#3: Ron Stubblefield (Jumpstart)

We often go and take for granted exactly how things came to be what they are, you
know, we talk about millionaires Rowan Cleveland I don't think people recognize here
innovation built it You know and to this day you're walking on this is the legacy
of innovation here You know, I think people understanding this I think it's really
important to understanding, you know why Cleveland is definitely a great city for
entrepreneurs Let's discover the Cleveland entrepreneurial system. We are telling the
stories of its entrepreneurs and those supporting them.
Welcome to the Lay the Land podcast, where we're exploring what people are building
across the North Coast. I'm Jeffrey Stern, here with my fellow cartographer, The
Taken. And we're coming to you live from Cleveland, home of the street formerly
known for Millionaires Bro. Is that Not where you live taken. - I sure do.
I'm in the mix with oil mogul, John D. Rockefeller, which probably explains why my
apartment is a historical landmark. - Ron's parallel to Carnegie, a namesake of
another industry mogul here in Cleveland, where our next guest is actually joining us
from to discuss the history of innovation in Cleveland, where we are today, and
where we might be going. - Today's guest, Ron Stubblefield is a nationally recognized
lawyer, scholar, economic development professional, and entrepreneurial advisor.
He is also an entrepreneur in residence at Jumpstart, where he supports the Economic
Community Development Institute, the Hispanic Business Center, the President's Council,
and the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. Ron works with these organizations to Vans
Black and Brown Tech and Tech -Enabled Entrepreneurship within the city of Cleveland.
- Very excited to have you on the show, Ron. Thank you for joining us. - Hey, thank
you both for having me. - Yeah, I'm super excited to have a more house brother here
being a Spelman grad.
I'm like, yeah, absolutely. It's like at the end of the day, you know It's so
wonderful just watching what Cleveland meant to our institutions too because if it
wasn't for the great start I've seen that initially pioneered more house thumb into
the nation's most prominent and influential HBCU It wouldn't be what they are today.
I live on Euclid, you know, Rockefeller used to have a man chain on this
- It's very motivating. - Millionaires' Row. - I have Millionaires' Row for a reason,
man. I think what's makes this really cool, because you know, we often go like and
take for granted exactly how things came to be what they are. You know, we talk
about Millionaires' Row in Cleveland. I don't think people recognize here, innovation
built it. You know, and to this day you're walking on it, this is the legacy of
innovation here. You know, I think people understanding this, I think it's really
important to understanding, you know, why Cleveland is definitely a great city for
entrepreneurs. - Yeah, you know, you didn't start your journey here.
You did start, I guess you didn't necessarily start, but we can kind of trace it
back to Morehouse in Atlanta. And I know from my experience with you that you
purposely chose not to take do a degree program, why was that?
- You know, right, so in my case, you know, I stepped back and went, do a degree
program, I was like, okay, we're talking about a, you know, potentially a five to
six year program based on where you already prereqs and like to essentially get two
bachelor's degrees. Meanwhile, you can watch a lot of amazing Morehouse grads who did
their four years for physics or Spelman grads, did their four years chemistry, go
out and get a master's in engineering at the same time. So for me, I went no
brainer. I'm not going to do what you're doing. I'm not going to go about that.
And I think it was also helpful too, because I know for me, at some level, I want
to be involved in entrepreneurship and Stanford being one of the, a place that, you
know, was going, everybody needs to have the entrepreneurial minds, I think, call to
me. And so I think for those reasons, I went, "This is where my journey needs to
go." - We can dive into your HBCU experience, but it's kind of an interesting
trajectory there of how an entrepreneur I meet, physics, engineering, what does that
have to do with entrepreneurship from your perspective? - You know, there are two
perspectives that you can actually have. You know, part one, when we think about
promoting entrepreneurship, we always think about who knows science, who knows
engineering. And And the second piece of it all is at the end of the day, when
you think of physics, when you think of engineering, when you think of law, it's
about trying to impose some sort of order on the chaos. And that's what entrepreneur
really does. You know, you see a problem and it's like, oh my goodness, how do I
create a simple solution that gives people value and creates order on chaos?
And so I think that's kind of ultimately the common thread that led me to where I
am. - Hmm, yeah. And you hinted at it a little bit, but you also have experience
with law at NYU. Can you talk a little bit about what pushed you to go to law
school? I mean, absolutely. So as I was wrapping up my masters at Stanford and we
had a chance to help work with a lot of entrepreneurs, you went, what problems kept
coming up for them? And at some point, somebody got a cap table wrong. Somehow
Somebody wasn't in good standing. Somebody wasn't doing a due diligence properly.
There were so many other protections that go in place, such as, did you protect
your IP? Did you protect your ownership? Did you think through your financing terms?
And what you recognize here, it's a lot of people were not being properly protected
as entrepreneurs. And those things have consequences. You know, oftentimes I hear
entrepreneurs go for funding. One of the biggest things that dings them out from a
due diligence perspective was their legal ducks run in a row. And you don't want to
see something like that be the reason why somebody's dream and journey gets to rail.
