This is what we need for accelerated economic growth

This is what we must do

A.  FOCUS:  Focal point should be on community based business startup companies in the manufacturing arena.

B. GAP  FUNDING:  Capital is not available to the community based business entrepreneur unless he has equity to qualify for a loan. Universities are given grants with no loan requirement so we would ask that the inequality for community based entrepreneurs be removed and they should be provided with GAP funding with no equity provisions..

C. MANAGEMENT TEAMS: Entrepreneurial advocates should be established to reach out and work with community based business entrepreneurs until they succeed or fail. The Advocates will be trained in the vetting and assisting entrepreneurs  until a project is completed.

E. WHERE YOU ARE: Your economic zone can be targeted by the Community Based Business Incubator Center, Inc.  (CBBIC.org) and work with you to accelerate your economic zones growth by focusing on and identifying your local entrepreneurs.

F. WHO WE ARE: CBBIC.org is a wall-less incubator that will work with entrepreneurs in any location in Upstate.

G. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: We have attached an overview and a list of barriers put together by venture capitalists that we can overcome. CBBIC.org is pre-angel VC and pre-VC thus we do not have to run the difficult requirements that VCs need in immediate short term economic returns in any investment.

H. CONTACT: If you wish to include us in your economic plan, kindly contact us and we will work with you on integrating our organization into your plan. Email is mikef@cbbic.org

                    Barriers to Accelerated Economic Development in Upstate NY

Barriers:  Upstate NY has a significant number of barriers that we seek to remove for accelerated job development and improved economic development.

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  Ø  Universities: Most people think of universities as job-creating economic organizations but even though Upstate has an excellent university system, we continue to lose jobs and our population continues to decline.

•  The university system has had a marginal impact on job growth in Upstate for several reasons. Most University professors are not trained to be entrepreneurs; the true number of entrepreneurial PhD's is minimal when compared to the creative entrepreneurs in the non-university communities, but the latter are seldom invited behind the university walls. Product development and project management are not the primary focus of university communities. For example, an Upstate university received 3 million dollars, distributed funds to students and alumni in units of $5,000 to $25,000 and failed because support was not provided. The city that this university is in has a forecast for a significant reduction in population for the future. The problem was that the person in charge of the program had no true entrepreneurial experience or desire to create jobs and companies. 

• "University R&D Expenditure, 2006. We have good news. One of the things we do very well in New York State is research and development at our universities. In fact, we’re not sure that many New Yorkers, even those within the universities fully appreciate how well we do. We expend about $4B annually in NYS. We are #2 in the nation, second only to California.[1]"

The above quote sounds like all is well except the few companies they develop often leave New York State because the fruits of the universities are not focused on job development but on income from technology transfers. That basically means if we develop a company in Upstate there is very little reason to keep it here. The answer to this question is easy but the universities are not very interested in it. We need to make sure that a company developed in Upstate must stay for 15 years before it can move. Upstate resources are used and Upstate communities should have the benefits.

CBBIC will require startup companies sign agreements that commit them to 15 years in Upstate and hire 50% of their employees from local residents, the unemployed and veterans.

Ø  "The Valley of Death. Seed stage companies that have just recently incorporated are typically filing their patents, writing their business plans, building their management teams, finalizing their prototypes, optimizing their molecules and proving that their technology actually works outside the laboratory. This takes time and money and must occur before revenues can be generated. Companies need financial support during this pre-revenue development period. The financial requirement to get companies through the seed stage is about $500K for physical science companies and $750K for life science companies. But it is extremely difficult to secure this capital because it is a period of very high-risk investing. The companies have not yet proven that they can sell a product. In many cases, the product is not even completely built and tested. This phase in a company’s development is notoriously known as the “Valley of Death” for obvious reasons. Many companies die before they can get through the valley because of lack of capital.[2]"

CBBIC will provide funding (including Gap funding) and CBBIC Entrepreneurial Advocates who will help Startup companies through the difficult first steps of life.  We believe we will have more successful companies and create jobs that will stay in Upstate . 

Money Money Give me Money

Ø  "In theory, NYS universities collectively may have enough commercializable technologies to start 59 start-ups per year. (Our experiences could easily validate that number.) But in reality, to be successful, university spin-outs need:

                        1) seed capital to launch

                        2) management teams to execute

            These two major elements (and several other supporting elements) are weak or missing from NYS’s ecosystem.[3]"

CBBIC recognizes these issues which is why we are seeking to raise $800,000 annually for Gap funding and providing Entrepreneurial Advocates. We will provide support that is not currently offered and training that will assist the entrepreneurs in our mission of creating jobs. Our annual operational budget of 1 million dollars will provide the entrepreneur with many of the skills and access to the community contacts essential for successful.

Loans We have Loans

Ø  Almost everyone wants to loan money to Startups just as long as they have a home and some hard equity that, in case of failure, the bank will be able to foreclose on the entrepreneur's personal property. The real problem is that many of these men and women have no personal equity and that to move their idea forward they will need Gap funding.

CBBIC is willing to take that risk after we evaluate the project. Our goal is job creation and we must take risks to create those job or we will be no different than the Status Quo.

Not for profits that make money off the entrepreneur

Ø  There are some not-for-profits that have for-profit programs that an entrepreneur must pay to attend. These programs may or may not be helpful but if you are starting a company you just don't have a lot of money and time for classes that may not be useful to you.

CBBIC understands this issue and will pay an entrepreneur to attend classes and then rate the usefulness of the class. We will also attempt to film as many classes as possible and have them available on a server for viewing when needed by other entrepreneurs.

We only work with universities - we don't want the public to know we are here

Ø  There are a small number of not-for-profit organizations that attempt to work only with universities and avoid any sort of attempt of working with the general public. These organizations provide classes that can be used by the general public as well as the students and university alumni.

CBBIC would offer classes to all community members on a server so, as their needs are identified, we would be able to provide training to a much wider audience.

Ø  "The fact that there is limited state support for “birthing” start-up companies could explain why we are not receiving much venture capital later in the investing continuum, i.e., at the early, expansion, and later stages from either our own VCs as well as outside VCs. We need to do a better job of feeding the pipeline."[4]