Julie Myers - Rocket Ventures Marketing Manager

myers@rgp.org

There are many a-ha moments while marketing a technology start-up. Products are so new and the marketplace may be so dynamic that what you may think of as fact today can turn out to be just the beginning of the story.

How do you find out the rest of the story without sinking your entire valuable and, let’s face it, sometimes rare, marketing budget, into something that just doesn’t fit your needs?

The answer is simple, in marketing, as in life, the best plans are the most well thought out plans. This doesn’t mean that you should be so stringent that you don’t market your product until an entire 5-year strategic initiative is created. Rather, it means to take time to step back and assess your needs. Don’t just rush into purchasing an entire plan with pretty collateral from an agency that may or may not be the best solution for you – just because it looks good.

 Are you just looking to generate buzz and not ready to begin selling? If so, having a plan that involves press releases or relies heavily on social media may be in your best interest.

If you’re ready to begin selling, it’s important to have both a marketing and a sales plan. One of the biggest mistakes a start-up can make is thinking that marketing is the same thing as sales. You can be an awesome marketer but a horrible salesperson and vice versa.

Make friends with other marketers. We’ve all been in brainstorming meetings where ideas are flying across the room. Sometimes the best ideas come from other ideas. Having a sounding board for your ideas can be a FREE way of gaining valuable insight into your market. Plus, sitting down and having a meeting with a friend can help you take a step back and get a better grasp on what you’re trying to achieve.

Get your feet wet, but don’t dive in! A common theme heard around the start-up world is “This idea is HUGE! The possibilities are endless!” That’s great and may be true, but trying to get into every market will prove exhausting and may leave your clients wondering what your niche really is.  Figure out your best core market and stick with it. You can branch out into other markets once you have established brand recognition.

Finally, there is no magic marketing pill or plan that will work for everyone. This is a secret that most marketers don’t want to admit. If it were as simple as following the five P’s of marketing there would be no business failures and we’d all be rich. Find out what works for you and your company and stick with it!

And now you know, the rest of the story…

We’re the Edison Technology Center that’s responsible for technology-based economic development within food processing and agriculture and agribusiness, and we tend to define that rather loosely.

You span a lot of different areas, from alternative energy, to food safety, to sustainability to food security and local foods. Where do you seem to be spending most of your energy these days?

Well, it varies. I would say recently we’re really involved in food safety and food security. I think you can lump local food into that, because that’s one of the drivers behind the demand for local food. Energy costs are a huge trend that is really transforming our society. That’s also an opportunity for agribusinesses, because we have alternative fuels, or fuels that can be grown from sustainable sources. Plus, it’s also one of the factors that also pushes local foods to the forefront. The fact that transportation costs are so high. “Functional foods” are another. The concept is food products that have preventive medical properties. A lot of these substances are found in crops that can be, or are being produced in Ohio, whether it’s some of the anti-oxidants that are found in berries, whether it’s lycopenes that are found in tomatoes or some of the compounds that are in dairy products.

What are the biggest issues facing the food industry?

There might not be an easy politically correct way to say this, but I really think one of the biggest issues facing the industry is lack of control over how products are priced and marketed. The food industry has really given up control to food retailers. So, the net result of that is too many food products have been turned to commodities. It’s difficult to say that we should pay more for our food, but the way I would phrase it is we should get more for our food dollar. Another issue is food safety. We need better technology to detect pathogens and better technology to deal with them.

Are you helping folks with new technology?

I think Ohio has the opportunity to be at the forefront of safe processing technologies. One is ultra-high pressure sterilization, which isn’t a new technology, but it’s a new commercial technology and a CIFT-member company, Sandridge Foods in Medina is, I believe, the second commercial installation of this technology in the country. Essentially, what ultra-high pressure does is isostatically applies lots of pressure — 60,000 to 80,000 psi to products, and that pressure disrupts the DNA within pathogenic bacteria and removes their ability to reproduce so food can be made shelf stable and you don’t affect the flavor. You can also deactivate spoilage enzymes. We’re helping to promote companies and products that might want to use this technology. The other thing that’s going on here in Ohio, and this is something we organized with Ohio State University Department of Food Science and Kent State University – and I believe we have four companies involved too — is Ohio has one of the few research companies for electron beam sterilization. We’ve for the last two years been sterilizing things with electron beams up at Kent State. And we’re in the process of doing our sensory evaluations, and I really think maybe now the time is right for some consumer education.