So I think for me at that point I might let me go to law school and learn how
to better come back and help protect the next generation entrepreneurs. That I think
was probably very informative because in the process of doing that law degree and
NYU and the law and business program helped teach me more about business too to
better understand how can I be a business advisor with a legal perspective? And I
think that's really helped me in my career, helped many entrepreneurs today. Yes,
very needed. You're definitely, definitely not lying.
And for you having an experience, not only with physics, but at an HBCU,
and then really having that engineering background, as well as a A lot agree on top
of that. What was your next step? - So I think for me, my next step when I went
through all that, I went, all right, I spent enough time in the academy, I do not
need another degree. But the question for me was how do I put my experiences in a
place where I can go get some value? You know, 'cause you understand the law, you
understand engineering and the design thinking process, but you also understand from
HBCU a different way to look at the world, you know, different market opportunities
that most people may not see. And so I go, well, how can I take those experiences
and use that to help other people better navigate this journey? So for me, that
took me to Baltimore, where I literally started off in social entrepreneurship,
building economic development authorities, while working with different business owners
to help them figure out, how can we uniquely address social problems. And then I
think when that got done, I went, I want to work with business owners directly now.
So that took me over to saying, how do you help roster on owners and people with
main streets, you know? And as you're working with them, you're going, great, we're
having a lot of fun, but you're going, how do I help people disrupt things now? So
that took me back to Baltimore. And in the process of doing that, now let's go
work with tech companies. And I mean, that was probably to me, one of the best
career moves ever made because just the cool things you can now go ahead and see
now how all these things come together. Such as, nobody likes having to stop at
Starbucks when driving to work. So to help somebody think of how do you make a
mobile coffee maker for your car? Get it patented and get a working prototype. To
me, it was like a very enjoyable six months. To then turning around and going, How
do we help deal with reducing violence in the streets by getting guns off the
streets? Because I think a lot of people's traditional programs always think about,
well, do we do police seminars with people? And somebody went, why don't we create
an app for that? And that app is now being piloted in multiple cities by the
Department of Justice. So really be able to set back and go, we can innovatively
take all these things and understanding of different communities, different ways of
design, and different ways to think about how you protect ideas, I think is really
in this journey. Really helped me work with people to maximize the value of their
ideas. And I think that journey ultimately brought me here to Cleveland too. We're
definitely going to get to your time in the land, but you mentioned that it brought
you back to Baltimore. So is that home for you? So I'm originally from the MDC
Baltimore area. And then when I finished, when when I finally stopped being a
professional student, my first job was in Baltimore before I went back to New York
and then my next job after that was in Baltimore. So that was a bit of that
journey, but in the unprocess of all of that, my mother's family's from Cleveland.
So, you know, a lot of my ties looking over Cleveland here where a lot of her
relatives came up to Cleveland initially, looking for job opportunities with the steel
mills and they became entrepreneurs. And then in my work with Baltimore, Baltimore
had a chance to actually come up and speak at a conference in Cleveland and go,
there is so much cool stuff here for entrepreneurs. I was here for startup scale
-up, and I think honestly I was spoiled after that weekend because you want to see
the ecosystem at work and how everybody was unified about one thing,
making sure entrepreneurs had what they needed when they needed. Yeah, that makes a
lot of sense. Kind of like racing the thread of your career. Now that I understand
that, I totally get how you've ended up at Jumpstarted. Just a lot of pieces just
came into place. But could you tell us a bit more about, you know, your role at
Jumpstart, what does it mean to be an entrepreneur in residence? - Ah, great.
No, I often laugh because an entrepreneur in residence means different things,
depending on who actually is an entrepreneur in residents. So in the case of my
particular role stepping back, group of organizations, Hispanic Business Center, the
Urban League, the President's Council, and the Economic Community Development Institute,
we're talking with Jumpstart going, "All right, we recognize that we have an
inclusion, racial inclusion problem within the tech space in Cleveland." And so the
question is, how do we address that? Is it simply just more funding? and then you
step back and recognize what makes a tech space a tech scene? It's not strictly are
you act talking about giving people money, although we need to give more money out
to black and brown entrepreneurs. It's also how are we outreaching to these
communities to begin with, let them know what resources exist. How are we building
programs to support them based on their needs? 'Cause the fact here is we have
different circumstances and have different There may be different resources messaged
and communicated in a different way. And then how do we make sure there's coaching
that understands that to help them get to where they need to be? And so
collectively, all of these organizations said, "We need an entrepreneur in residence
to help figure these things out." And I saw the opportunity and went, "This is the
type of innovative, disruptive approach to economic development I've basically been
saying that they needed across the country for a while. And I want to be a chance
to be part of the team. So when I got the opportunity, I went, great, let's start
doing outreach. Let's start meeting entrepreneurs of color where they are, and let's
start working with them to think about their business in new ways. That's how I met
Tegan, actually. And when we started up, we were talking about how do we do ESUSUs?
