“This machine kills fascists!”
That blaring howl, made by entrepreneur Marc Canter while brandishing a laptop high over his head, was certainly the highlight from a sheer entertainment standpoint of a public “community engagement meeting” held by Cleveland venture development group JumpStart. (At the end of the meeting, Canter was escorted out by security after a few other outbursts.)
JumpStart maintained that it called the meeting to seek ideas on how Northeast Ohio could become more entrepreneur-friendly. But the real reason was more likely to take on a vocal cadre of critics — including Canter, the CEO of Digital City Mechanics and founder of the company that became MacroMedia — who had raised sharp questions about how the organization spends its (and taxpayers’) money.
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But what the meeting lacked in entertainment (sans the much-appreciated and boisterous contributions of Canter), it made up for with nearly two hours of testimony in favor of JumpStart. The accolades came fast and furious from a wide swath of supporters, including a number of entrepreneurs who’ve received investment funding from the group. (It’s generally a good rule of thumb to avoid publicly criticizing people who are signing your checks. And with that, I should mention that MedCity Media, which publishes MedCityNews.com, is a JumpStart portfolio company.)
JumpStart’s early stage investments go to many of the region’s healthcare companies, so this debate had particular importance to Northeast Ohio’s medical industry. Plus, this very local debate could have a greater impact for JumpStart, which has won praises from the likes of President Obama and is now trying to expand the JumpStart model to additional states such as Minnesota. It’s likely stakeholders from the places JumpStart is trying to gain ground are trying to discern how serious these complaints are.
Critics like Mike Burkons and Ron Copfer got in a few jabs, but in the end were clearly frustrated by the sheer magnitude of supporters who stepped up to sing the praises of JumpStart. It’s clear the organization has a lot of fans and has helped lots of young Northeast Ohio companies with cash and business development services — something even its critics are forced to admit.
But the question isn’t whether JumpStart provides value to the region– it clearly does — but rather whether that value represents a good return on a nearly $28 million investment by Ohio taxpayers, Copfer said. Of the $60 million in funding JumpStart has received since its 2004 inception, a little more than half has come from the state and federal governments.
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Rather than rehash each side’s arguments (because that’s already been done in plenty of news articles), JumpStart Chairman Doug Weintraub and JumpStart critic Mike Burkons shared their reactions to the meeting via video.
(And we’d be remiss not to credit the fine work of John Heaney for some humorous and insightful play-by-play of the meeting via Twitter hashtag #jumpstartrumble. Sample tweet: “Can the JumpStart opponents weather the corporate speak and tedium? Brutal combo at #jumpstartrumble”)
Related articles
- JumpStart becomes target of criticism from local entrepreneurs (medcitynews.com)