You recently sponsored a chocolate showcase that highlighted Ohio candy makers. How do you work with entrepreneurs like that?

We really try to connect people in small businesses up to different markets. Kroger has been a very good partner in that phase of what we do. We have product showcases for our small companies. We have a kitchen incubator that we operate, which is in Haskins — and we rent time on production equipment for companies that want to come in and produce things for retail sale. One of the things you see with food entrepreneurs is they say “everybody likes this stuff when I make it at home, and I give it to all my relatives and they want more” and there’s such a sense of personal identification with products, but you know the food business is a tough one to be in.

It’s one thing to make a product, it’s another to run a company

Well, that’s right. One other thing we do as kind of an adjunct to that whole activity is we have our signature food contest. The idea was we have so many restaurants around Toledo, most of them have a specialty they would like to sell retail, so we had a competition. We focused on restaurants, although we opened it up the second year for anybody — and the third year as well. We appoint a panel of judges and we ask people to bring in their product concepts as well as samples of their product. For the winners, we do everything for them for free, up to and including filing their process, getting their process authority for them, getting their license. We go all the way up to making them test batches so they can make a presentation to (a retailer). We had a two-way tie the first year and a three-way tie the second, and of those five winners we’ve had, I think four of the five are on the grocery store shelves at some level. So it’s a good way to help promote.

What are some of the things people find surprising about CIFT?

That there’s someone that actually does what we do.

Any new projects that excite you?

The two I talked about (nonthermal sterilization) are top of the list. Also in the area of functional foods, we’ve kicked off several projects. The reason I think they’re so interesting is because they are things we can do here in Ohio and we can do them relatively quickly. Those kind of things have typically tended to be the property of big multinational companies, so to have small, independent Ohio companies doing those kids of things really is exciting.

Without the staple of the automotive industry, what is the new economic face of Northwest Ohio?

The new economic face is alternative energy, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and materials and electronics. We have 65 new innovative technology companies started with support of the Third Frontier. Of those, none are in the automotive business.

How would you compare your effort in San Diego in turning around that economy to what’s happening in Toledo now?

We’re probably about 15 to 20 years behind what we did in San Diego. San Diego was a region based on tourism, real estate development and defense. With a downturn and high unemployment, San Diego was suffering in the late-1980s. There is almost a parallel dynamic to what we’re doing here in Northwest Ohio. San Diego converted its economy out of necessity in 1990, and we’re trying save our economy (in Toledo) in 2010. In 1990, there were 60 biotech companies in San Diego. Today, there are well over 1,000. In Northwest Ohio, we have 70 biotech companies — the biotech industry has been one of our biggest areas of growth. If I laid the numbers out on a board you would see so many similarities. The key to this area is diversifying our economic base.

What are some of Toledo’s new strengths?

There’s a diverse base of companies starting to grow here. I always talk about … economic development is a lot like human evolution. We’re changing. Without the base of the glass industry in Toledo there wouldn’t be a solar industry — the main material for the solar industry is glass. It’s kind of a logical thing. There are a lot of other ancillary businesses that come with solar industry. There are assemblers installers, framers, inverter companies and suppliers of chemicals.

There are many companies in RGP’s portfolio, but what’s the company that has you excited at this moment?

Right now, we’re very excited about the rail company CSX. They are building their largest intermodal transportation hub in North Baltimore — about 30 minutes from here. It’s going to be their epicenter for intermodal transportation in the Midwest — their Midwest headquarters. There will be hundreds of jobs, and it could turn into thousands of jobs, from what they’ve said.

A lot of the new jobs in Northwest Ohio are highly skilled. How much does education play a role in the success of growing Toledo’s economy?

Education plays a big role — anywhere from community college to applied research institutions. We engage the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, University of Findlay, Owens Community College, Terra Community College and Northwest State Community College. They all bring different skill sets. The idea is we’re always trying to help you grow you’re company. We don’t want you to be at the back of the boat.

Is Toledo on the right track?