And what we really recognize here is we're talking business development for people
who can't afford big business development consulting firms. But just being able to
work with entrepreneurs like that to say, here's how we can scale your idea and
have a big impact is why my role as an EIR is all about. - Oh, that's fantastic.
Thank you for going over that. - Hey, no problem. - Yeah, and Ron is a great
advisor. Had to plug that in there and Jumpstar has been a great resource for me
since moving to Cleveland. - Thanks for taking your checks in the lab. (all laughing)
I'm working on mine. The thing that always struck me about Jumpstart was that,
and this is, you know, relative to my time in New York, and I imagine relative to
your time as well in New York and San Francisco, if you were to just like pull a
random set of people within the entrepreneurial ecosystems of those cities,
respectively, and ask them about who the, you know, who the players are, You'd get
a pretty diverse, you know, group of organizations. It was never clear to me that
there was, you know, one real dominant force in the city and the way that I feel
like Jumpstart plays here. And so, you know, I'm curious how you think about
Jumpstart's role in Cleveland, which I understand to be relatively unique when it
comes to kind of like a centralization of capital and business support services and
services, and really all these activities under the Jumpstart umbrella, where it's
simultaneously the provider of opportunity and funding, but in some ways, almost a
gatekeeper in other regards. Right. And I think, stepping back to your point about
what you said in New York, San Francisco, and even in places like Maryland, you
have ecosystems per se, and what you typically find here, it's like different moving
parts. And so the plus side is you can always plug in easily. The downside is
there are too many moving parts to make sure are you plugging in the right places
in a coordinated way. And that's been a major problem nationally where they're
talking about ecosystem building and thinking about how do you do convening and
organizing ecosystems. And I think that's one of the things I think the strength
Jumpstart has. Through some of its partnerships to Greater Cleveland partnership in
Ohio, third frontier, but jumpstart really does is it's more than a venture capital
firm. What it is is an ecosystem building group. And as part of that, we do the
services, you know, tech and non -tech businesses, you know, we provide the funding,
but we also work to help organize and corral partners together and organize fashion
so we make sure entrepreneurs don't get left behind. That doesn't necessarily mean
you have to go to jumpstart to get any help know they're great partners we have
across the ecosystem you can go through what it does mean here it's we make sure
that as we work together we make sure entrepreneurs get the right resources at the
right time for example it makes no sense to send somebody to funding we need a
market validation workshop just like somebody who may need funding may also be
funding and I need prototypes built so it's just so we're jumpstart really is going
is how do we recognize things so that the entrepreneur doesn't have to, and they
can focus on what really matters, growing and scaling their business. So I think
that's what Jumpstart brings here in this unique role in Ohio, that a lot of groups
nationwide look to Jumpstart for leadership to emulate and model after. That makes a
lot of sense. Just kind of building on that. The other thing that I know at least
as I understood to be somewhat unique about Jumpstart is that, and I think maybe
this has changed, but at least initially it had been structured as a nonprofit
organization. I was just curious, what kind of incentives does that put in place as
an organization working in the venture space with the focus on the second bottom
line and social impact?
It just struck me always as it's kind of interesting that a venture organization as
a And so we'll compare and contrast with the for -profit model just to make this
point. So, you know, it's for profit model That's a traditional venture capital
space. They definitely say, you know, I can care clearly about social impact And
many of them are doing is more pressure But fundamentally speaking, they are legally
obligated to make sure that it's ultimately about the money And so unless they're
shareholders ultimately, you know, LPC say, all right, we need you to focus on
something more. That's also going to be the ultimate driver. And that's going to be
like, you know, maximize the value for the LPs and other shareholders. What the
nonprofit model gives you here is you need to be financially sustainable, be sure.
But fundamentally speaking, you're ultimately, you're legally obligated for filling your
mission. And that's helping advance diverse and ambitious entrepreneurial talent. So
yes, when we best, we have to get certain returns, but it also gets the flexibility
to go because our mission is really more holistic to begin with. It allows us some
flexibility to start thinking through other types of things we can do as a business
to help entrepreneurs that other people in the for -profit sector may not be able to
economically do. For example, like, you know, we can go after state grant funding
here to say, let's build up services because entrepreneurs need more more than money,
sometimes any different business advisement and support services along the way. It
also allows us to push the envelope here and say, "What are some barriers impacting
entrepreneurs that as a nonprofit, we can have a partner to solve?" And those
barriers can be things such as we can create during COVID a couple of stand -up
loan programs, knowing we're probably not going to make any money off of them, and
that's okay. But as long as we can make sure that community gets the funding they
need to survive situations like this right now. So when you think of these things,
I think it gives us some more jumpstart, more flexibility to be able to respond to
the needs of entrepreneurs and work with partnerships in different ways to help
people where it otherwise may not be profitable or a for -profit entity that may
very well have the leadership may be willing, but the ability is not there legally.
