Got A Great Tech Idea, Clevelanders? Become A Startup Entrepreneur

We’re in the Rust Belt, right, where industry dies?

A hive of business leaders, financiers and go-getters are determined to prove that idea as wrong as the notion that Cleveland can’t win a major sports championship.

If you have a business idea, now’s your chance to pitch it — or at least learn how to try.

Cleveland nonprofit JumpStart will hold its second annual Startup Scaleup on June 28, when would-be entrepreneurs and those who want to grow their businesses can meet potential advisers, financiers and even angel investors.

If you think this region can’t generate the next Sergey Brin (Google) or Caterina Fake (Flickr), take a look at these numbers.

10,000: Jobs created in Northeast Ohio by entrepreneurs working through a network of technology advisers and funders via JumpStart Inc., a nonprofit that helps startups grow and thrive.

$300 million: The share of money that Ohio’s Third Frontier, a $1 billion state-based business-development and investment effort, has put into technology investment and support statewide.

$3 billion: Economic impact of this investment and the jobs it created in Northeast Ohio since 2010.

While metrics measuring similar successes aren’t available for every metro region and state, “for a city like ours, a Midwest city, we have surpassed many,” said Amy Martin, who heads marketing for JumpStart.

Read the full story at Cleveland.com.