We have a long way to go, but we’re moving in the right direction. The goal is to get to 100 new companies. We’ve seen $41 million capital dollars come here because of a new economic value that we’re creating. Of 65 companies we’ve started, 21 have come from outside of the state of Ohio. They’re coming from California, New York, Boston, Connecticut and Chicago. One of the unintended consequences from the Third Frontier is that companies are coming from outside the state to do business here. That’s been extremely positive.

If you had a crystal ball, what would it say about the future of Toledo? Let’s say five years in the future.

I think you’ll find in five years, people will say ‘Wow, we’ve made great progress.’ In five years, we’re going to have greater venture capital, a diversifying economic base, new opportunities and we’ll continue to have new employment. It’s a marathon without an end. We look back and learn lessons, but we don’t get depressed when stuff happens. Lay-offs are the stroke of a pen. If you want to hire people, that’s a six-month process. We need move forward with job creation. That’s never-ending battle.

There are a number of ways to evaluate your chance of success, including whether you are an entrepreneur with the “right stuff” or if your business has the “right stuff.”

The following evaluation should be made before making any new start-up business decisions:

A)      Market assessment

B)      Securing realistic funding sources

C)      Forecasting sales, expenses and cash flows

D)      Potential profitability

E)      Regulatory, legal issues

F)      Personal costs

Arguably, the most important issue revolves around determining who or what your market niche is. You need to quickly address a market review that indicates who are your clients, where are they located, how will you reach them and what are the costs associated with this process.

Secondly, start-up businesses require varying amounts of cash. Figure out how much it will cost to get your business open on its first day and then determine how much working capital will be needed to keep it running for a period of time - typically 90 to 120 days. Be prepared to personally provide a great deal of this early money from your own finances, and then work to secure traditional funding (banks) or from possible angel investors.

When you have completed your market assessment, it is vital that you work with an accountant or local economic development agency to develop projections which will include sales, expenses and burn rates. This information is not only vital when determining potential profitability, but will also help guide you in your effort to secure the proper amount of financing, and also timing as well.

Most businesses have either regulatory or legal issues that have to be dealt with at some point,  such as OSHA, the FDA, health departments, city, state and federal laws, etc. The sooner you identify them, the better prepared you will be.

Last but not least, very few entrepreneurs take into consideration the personal “life” costs associated with starting their own business. How does this impact your family, your personal financial situation, your “day” job, personal and legal risks?

Although there are many more issues you should work through before making a decision, this exercise will certainly help you decide if you have the “right stuff!”

Daniel P Slifko

A challenge for any business, particularly new startups, is generating awareness and positive news coverage for the company. Advertising dollars are often limited, and entrepreneurs might lack the experience with traditional public relations.

With that understanding, there are a number of tactics for startups to consider, most of which are relatively simple and inexpensive, if not free. Here are just a few for consideration:

1. Web site – As much as anything else, a company needs an online presence to promote itself. While top-of-the-line Web sites can run into 6 figures, modest, yet still effective sites can be developed at reasonable rates. Ask for referrals on freelancers, who often charge less because of limited overhead. Also, check with a local high school class, which might take the job at no cost as a class or group project. Bottom line – even if you just have a one-page site with basic product and contact information, it gets you in the game.

1. News release – Writing a news release is a means to communicate information to your target audience via the media. You don’t need a journalism degree to write a news release. Most important is to clearly state your news and describe why it is important to the readers or viewers. There are multitudes of Web sites devoted to teaching the proper techniques of writing a news release.

1. Networking – Take advantage of every opportunity to meet with colleagues related to your business or professional industry. Our (free) quarterly Tech Connect event is a perfect place for entrepreneurs to make new, valuable contacts. Also consider joining your local chamber of commerce or rotary. While there might be a nominal membership fee, it will pay for itself quickly, assuming you take advantage of the resource.

1. Other – If you have a few dollars for advertising, consider some low-cost avenues which might potentially reach your target audience, such as church bulletins, chamber newsletters, and neighborhood association newsletters. In addition, bulletin boards at public places such as gymnasiums, senior centers and university campuses offer opportunities to promote your business.

Whatever strategies you take, always remember your target audience. Who do you most wish to reach to promote your product? What message will be most effective for that audience? Which mediums will best reach that audience?

The RGP and its technology programs, Launch and Rocket Ventures, will readily provide input, suggestions and advice to help your business take the right steps in attracting positive publicity.