Right. And I can imagine that now during a pandemic,
a lot more entrepreneurs are running to a resource like Jumpstart because it does
have that structure. So what are you seeing that entrepreneurs and Cleveland meet the
most during this time? - Right, so there's a lot. So I think the first and most
important here is listening here because this is a very stressful time here and a
lot of entrepreneurs are stressed, they're panicked, they're troubled, they just need
somebody who's willing to listen to what they need. And I think that's something I
think Jump starts in all of our team members doing a great job of. And based on
that listening, here's some insights I can say. From a non -tech perspective, many of
your entrepreneurs in that space need help on how do I find ways to make my
business more efficient during these times? How do I better leverage certain tech
tools to navigate the space, how do I find funding? And what are new ways for me
to help see if I partner or pivot my business? And there's a lot of education from
Jumpstart and our partners at the Business Goal of Collaborative to address that.
From a tech side perspective, a lot of entrepreneurs here, you know, it's really
understanding their markets first and foremost and how those markets are impacted by
COVID. You know, because not enough to go, "I think I have a great idea." You
know, Jeff Taken you understand like you thinking of a great idea is not enough is
the marketplace ready and willing to say I need you to solve give me this idea
right now And Kobe puts just change people's priorities to what is important to them
and help people understand that impact I think it's critical. I think it's also
critical now more than ever for entrepreneurs to really understand how financing works
and what funders look for and not look for and How the market think because right
now the capital markets tightening up and so a lot of entrepreneurs here Like if
you're thinking you're going after funding right now This is a harder market apps
and certain type of business opportunities So learning how it means the bootstrap
learning what it means to crowdfund learning means to really validate It's some
education and I'm happy jumpstart educational team as programming coming up the next
couple of months To address these things But to help people better understand how to
navigate navigate these uncertain times, knowing it's gonna be hard to get money. And
then I think probably the last thing I think is critical is people understanding,
what does it mean to really think through and stress test your operations? You know,
the best time to plan for a crisis is before one happens. And what that basically
means is making sure, do you have solid systems that can withstand things? Have you
thought through contingency planning? These are things I think a lot of people took
for granted. And then I think this helps. And I think the last couple of things
needed are storytelling, because you know, a lot of entrepreneurs feel alone right
now. And I think podcasts like this do a great job of saying, how can we tell
more stories about the challenges, struggles, and successes people are going through
so people can recognize they're not alone in these things? And I think to that
point also, advocates, I think entrepreneurs need more advocates. Because as we're
thinking about what new where we're coming out here. What new resources are we
unveiling, especially for entrepreneurs of color? We really need more advocates and
allies to make sure those resources get there so we can come back stronger than
what we were before COVID happened. - Actually, a couple of things from that. You
talked about, you know, the pandemic is really, what being prepared for the pandemic
is really what you did before the pandemic. So working at Jumpstart, what are some
of the resources You know, I've been pointing entrepreneurs to kind of for this last
minute aid and then kind of on the opposite ends of things. Jumpstart is a very
interesting place in Cleveland that is in Midtown. And living in Midtown,
being an entrepreneur in Midtown, I know that there's a lot of conversations about
how to grow entrepreneurship in this area as well as how to really build out
Midtown as a city. So on the opposite end, what are the opportunities that you see
kind of existing at this time for businesses? Certainly. So I think one of the
things now here, it's, look, we know a lot of businesses are in a position, I
think, to pivot. Because the fact is, I think, you know, it's a lot of things
traditionally may not have necessarily continued to work, but we recognize first thing
first, PPE is like a heavy demand right now. Like, you know, we can't get enough
of it. For example, if I'm a dry cleaning business, the best thing you can do
right now is pivot over to start cleaning medical equipment because that's going to
be in demand. That's going to be in demand for quite some time.
This pandemic isn't going anywhere, unfortunately, but here's an opportunity. So I
think it's number one. And then I think number two, it's for entrepreneurs in
particular, as we're thinking about what are some people recognize now, we need
better tools to help navigate the remote work landscape. We need better tools to
deal with how we help medical devices. We need better tools to think about how to
help cities run more efficiently. And then how, you know, so I think there are
plenty of opportunities here going, how to make a society post COVID that makes it
the next time some things happen, we have better systems in place. So make sure
that some of the impacts we're facing don't happen again. And I see as a first run
opportunity for entrepreneurs, they want to tackle that. And Jumpstart's more than
happy to work with you from a and coaching and by perspective, figure out what
those things are. As we talk about the city of Cleveland specifically, we're at a
nice crossroads. You know, I think a lot of the racial unrest has highlighted how
there are too many systems of exclusion and what it means, very frankly, for the
growth of cities that are majority minorities, such as Cleveland. And I think now is
the opportunity for us, we're talking through with multiple projects going like the
Cleveland Innovation Project, for example, the Midtown projects, are now getting people
to come through going, what new funding programs, what new workforce development
programs can we actually create now that can help address the skills gaps we see,
address the capital gaps we see on both the debt and equity side to really open up
more equi opportunities for inclusion within the entrepreneurial and workforce
landscapes. It also means how do we design places like Midtown, tech order to be
like, We're not strictly just a place. We have a place for tech. But what does it
mean to have a place for tech? You know, we're talking with the team, people in
midtown here is going, what does it mean to be an tech entrepreneur to begin with?
