Baton Rouge hopes to replicate Cleveland’s entrepreneurial successes

By 2002 the entrepreneurial environment of northeast Ohio had been ranked dead last 12 years in a row by Entrepreneur magazine, says Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart, which was formed to change the environment. By 2009 the region was getting national media attention for being startup- friendly. JumpStart has consulted with BRAC and the local Research Park Corp. to form Step One Ventures. Leach spoke today at a luncheon celebrating the launch of Step One. Among other functions, Step One will manage a for-profit fund, known as the ION Fund, that will look to invest in companies that are close to market but not quite ready to attract institutional investment. “Capital is important,” Leach says. “But capital is not the number one issue.” Step One will seek to knit together the region’s various assets, in an effort to strengthen what is sometimes called the “entrepreneurial ecosystem.” Private investors have pledged $1.8 million for the fund, and officials hope to obtain an additional $1 million from the state-operated Louisiana Economic Development Corporation. —David Jacobs