John Gibney

Turn on the local TV news, open the local newspaper, tune in to local talk radio and the stories you will find are all the same.  Factories closing, business moving away, rising unemployment, more layoffs on the way . . . all the doom and gloom they can sell to keep their ratings.  Well, I know at least one customer who is not buying – me!

Not only am I fortunate to have a job, but I have a job that takes me all across Northwest Ohio, meeting with entrepreneurs and small businesses that are telling a completely different story.  Nearly every day, I meet people with bright, new ideas who are excited by and optimistic about the opportunities they have before them.

Throughout the region, hundreds – maybe thousands – of enthusiastic entrepreneurs are inventing new technologies, developing new products, and establishing new businesses.  Highly conductive copper, next generation wireless networking, innovative medical devices, energy harvesting nano-ceramics, alternative and renewable energy generation, photovoltaics, - even hybrid aircraft -  are just a few of the innovative technologies currently being developed here in our region.

Innovation, entrepreneurship, and access to capital through programs like Ohio’s Third Frontier Program is enabling new small companies to leverage the strong manufacturing infrastructure and skilled workforce in Northwest Ohio that will become the foundation of tomorrow’s economy.  So join me in turning off and tuning out the local media and get out and see for yourself that there are some good things going on in the region.

Why is this important and what should it mean to you?  Well, if you are an entrepreneur with a technology idea, it means that we have a proven track record of success and you should talk to us to see if we can help you.  If you are looking to relocate a business, it means that Northwest Ohio is on the upswing and will continue to be a great place to be based.  If you are a tax-payer, it means that we have taken $5.5M of a Third Frontier bond issuance and leveraged a 5.1 return.

Even though these are great numbers, some of the impact on Northwest Ohio is a little tougher to see.  We are accustomed to hearing about “new jobs” and large existing companies moving here from out of the area.  We don’t often hear about or think about how companies get started and what needs to happen before an entrepreneur can even hire the first person.  But that is what Ohio’s Third Frontier Entrepreneurial Signature Program is designed to do – help position companies for that initial step and continued growth.  We are taking the lessons from the start of the glass industry in Toledo, the auto industry in Michigan, and more recently personal computer industry in Seattle in order to apply them here today.  We are creating industries from small groups of related technologies.  Those industries will take hold, grow, expand, and grow some more.  It will take some time to see the full effects of our efforts today, but the point is that these numbers indicate we are on the right track. 

Craig Ortega
Program Manager

http://rocketventures.org/?p=1860 Since their inception in 2008, Rocket Ventures and Launch, programs of the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP), have prioritized the need to communicate their services to entrepreneurs and technology-based startup companies across Northwest Ohio. Through proactive outreach efforts, both Rocket Ventures and Launch have reached more than 6,000 people. This year alone, these programs have reported more than 300 inquiries among potential clients.

Yet, we also understand that this ongoing awareness campaign for Rocket Ventures and Launch is still relatively new and there are many people still unaware of our $22.5 million venture capital fund and the services it provides.

As evidence, in the Nov. 1 issue of Toledo Free Press, a print advertisement criticizing economic development efforts in Toledo claimed that local agencies cannot directly help small businesses because such assistance is tied to bank financing, and there are currently no loans being offered. The advertisement also named the RGP as one of a handful of taxpayer-funded entities which have produced no results.

As part of the RGP’s continuing education and awareness campaign, I will clarify a couple points in order to provide a better understanding of our organization.

First, the RGP is a privately funded entity, which does not receive local taxpayer dollars. In 2005, the Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce spearheaded a funding campaign to privatize the RGP which cut us free from local tax money and strengthened our standing with national site consultants.

Secondly, Rocket Ventures does invest in early-stage companies that have strong potential in the northwest Ohio marketplace, primarily in bioscience, alternative energy and advanced manufacturing. So far, the program has awarded 26 development grants exceeding $1.24 million to early-stage companies. In addition, Rocket Ventures has made nine pre-seed investments of more than $3.6 million.

These grants and investments, along with the support of Launch, have helped in the commercialization of 60 new startup companies in northwest Ohio since the start of 2008. Our goal through Rocket Ventures is to commercialize 100 new startups by the end of 2010.