And I think just space those conversations just to redefine who belongs in this
ecosystem. You know, and really talk through those things and showcase people, you
can be here. Let's walk you through how to get there. And I think the last really
good opportunity here, it's you've got a lot of really, really smart people and
clearly, like, you know, a lot of smart. I guess the opportunity facing here is how
to as better activating and connecting that talent in a not so siloed way, so we
can better amplify the voices and what the talent can actually do. And I think
people recognizing that now that we're we take for granted when we're seeing each
other every day. I think COVID -19 and force being remotely has forced us to go. We
took for granted the networks and relationships and the people. And people is people.
It's people. It's people that make cities and ecosystems at the end of the day. And
so I think us better saying, let's not take each other for granted anymore. And
let's really, really work together to build a Cleveland we're all proud of. I think
it's the greatest opportunity we have right now. People. Love it. So with Jumpstart
kind of playing a focal point in, I think, working towards a lot of those ideas
that you're speaking about. In the best case scenario, five years, 10 years from
now, what does success look like for Jumpstart? Is there an end goal?
What does it mean from your perspective to be successful going forward? - So from my
perspective, if everything goes well, this is what we can see in 10 years. We see
a strong, we see a more inclusive crop of tech entrepreneurs in the city who are
creating products and ideas that are not strictly just helping people,
whether it's consumers, whether it's other businesses, whether it's the city itself.
We see more centers of inclusion that help people who are historically excluded from
the space, getting trained up with the skills necessary to participate, we also see
more funding available for entrepreneurs. And what we see is a place where people
are flocking to Cleveland, and they're flocking to Cleveland because they recognize
this is the house, this is the house that Innovation built. If we can do things
right the next 10 years to really build up those systems, tell those stories and
support people more inclusively and build up the resources where there are the gaps,
I think we can get there because that's no different to what Atlanta did. That's no
different than what Charlotte did and People need to remember Silicon Valley had to
do that. It wasn't in New York had to do that They didn't magically were like come
off like congratulations. We are entrepreneurial hubs They had to build those things
over time and once upon a time they were studying how Cleveland did it We were the
original Silicon Valley and the fundamentals are still there So if we could build it
before we can build it again, this time let's build it better. And I think we can
do that. And in 10 years from now, we should be in the conversation with Silicon
Valley and New York and Atlanta as the place to be if you want to be an
entrepreneur. - The land is where it's at, it's all in there. - I mean,
put it this way, it's like, you know, a lot of people will say, well, how are you
sure Cleveland can do it? It's a mistake by the lake. I said, stop it. Before we
talk mistake by the leg, please realize your exons, your things for cars wouldn't be
here. People from Cleveland didn't show you how to do oil, make oil a business.
Stop it. We wouldn't have had, when we think about how the designs for how you
steal and all these things that great building in this country wouldn't be there,
Cleveland didn't produce the steal. And somebody was innovative enough to think about
how will you steal a different way? Stop it. You know, when we even talk about
even now, for example, leading technology, research, and thought leadership around
innovative ways to deal with this pandemic are coming out to Cleveland Clinic.
Innovation never stopped in Cleveland. We just stopped promoting it, and we just
stopped promoting it to the levels that we did. And I think, and this is why I
think podcasts like yours are so important, because I think people go, "Can we do
this?" Yeah, because we never stopped. Let's scale it up. Yeah, building on that,
how do we play on the strengths of the city, because I feel like it's often about
what we're not doing well enough. But to your point, and I think,
you know, it resonates with a lot of people, there is like an optimism here, and
there are a lot of things that are great. And how do we build on that? Right. So
I think the first, the first great strength of people, and people have different
insights as especially from communities of color as to why am I not able to
participate? So start by listening to them because the strength there is insight,
actionable insight, that's the key. We talk about entrepreneurs and customer discovery,
here are our customers that we're not including, and then make sure the resources
are there. I think one of the other great strengths here is you have a lot of
innovators in terms of economic development, programming, and building. The world looks
to jumpstart as an example of that, but there are other groups too. For example,
just watching some of the innovative approaches being taken by the President's Council
on how do I leverage a chamber and advocacy and business coaching to even the Urban
League, how do we connect entrepreneurship and government contract together? Same with
Hispanic Business Center, same with ECDI and Education, and same with other groups
like Magnet and the like. So it's better showcasing those programs and making sure
we do a better job of outreaching that these programs are here and highlighting what
they actually do. And then leveraging some of the senior thought leadership that
exists in Cleveland that the venture capital space learns for and say, now let's get
the funding we need to fuel these things up. And then I guess the final thing
leveraging is going, a strength is not a strength. If no one knows about it, you
don't flex it every now and then. So, I mean, you know, it's taken, can tell you
this, a lot of Atlanta's great strength is it markets well. It's not that the
programming necessarily is any better from one place to another it markets. Well, you
know We come to Cleveland is going I learned about it from start of scale up once
I died in it But I wasn't marketed so part one is like are you even telling
people what scene that you have and Then I think afterwards because enough people
are excited about the scene and want to do something about it Leverage that energy
to start promoting more activities or more events more support more scale and more
collaborative ways because that's what really separates a lot of cities from here.
