attracting both new talent and a critical mass of tech startups and young, high-growth companies.
I personally love the idea because done right, it brings together stakeholders who may not otherwise collaborate—universities, established companies, small businesses, office users and underserved residents—to share ideas around reimagining their community in the knowledge-based economy.
But “done right” is the key. The districts have been around for long enough that they have been deeply studied by Brookings Institution, among others. For that reason, we know now why some districts sizzle while others fizzle out.
Here in Connecticut, we’re about two years into our own experiment called Innovation Places. We had the advantage of working with a couple of Brookings Fellows from the start, but we are still learning a lot.
If there is one overall message I’d impart, it is that these initiatives have to evolve from the bottom-up with the private sector and local community leading, rather than from the top-down with the public sector in the lead. These are collaborative efforts and the best ideas are going to bubble up from stakeholders, of which there are many.
Here are my five key takeaways for standing up these innovation hubs and leveraging community power to its fullest:
Find Your Innate Strength(s) and Focus.
Innovation districts work best when they stem from an area’s organic strengths. Hartford, for example, is one of our four innovation districts. Considering that the city was already an international capital for insurance, it made sense to build the new innovation district around that industry.
In this fourth industrial revolution, the insurance industry, like many others, fears disruption from the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, quantum computing, etc. Many of the Hartford-based insurance companies had been flying out to Silicon Valley in search of the latest and greatest technology.
One of the goals of Hartford’s innovation district is a sector focus strategy to attract the kind of startups that can help the industry improve customer service and efficiency, better assess risks, among other things, and in the process reinvigorate the economy.
Get Major Institutions to Commit.
Once a community has evaluated its core strengths, it’s time to make connections to the anchor institutions that help leverage and build off these strengths—whether they are private companies, hospitals, universities and research institutions, or local real estate developers.
These established institutional players have as much at stake as anyone in preserving the attractiveness of their hometown communities. They play a huge role in attracting other talented entrepreneurs. Sometimes these institutions provide catalytic money, but they can also provide other kinds of soft support, like mentorship and space for innovation labs, and other knowledge capital.
Leadership, Leadership, Leadership.
It is imperative to find the leaders who will sit at the table and make the district happen. It should be a diverse group of stakeholders, but it should also be people who are excited to commit real time. Ask yourself: Who has a vested interest in making sure the area’s natural assets are fully exploited and also protected? There is no way to get these people without investing a lot of time in research, phone calls and chasing down recommendations. This is where support from the public sector is critical. Mayors, local economic development officials, and other elected officials in leadership positions have the power of convening. Lean on them to use it.
Don’t Forget the Entrepreneurs and Community Builders
One lesson we learned the hard way: During planning, as early as possible, make sure to include the entrepreneurs already in your community, particularly those already active in community building. Perhaps this sounds obvious, but entrepreneurs are wired differently. They are often working so hard at getting their businesses off the ground that they forget to lift up their heads and see what is going on around them.
While the community’s anchor institutions are essential, they should not dominate, or the initiative will flounder for lack of entrepreneurial zest. You need to reach out to them directly, tap them on the shoulder and say, “We need you to weigh in on this new district.” The tech founders will embrace strategies that focus on their talent needs: development, recruitment, and retention. Once you have their attention, they will be all in.
Create Metrics for Inclusive Community Involvement.
Most innovation districts are working toward two primary goals: building their innovation ecosystem by attracting up and coming businesses and revitalizing an entire community or a specific downtrodden area of town. Gentrification, sadly, has become a bit of a dirty word in many communities because local populations fear being pushed out–and rightfully so.
Including the long-time residents of these communities in the development of the district is essential and needs to be measured. From the high-tech entrepreneurs to the food-cart owners, we actually track participation of underserved populations and local residents in the transformation that is taking place. We have other metrics, like how many hours of mentorship are being given, the number of companies scaling, improvements in perception of the area, and whether entrepreneurs stay after achieving some success. Like Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
Communities in St. Louis, Detroit, and Chattanooga are showing the blueprint can work. We have to keep learning and sharing what we’ve learned to ensure innovation districts remain a powerful vehicle to bring more communities together to create vibrant futures.
The RiseUP Group at the fifth annual Cocktails for Change Gala (Photo courtesy Nick Caito, Hartford Courant)
Founded in 2012, the RiseUP Group provides young adults from urban communities in Connecticut with tools and guidance to help them become business and community leaders.
Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price met with RiseUP Executive Director Matt Conway at the Lighthouse in Hartford, one of the organization’s housing initiatives, to find out more about the social enterprise and its impact on the community.
NAN PRICE: Have you always been entrepreneurial?
MATT CONWAY: It’s funny you asked. I was working at Aetna while I was an undergraduate at University of Connecticut. One day my boss and I were talking about my future. I remember he said, “You are an entrepreneur.” At the time, I thought: Oh no, I don’t have any good ideas.
NAN: What changed?
MATT: I always saw myself in a leadership role at a big company. But his comment stuck with me.
After graduation, I had a job lined up at GE Capital in Stamford CT. Before I started, I had an opportunity to work at Weaver High School in Hartford doing a workforce ready program with more than 40 kids who got paid through a grant with Blue Hills Civic Association. It was my first experience working with inner-city schools and it helped me realize I wanted to do something more impactful for the community.
I started a mentoring program with a couple friends from UConn, which eventually became the RiseUP Group. We started working with 12 juniors and seniors from Weaver High. We helped them with college prep, scholarship applications, and went on weekend adventures.
NAN: Let’s talk about how things have evolved.
MATT: The program eventually morphed into RiseUP University, which is an after-school program that helps students identity their passion, improve their academics, and prepare for college or a career. We’ve leveraged partnerships with local colleges, universities, and corporations, which have created opportunities for our youth.
Of the original RiseUP University cohort, 95% have gone on to college, trade schools, or the military and we’ve raised more than $1 million in scholarship money.
Another way things have evolved is, about two years ago, I partnered with Yovel Badash, the author of No Child Held Back, which focuses on purpose-driven education. We decided to join forces to better serve the community.
When we first started brainstorming, we were still involved with high schools, working on getting the No Child Held Back philosophy taught at school and getting kids developing a purpose plan. Eventually, we came up with four elements to really help a community:
We started piloting different initiatives under each of these four “legs of the stool.” We now have four properties in Hartford: the Lighthouse, the Dreamhouse, the Powerhouse, and the Harmony Condo. To complement our housing solution, we created Handy Vision, which provides job training and opportunities for individuals in the community.
NAN: From a startup perspective, what have you learned that you hadn’t expected?
MATT: As a young entrepreneur, I’ve learned the importance of finding resources and people who can help you along the way.
A group of RiseUP Scholars after a group outing on Front Street
You can end up having a lot of balls in the air at once and they’re hard to juggle. I wasn’t anticipating the amount of time and resources it takes to nurture all the relationships to build an idea into a point of sustainability.
But I realized I had to put some ideas on hold or create a plan to go after them later. That was a tough realization, because you always want to stay motivated. You never think you’re doing enough, but sometimes doing too much can burn you out. That’s something many people warned me about, but it’s nothing you can understand until you’ve experienced it.
NAN: Sound advice. Care to share any other inspiration for others on their entrepreneurial journey?
MATT: Sure. The hedgehog concept from Jim Collins’ book Good to Great is the implementation of a strategy that satisfies three questions:
This concept has helped RiseUP get back to our core mission of “empowering youth to be the catalyst that uplift and inspire their community.” Moving forward, we’re putting all our effort into launching a new cohort of RiseUP University scholars.
Find out more about the RiseUP Group
VISIT: www.theriseupgroup.org
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