Reflecting on Business Report’s recent cover story, “An ecosystem for entrepreneurs,” Publisher Rolfe McCollister says it’s clear the Capital Region has made some great strides toward building an integrated support system for entrepreneurs.
“But it seems to me we have often been lacking in creativity and collaboration—not to mention volume of startups,” McCollister writes in his latest column. “We have some good players in town, but not a team. That has to change.”
McCollister notes that consultants came to Baton Rouge in 2010 to create a blueprint for better coordinating efforts, but that effort ultimately failed.
“We must try again, much like New Orleans has done with Idea Village—a year-round effort,” McCollister says.
As Idea Village co-founder and CEO Tim Williamson said in the Business Report cover story: “Baton Rouge has leadership and activity. Now it just has to find how to organize it in a sustainable way.”
“He’s right,” writes McCollister. “We need teamwork and synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We need our private businesses, banks, universities, city-parish, state government, chambers, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, Junior Achievement, schools, venture funds and entrepreneurs organizations to join forces to create a pipeline involving junior high, high school, college, incubators and all the way into small businesses—supporting each entrepreneur along the way.”
It can be done, McCollister says, but first the Capital Region needs to “set some goals and guidelines and hold folks accountable, especially when it involves public dollars. We can expect an ROI.”
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