And Cleveland, we've got the tools to do it. You've got the energy, you've got the
resources, you've got the space. Let's just put it together and then start working
with people. Start listing to entrepreneurs we need to help and we can start
building. And I think that's how we say this is Cleveland. And in 10 years from
now, we're like the LeBron of
Well, I filled it on that analogy, maybe, and, you know, LeBron has left us.
I had a feeling you were going to mention that the second I said that. Yeah, and
you see where I'm going with this. We have, at least in anecdotally,
a pattern where startups leave the city. I don't know if cover my meds is
Jumpstart's most successful return to date, But it's got to be up there,
I imagine, and I'm curious your take on the fact that that's a company that started
here in Cleveland and ultimately moved down south, like Columbus. Right.
So, here are probably a couple of things here, candidly on, since essentially you're
getting to what's the weakness question implicitly. Part one of it all is people are
going to follow the money. People follow the money. So, a lot of times people will
start in many places. And it's not just an isolated problem in the Cleveland. You
see this with all, with secondary, with more mid -tier cities. It's, you can start
with the money here. The question is, where's my following funding? Because if I
can't get enough of it in city one, and I'm starting to see it over at places
two, three, or four, I'm going to follow the money. So one of it all is, what
sort of partnerships can we start bringing for follow -on support, especially and that
now more VCs are starting funds and they're coming more agnostic as to where you're
located. That hasn't always been historically the case. And since I've never had the
opportunity to go, can we create some co -investment partnerships that as we develop
Clean Deal, Flo and Cleveland, the five funders should go, I don't need you to move
to me just because I'm over here. You can stay where you are with other support
systems in place. I think secondarily, it's what other Are we building around for
people because you know entrepreneurship is a risk You know, we've got to be candid
about that, you know, there's a risk you're gonna fail and when you do Where is my
exit plan? What's my support systems in place and when I think of some other cities
if I fail is not for today There's a startup I can go work for about five minutes
like hey, cool Or if it's not a startup There's a fund I can get into real quick
as an employee or it's there's an advisory move So I think really building up that
culture and that pipeline of talented ideas coming up is going to be critical
because as you can build that up and help them scale up, you now start creating
that essentially that social capital within the entrepreneurial space knowing I'm going
to be all right. Because if my business doesn't necessarily succeed, I can do this.
Or if I do feel the need to, I leave for money, I also know there are other
resources at mass coming up that says back. You know, so I think those things
matter. And then finally, when we're talking about special for the communities of
color, what are we doing here to address aspects of racism within the quality of
life within the life of Clevelanders? Because you know, it's when I think of
Atlanta, Charlotte, these are cities where there's more black social capital to begin
with. And that has ways where it's not that you're safe from racism, but you have
different levels of exposure, different impacts on your life, likelihood and well
-being that you do even Cleveland, for example. And saying, and how do we, as a
community, start leveraging our collective power to go? We know Cleveland's a
wonderful place. How do we hold it accountable, make sure it's wonderful for all?
But I think we'll also help in getting more people to come and stay. Because, you
know, we got a lot of resources that can track people to come, build the
environment that gets people to stay. And you're someone that chose to move to
Cleveland, like Jeff and myself. And you haven't been here too long, but what
direction would you say that Cleveland is headed in? - So I will say this, you have
enough, you have a lot of people here at Cleveland who are going, let's do
something new. You know, a lot of people are like, let's do something new. And
that's what, and that culture has been going on for a while. It's not even recent
past few months, why the midtown project that you mentioned got started up. Let's do
something new. Let's find a way to just reactivate the city in new ways. And so
you see that excitement and people are here going, I know we can be we're
optimistic. And with that optimism and people even having different conversations that
even, that you can't even go to other cities now that are just starting to have
about racial equity that Cleveland was leading two years ago. You know, such as how
do we start embedding DEI in the space? How do you start putting pressure for
investors to think about things in different ways? And so when I see that Cleveland,
it's like, okay, you have the ingredients and there's general optimism that we can
build off this and make something amazing. So I see definitely hope for Cleveland
and it's not just me. Enough people I've worked with in the venture space and other
places are going. Jumpstart and Cleveland are doing major things so you know the
world sees it. those in the know see it. And so I think that's something Cleveland
should be excited about, but now as we're excited, let's build on that. And I think
we have everything we need to do it. - Yeah, Cleveland is definitely building.
Midtown is so interesting. I live here, it seems like some people in Cleveland know
it exists and some people don't. Even though it's like 20 years old, I'm still very
confused on it that. - That doesn't surprise me. I think that's one thing again
where I say a story telling, you know, and the outreach. Because, you know,
ultimately, you know, historically Cleveland was one of America's most hyper segregated
cities. So you weren't in certain things. You stayed in your two to three
neighborhoods and didn't even think to look at other neighborhoods because you never
knew because you just operate in the presumption you will not be welcomed here.
