If the next Bill Gates is sitting right here and Wooster and needs a small amount of financing to take his idea to the next level, the Wooster Opportunities Fund may hold the key to bringing the next great idea to market.
According to Wooster Mayor Bob Breneman the idea for the innovative financing vehicle originated in 2005 when city officials began discussing how to spur on the establishment of new companies.
What they discovered was while there were many financing vehicles available through the Ohio Department of Development for companies with more than 25 employees, for smaller companies there really was essentially nothing at the state level and even today there is essentially nothing for the small entity, said Breneman.
It was at that point that a group of city officials city took up the challenge to craft a development fund that would target small and emerging companies with high growth potential and attract them to the city, said Breneman.
What emerged was a public private partnership between the city and members of the economic development community to fund a loan program for entrepreneurs on the brink of commercializing a breakthrough concept.
Breneman noted that the city contributed $100,000 from interest it earned on investments to launch the fund. The Wooster Area Chamber of Commerce and Wooster Community Hospital later added $20,000 and $200,000 to the fund respectively.
According to Wayne Economic Development Council President Rod Crider the fund will offer loans of up to $35,000 for projects that bring new businesses established within the Wooster city limits closer to pre-seed funding. Loans under the program will carry interest at prime and loan payments will be deferred for five years.
The new venture is being undertaken in conjunction with the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network, a network of Ohio Third Frontier-funded entrepreneurial support organizations who will not only help vet potential projects for the program but will also assist the entrepreneurs by providing a wide variety of other assistance from technical support to access to additional funding opportunities.
(Wooster) is the first municipality in northeast Ohio that has such a fund dedicated to entrepreneurship, dedicated to organic growth, said JumpStart President John Dearborn. This is a very bold move and I applaud the city and the leadership here for bringing this to fruition.
Dearborn noted that while most economic development activity focuses on business retention and attraction very few folks think of it from an organic standpoint – what can I do for the high potential organizations that really could be the next generation of great companies.
Why would a municipality take this approach? Because it is those entrepreneurs that if you look back to the last recession will lead us through this recession. Thats where the jobs are going to be formed, said Dearborn adding the recovery and economic trajectory will be changed through the efforts of those entrepreneurs.
The potential is really huge so Im pleased that weve been able to put this tool in our economic development toolbox, said Crider. I think it will have a big impact on our ability to grow our economy.
ABS Materials CEO Stephen Spoonamore, himself a successful entrepreneur, agrees.
You need not just plant the seeds of a good idea. You ought to have someone willing to say Im stupid enough to water it when I dont know whether it will grow, said Spoonamore. What were planting and growing is an environment where everybody looks and says Ive got these crazy people with an idea, we believe in (it) and as a community we choose to water it.
For more information on the Wooster Opportunities Fund log on to www.jumpstartnetwork.org.
