Connecticut is ready to select consultants to help it create an “innovation ecosystem,” looking both to poach ideas already implemented in New York and Massachusetts as well as inviting consultants to “choose their own adventure” in creating unique programs to be found nowhere else.
The effort comes even as the Stamford Innovation Center readied to formally launch a business incubator, with a focus on digital media startups that has drawn plaudits from the Connecticut Innovations Inc. venture capital fund and members of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s administration.
“I view it not as an engine of itself, but coupled to multiple (efforts),” said Eric Dale, an attorney in the Stamford office of Robinson & Cole L.L.P. who has been working to pair entrepreneurs with investors. “I”™m really excited about Stamford ”¦ There are a lot of incubators popping up around the national landscape. That is something Stamford hasn”™t had, there”™s not really a hub ”¦ where people can collaborate.”
Kip Bergstrom, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Culture and Tourism, briefly discussed the innovation ecosystem plan in Stamford late last month at a meeting of the Fairfield County Public Relations Association.
In early January, Connecticut Innovations Inc. posted a 40-page draft of what it sees as a system of multiple innovation hubs operating under a common set of state resources.
Among the mechanisms used in other states to spur entrepreneurship, Connecticut is considering:
Ӣ a business plan contest akin to the MassChallenge program that features extended mentorship of prospective startups;
Ӣ a way to pry technologies out of labs that can be commercialized, the mission of the privately funded Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
”¢ an “entrepreneur clubhouse” like Dogpatch Labs in Cambridge, Mass., New York City and Palo Alto, Calif.; or
”¢ an “entrepreneur hotel” similar to the Cambridge Innovation Center or General Assembly in New York City, featuring no-strings-attached space for rent with significant opportunities for entrepreneurs to learn their craft.
And the proposal specifies a “choose your own adventure” element asking consultants to propose ideas the state has failed to borrow or conjure on its own ”“ as one idea, Connecticut is considering offering entrepreneurs $5,000 vouchers to pay for various professional services needed in starting a company.
Malloy already moved to make startups and innovation one of his main efforts entering his second year in office, providing new funding for Connecticut Innovations and lowering a tax credit threshold intended to spur angel investments in young companies such as Norwalk-based Xlerant, which raised $3 million in new funding as it sells budgeting software for schools and businesses.
“If it wasn”™t for (Connecticut Innovations), Xlerant would not exist today,” said Ted Dacko, CEO of Xlerant. “Organizations need two things ”“ money and expertise.”
After a tepid first quarter in 2011, Connecticut finished the year with a 2 percent gain in the new companies, according to the secretary of state”™s office, which maintains records on business incorporation.
In December, however, the number of companies pulling the plug spiked more than 60 percent from the year before, a worrisome signal entering the new year.
“We have to grow a technology base, which is on fire in New York City,” said Jim Fagan, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield”™s Stamford office, speaking to BOMA International members in Stamford late last month. “All of New York”™s growth is coming out of technology.”