Start there and that and eventually that passage generation budget is just natural
concepts like how psychologists and sociologists called natural boundaries. You do not
cross this boundary for safety until a point you'll even ask why. And so I think
part of that here, and it's something I will applaud the leadership of Midtown who
are trying to build inclusion and everything that they do. How do we not outreach
and make it clear that we don't just want you to come here, we want you to know
that you're included and welcomed here. And a lot of people are thinking about the
type and a lot of organizations are consciously saying we need to bring in people
for outreach and constantly trying to develop outreach strategies and accountability
plans with those outreach strategies, but it's going to take some time because you
can't expect, you know, even with the best storytelling initiatives for, you know,
problems of over a century to get fixed in one year or even one day, one year,
but ideally with those efforts in organic and authentic work that's coming out of
Cleveland to show we can be more welcoming, we can do better by our people, I see
over or five, 10 years, we're able to break down those silos and include. And
that's what part of my initiative is doing, is to inform people of these things
while working with partners to go, "Now, how do we make this even more inclusive?"
- And I think that there, I mean, I know that there are grassroots things working
on this. Shayna Black with Black Girl Klee, she's very adamant about getting people
to visit different parts of the city that they may struggle with and uncomfortable
with. So kind of looking at that, what do you think that Cleveland is doing well
and what, when you say that, they should be doing better? - All right. So one of
the things I think Cleveland is doing well is that definitely thinking about how do
I take existing assets and convert them to new uses? So we can see that,
for example, just downtown where I live. You took all the office buildings, a lot
of cities were going to tore it down. They said, no, how do you preserve the
historic architectural character while addressing housing at the same time? And I
think that was very clever. Just like when you see Midtown, how do we take, think
about how we take old assets like the old casinos here and incorporate that into
what we're doing so that we're building off existing culture as opposed to trying to
eat, coming off like we're erasing things. And then I think people's willingness to
say we're having the frank conversations around certain things with the goal of
acting and addressing them as positive. Some things I think Cleveland can do better.
Really learn from what other cities are doing. You know, I know there's an
additional attitude to Cleveland, like, well, you know, that's Cleveland. I went, no,
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, St. Louis, all these were other cities that were
correct because of what happened with the climate manufacturing. There are things
they're doing well too. You know, Kansas City, you know, is one of the thought
leaderships when it comes to cities and entrepreneurship. There are things Baltimore
is doing now with some things on their angels scene and innovation centers throughout
the city and innovation village concepts. And they're picking their lessons up
globally. So I think really taking back and going, let's start looking, see what's
done outside Cleveland, see what's working well that we can adapt here, I think is
one critical thing. You know, study best practices globally. Let somebody else make
the mistake. Let's learn from it, get the benefits, so to speak. You know, so I
think competitive analysis, especially because we're trying to compete in a world. And
I think the second thing is, how do we leverage partnerships with other cities? You
know, both domestically and globally. You know, the International Business Innovation
Association was working on imagine a project with the economic development
administration at the government level, looking at soft landing programs and sister
city programs for entrepreneurship. And you're going, a lot of people globally are
trying to do med tech research, Cleveland Clinic, med tech, this is what this is,
has a lot of and house expertise for that. Why don't we find those partnerships
here to start bringing natural partners in to the space It opened up our global
reach to not just companies and talent, but also funding partners and then Stepping
back and going. Why are we doing certain things? You know, for example, it's we can
build more high rises But when we know it's a high vacancy rate, why are we
building more high rises? No, we can stop doing that Where I think our focus should
then be going we got these vacancies here How do we help activate people to get to
take advantage of these housing opportunities, or is this the type of real estate
people need at a macro level, or is this just more real estate in the period,
that same money could be going, we can address the digital divide, both in terms of
digital access and digital literacy, and can start building up skills to be included
in digital economy from those who just haven't been excluded. So I think just
stepping back and learning from best practices and going and just questioning, Why
are we doing stuff? It may seem cool, but does it based on data? Does this really
make the most sense for where our effort should be right now or should we focus
somewhere else right now? Because that will give us greater value in terms of
lifting people in the city and that always pays off in the long run I'm sure we
could do an entire other podcast just on the digital divide But because you brought
it up, you know given how How truly drastic the situation in Cleveland is with the
digital divide and really as like internet as a utility, how especially in this day
and age that we're living in where everything is remote and truly it is even more
a necessity now than it was a few months ago. Do you see that as kind of an area
that We need to address in short order and how? Yeah, short answer.
