By the Venture Capital Barometer Ohio is Doing Well: Local Venture Funds Still at ZERO
Phil Brennan is a renaissance man. An Irishman who now calls Akron, Ohio home, he’s been an actor, a brand manager and a Fortune 50 business leader, having launched more than 200 new products into the marketplace over the course of his career.
Since 2006, he has added “cleantech entrepreneur” to his resume. As the CEO of Echogen Power Systems, Phil is leading a 20-person team in the final stages of commercializing a thermal heat engine. When placed into a factory smokestack, the engine harvests the heat escaping out of the smokestack, converting it into electricity used to power the factory and, depending on the size of the heat engine, homes in the neighboring area.
Stories like this are common in entrepreneurial hotbeds like Silicon Valley, Boston, San Diego and Seattle. But in Akron, Ohio?
You bet. Surprising as it might be, Ohio is one of several states in the Midwest where successful entrepreneurial companies are charting the way for a new economy and demonstrating that high-growth entrepreneurship can happen anywhere when a region plays on its existing strengths.
Venture capital investment activity is a good proxy for high-growth entrepreneurship because venture capitalists invest in companies bringing transformative ideas to market. Consider the facts about venture capital investing: See the following link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ray-leach/is-midwest-us-the-next-si_b_820032.html?ref=tw
