EDGE Minority Entrepreneurship Program

Minority owned businesses must play an increasingly more integral role in regional and national economic development efforts if the desired outcomes of global competitiveness, employment growth, income equality and wealth creation are to be realized. A study entitled: The New Agenda For Minority Business Development – released in June of 2005 by the Boston Consulting Group, states:

“Typically, minority businesses employ minorities; hence the growth and development of these businesses is linked inextricably to the economic growth and development of minority communities. Strong minority owned businesses operating in growth industries therefore could serve as a powerful new infrastructure for inner-city economies, which themselves contribute critically to the overall economic growth of the United States.”

The above finding takes on greater significance given current census trends in our regional and national population. According to projections by the U.S. Census Bureau, major ethnic minority groups will account for approximately 50 percent of the U.S. population by 2050. Today, within Northeast Ohio, Cuyahoga County is a present example of such diversity and throughout Northeast Ohio, minority groups represent 20 percent of the region’s population.

While the overall number of minority businesses has continued to increase on a regional and national level, the vast majority of these businesses continue to be representative of lower growth industries and sole proprietorships. Creating larger scale minority owned businesses represents a key initiative for TechLift and Northeast Ohio.

TechLift’s EDGE Minority Entrepreneurship Program aims to achieve the following:

• Attract, retain and develop high potential technology based minority businesses and entrepreneurs
• Facilitate direct opportunities to network and connect minority entrepreneurs with available resources in the region
• Celebrate successes and showcase high potential and venture-backed minority businesses operating in the technology sectors
• Partner with local, regional, and national organizations with similar missions

To accomplish these objectives, TechLift will pursue an aggressive outreach strategy in collaboration with the existing leadership in the minority business community. These collaborative efforts will help promote higher growth technology based businesses that are owned or led by minorities, with an initial focus on the following key tactics:

• Identifying and supporting the existing minority owned technology based businesses that are poised for significant growth
• Building awareness within the minority business community of the key characteristics of companies that could become venture-ready businesses
• Encouraging strategic partnerships among individuals and organizations to bring together entrepreneurial and technical expertise from the minority business sector
• Facilitating connections with minority stakeholders in medical, engineering, technical, and science industries to ensure a thorough understanding of TechLift and the available resources for product commercialization throughout the region
• Encouraging the participation, utilization and ongoing development of minority “angel” investors and niche venture funds that target minority owned firms, such as the more than 50 organizations that comprise the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC)

We are focused on Northeast Ohio's signature technologies:

Advanced Materials, BioSciences, Electronics, Information Technology, Advanced Energy

Click here to register with TechLift and connect with a Signature EIR.