Moving forward, we will continue in our efforts to promote the many opportunities for technology entrepreneurs through our Rocket Ventures and Launch programs. We understand that a successful awareness campaign will ultimately generate greater deal flow, which means the commercialization of great technology into our marketplace. The end result will be a diverse and growing economy, greater investment in the region, and new high-paying jobs.

I encourage anyone who is interested in learning more about the Regional Growth Partnership as well as our Rocket Ventures and Launch technology program to contact me at (419) 252-2700 Ext. 307, or at weathers@rgp.org.

The Internet age has made many of us see the supposed greener grass of other parts of the country, while the sexy allure of the bigger cities and states has always made being from Ohio or a Midwestern state seem negative in some way. In a culture of “mine is better than yours,” how do we clearly identify our home cities and state and get back to the Drew Carey’s mindset of “Heck yeah I’m from Ohio and really proud of it?”

For the past few months, it has been my privilege to be on an editorial team for a new ezine called hiVelocity. This new publication’s only focus is the important changes that are happening in Ohio. The new Ohio economy, the creation of technology and the innovative “thinkers” located all across the state are detailed in this bi-monthly publication.

I’ll admit I’m biased because I’ve always loved my home state and my home city of Toledo. However, after listening to the story pitches being tossed out by my counterparts across the state, my enthusiasm for Ohio has become even greater. When the ezine was launched on September 24, I read it with awe. Even though I had seen some of the stories before, part of me read it with new eyes and I couldn’t help thinking, “All of this is really happening in Ohio?” It makes me excited for the future and the Ohio economy and glad I chose to stay here and raise my family.

I encourage all of you to read hiVelocity every two weeks. There is so much to learn about our great state…and maybe you’ll end up hearing the end of the Drew Carey theme song in your head too…”OHIO!”

Julie Myers
Marketing Manager

The largest city in NW Ohio is Toledo, with a population of about 400,000 in the metro area.  Owens-Corning, Dana, Pilkington-North America and Owens-Illinois are headquartered and Fifth Third, Huntington, Key, and National City banks have major operations in the Toledo Metro area.  This critical mass supports a minor league baseball team and has enabled a new sports arena to be built (officially opening in just one month) that will house an East Coast Hockey League team and an Arena Football 2 team as well as countless music, sports, and entertainment events.  The ballpark and the arena combined with the Seagate Convention Center and the Valentine Theatre anchor an entertainment district in the heart of downtown.  Toledo also boasts about its Art Museum, thought of as one of the top five in the country, and its Zoo, one of the world’s most complete with over 760 species.  Even with this draw, we don’t experience some of the problems that larger cities do, such as traffic and crime.  Our highways and surface streets allow for such good flow that it is often joked we don’t have a rush hour; we have a rush “half-hour.”

Findlay and Lima, each with a population around 40,000, are tremendous assets for the region.  Findlay and Hancock County offer one of the more comprehensive community planning and economic development efforts available.  In fact, more than fifteen high-profile companies such Marathon, Whirlpool, and Cooper Tire are present because of it.  Lima has been home to many manufacturing companies, serving the locomotive, automotive, and home appliance industries among others.  Both offer cultural and entertainment outlets, from the Arts Partnership of Greater Hancock County to the Lima Warriors semi-pro football team to Findlay’s Riverside Park band shell.

Despite our size and corporate history, we haven’t lost our honest, straightforward nature or our traditional values such as generosity and strong work ethic.  We still appreciate a job well done and will honor a commitment.  In fact, Lima was once named among the Top 10 places to raise a family in the U.S. by Reader’s Digest due to the area’s strong sense of community, great business and entertainment opportunities, and a rewarding quality of life that’s easy on the pocketbook.  America’s Promise Alliance and Capital One announced Findlay as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People in 2007.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the Lake Erie shoreline and islands of Ottawa County or the city of Defiance, which was recognized for the seventh consecutive year by Site Selection Magazine as one of the Top 100 small towns in the US.  As the midpoint between Fort Wayne, Indiana and Toledo, it is experiencing growth and investment due to the “Fort to Port” project.

So, if you are an entrepreneur, and you have an idea, we would love to talk to you.  We can offer advice, coaching, management expertise, and maybe grants or investments.  But we can also help you build a business in one of the best possible places – Northwest Ohio.

Craig Ortega
Program Manager

Ignite! Development Fund