Shreveport Times: Summit helps teach people how to find investors
Zane Hill
OPELOUSAS - One of Louisiana's weaknesses is its limited access to venture capital, says one of the speakers at a small business accelerator/incubator summit held here.
While Massachusetts capital firms have about $400 per capita available, Louisiana's have closer to just $3, said Tim Rowe, a representative of Cambridge Innovation Center. Fortunately, he added, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu had a hand in legislation that lets individuals donate money for initial investments.
Landrieu, who hosted the summit Thursday morning in the Opelousas Civic Center, wants it to turn into a regular way to help new businesses in smaller Louisiana communities. "This is the first of what I hope will be at least a semi-annual gathering that will bring together universities and mayors as economic developers and incubators in our state to help coordinate better strategies for better businesses and growth," the Louisiana Democrat said.
University representatives and local politicians joined business incubators and investors from Louisiana and other states to discuss ways of attracting nonprofit and private investors to help kick start new businesses during the economic recession.
"We're in the process of re-creating our economy from an industrial base to an entrepreneurial base," Landrieu said. "We need to start creating wealth and opportunity where there is none today."
Business incubators function as support programs available to entrepreneurs. They act as a network for initial and future investments as well as business planning. The Louisiana Business Incubation Association has 26 member organizations.
The panel discussions Thursday focused on how to help people who want to start smaller businesses in communities like Opelousas or Thibodaux, which don't garner as much attention as Baton Rouge or New Orleans but still are vital to rebuilding the economy.
"If we're really going to re-create the economy we dream about, we really have to understand the strengths and weaknesses of our communities," said Landrieu, who chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Businesses that have existed for more than six years have lost about 1 million jobs annually for the past 30 years, Rowe said, adding that venture capital firms like his help offset those losses. "A place that doesn't know how to have startup businesses will fail."
Politicians, investors and potential business owners need to unite to form an "entrepreneurial ecosystem" to help growth, said Steve Berger, who works for the Cleveland-based nonprofit JumpStart Inc. "If you go back to 1977, all net new jobs have been startup companies."
Opelousas Mayor Don Cravins is encouraged by the opportunities he learned about at the summit to help his city, which saw a 20 percent dip in sales tax revenue and has no shortage of vacant buildings downtown. "This brings together the experts to give us ideas as to what we can do as a small community to kick start our economy and survive. Now we have a few more cards to play with."
Landrieu prepared a free guide to business planning resources and government financing programs. Though she noted federal government-funded research is key to innovation, one cannot reliably count on federal funds for small business growth.
"The money that's going to drive this is going to come from the private sector," she said. "We don't have the wealth that Massachusetts might have, but we still have wealth. We just need to channel it in the right direction"