Yes. The one that's the positive here, it's leadership at Jumpstart,
leadership throughout the city, leadership within the Cuyahoga County Economic
Development Department, recognizes this and is prioritizing this. Because the fact here
it's when 20 % of people in the county came to rely on internet access and then
the much more percentage has to rely on homes in a world where things are very
frankly, not always mobile, the optimized level of mobile friendly, that does become
an express point of exclusion from information, resources and participation. Some of
the things that need to happen are twofold. First is an infrastructural problem. You
need to get the infrastructure people have the access, both in terms of yes, I have
Wi -Fi. But then I also happen to have things such as I have access to laptops
with internet access and basic software. I have a phone that can basically tap into
that. So you've got to get the access problem. And these were things that should
have been done in the late '90s when there were white papers then when you should
prioritize digital access by Y2K. And it's not 20 years later, we did not do that.
And we're paying the costs. But the second piece here is after I do all those
points of at least now the infrastructure is in place, we can't take for granted
that there's a whole generations of people who are not properly or not digitally
literate. There are people who don't know how to turn on the computer. There are
people who don't know what the internet even is. There are people who don't
understand certain basic things on typing, security, how to run Google,
how to do a Google search when they have a question about things, how to vet
what's a reliable internet source and not an internet source. And these things have
consequences. For example, a lot of people got caught up in on PPP loan scams for
no other reason, but because they just did not know how to discern what was
authentic government information versus some third -party scheme. Another example could
be even knowing how to recognize scams on the internet. A lot of people, and Tague
and I have talked about this in great detail, have the understanding to understand
when you're being sold a real business opportunity versus when somebody's selling you
a finesse scheme and knowing how to recognize the difference between the two. And
that education is critical. And there are existing efforts in the county to be clear
on how do that education and this education, like the challenge here is getting the
mass capital and coordination to do them both at scale rapidly. And so if without
going into too many details because of confidentiality. What I can say is pay very
close attention to certain things coming out of Jumpstart and its partners over the
next few months to answer your question specifically about a large ad scale
initiative to address the digital divide here in the city of Cleveland. - Definitely
be keeping an eye out for that. - Yeah, please keep an eye out. I would strongly
advise you keep an eye out very carefully. Absolutely. I think that's leading us
towards our usual question. Yeah, sure. To close out,
over time as we do these, we'd love to kind of paint a collective collage from all
of our guests of, you know, what resonates with them most about Cleveland. And so
to kind of help us start that painting, what is your favorite thing about Cleveland?
You know, there are many things, but I'll say, That's a two -way tie. First, the
food. Oh my goodness, when I came here, I thought the food is amazing. Like, you
know, you know, go ahead, you go out, it's a priority, but ooh, yummy. Get some
Polish boys, the food thing. And the innovativeness people can have with the way
they present food. And I think that also speaks for, you know, you have innovative
talent here. Because if you can innovate with the way you think about designing a
food plate, you can innovate the weight about anything else. The challenge now is
making sure we get you the resources to actually build on that scale. And the
second thing I think is the people here, you know, if there's nothing else, you
have a very, very optimistic, optimistic, friendly, and resilient population.
And if COVID -19 has taught us nothing else, resiliency is going to matter. And when
you have resilient people who said we can make it through anything, then I know you
can accomplish anything when they're inspired to. And at this point here, I think
those two things is what makes to me, is why it makes me even so excited. And so
I hope that starts your picture, a journey of innovation, resiliency, and you won't
eat very well while you're here.
I can second those things. I think when it's very slept on, I would agree.
I mean like man with my first day in somebody went let's just walk out and so you
just walk down and you went over to um, you know, Ohio City Barbecue and I went
over to um, Azobar's, Angie's Soul Food, I went, I got Southern Boy tendencies here
and so when I say that the soul food scene here, it was better than a lot of
soul food I had down South. That's a statement on to itself. And then I got
introduced to the little Italy. Then I got introduced to downtown. I got introduced
to the Lebanese scene. I got introduced to the diner scene. They know their food.
You know, this is one of the best food scenes ever. And I say that after being in
Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, places that brag about their food scenes, Cleveland
wins.
If you have any questions or things you'd like to follow up with you about, where
could they find you? Here's what I invite you to do, you know, literally go to
Jumpstart's website, www .jumpstarts .org and literally just go down where it says
client intake form and fill out your information and say, "I want to talk with Ron
and I will get back to you personally." You know, that's number one. And if the
website's not working for you, you can find me on LinkedIn. Or I saw if he'll send
me a message, I'll connect with you. You can find me on Twitter @revolutionron. We
can totally follow up with you. And for that matter, if you just see me out and
about and you go, hey, I saw you and lay in the land, and I want you to help me
navigate this land, let me know we can have a conversation right then and there.
Also, work through my If you want to, if you know people at the President's
Council, you can contact me via them. If you know people with Hispanic Business
Center, you can contact me via them. If you know people with ECDI, you can contact
me via them. If you know people with the Urban League, you can contact me via
them. In other words, y 'all, I'm accessible.
You can find me out here in the streets. Reach out to Ron. Absolutely. Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for sharing your story and background and thoughts. It's
really a lot to think about and really awesome perspective on everything. So very
much appreciate you coming on. No problem. Thank you both for having me. That's all
for this week. Thanks for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's
show, so shoot us an email @layoftheland at upside .fm or find us on Twitter
@podlayoftheland