Lookout Point Jackie Stark

ENTREPRENEURS WANTED

Grant provides local opportunities

By Jackie Stark

Entrepreneurs looking to start a company without having to leave the Upper Peninsula will soon find themselves with new opportunities for investment, thanks to a three-year, $611,000 Capital Challenge Grant, offered through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale program. “The real way I think we’re going to build our local economy is through new business, new start-ups, especially in the hightech space,” said Joe Theil, CEO of Innovate Marquette, which worked with the Center on Rural Innovation to apply for the grant. “I think we’re going create a lot more jobs in that model “ to than we would in trying to attract large organizations here.” The grant will go a long way in helping new startups get off the ground, as it will be used to create a new professional investment program that will help provide the funding start-ups need. According to an Innovate Marquette press release, Innovate Marquette worked with the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) to apply for the grant as part of CORI’s 2021 Rural Innovation Initiative, a technical assistance program empowering rural communities to create inclusive digital economies that support scalable entrepreneurship and tech job creation. Innovate Marquette partnered with

Northern Michigan University, InvestUP, and Innovation Shore Angel Network (ISAN) for the grant’s vision, and also regularly receives support from local and state partners including Accelerate UP, Lake Superior Community Partnership, the Central Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Regional Commission, the Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and the City of Marquette. “We are thrilled to learn Innovate Marquette has won a Build to Scale Capital Challenge grant,” said Leah Taylor, CORI’s head of I think we’re going to create a lot more jobs in that model than we would in trying to attract digital economy consulting, large organizations here.” in the release. “It takes vision and leadership to bring together disparate assets and partners into a cohesive ecosystem for the Upper Peninsula.” With the $611,911 provided by the Capital Challenge grant and matching funds, Innovate Marquette plans to use the new resources for the Make it Marquette Start to Scale (Marquette STS) project, which will leverage educational, economic development and capital investor partnerships.

Together, with local partners, Marquette STS will educate local angel investors about scalable tech investment opportunities and connect to state, regional and national venture capital (VC) networks. Marquette STS outputs and outcomes include the following:

• Support 30 scalable tech startups with the support of $5,000 to $30,000 each of financial assistance for services from crowdfunding members.

• Engage 50 new angel investors to provide $750,000 in seed funding and sponsor 15 startups through acceleration.

• Cultivate 25 new VC firms to invest $1.5 million to $5 million in scalable tech startups in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The project is also designed to be 100 percent sustainable after the proposed three-year project timeline. Thiel said the program will allow new companies to find the funding they need, without having to rely on family and friends. “It’s a platform that allows us to reach out to community members across the U.P., state, and internationally–for people associated with the U.P. who want to help early-stage companies get off the ground,” he said. In short, the program will build a professional funding organization that will be effective for businesses from start to scale. As entrepreneurs come into the program, they’ll be able to get the resources they need to build out professional business plans, pitches, and long-term plans to help investors feel less worried about the risk involved. “You really have to de-risk the idea or de-risk the company and show really clear guidelines on long-term planning, putting professional performance together, business plans, pitch videos or actual pitches with the client,” Thiel said. “This program does that. It really is a process for entrepreneurs to inject capital throughout their path, and it also gives us a really great professional organization to prepare them for investment.” Thiel said the program is modeled after other, successful entrepreneurial programs, making it less risky than a brand new model that wasn’t tried and true. “Once the steam roller starts going and you’ve got deals flowing through, businesses coming in, launching out and getting investment, it continues to build all the time,” Thiel said. “Honestly, this is an ability for us to be very competitive with other organizations who have done similar things. The concept we’re promoting isn’t a new concept. This has been done by many successful organizations.” Though Innovate Marquette was the grant recipient, Thiel said many other local economic development organizations played a key role in preparing the grant, including the Northern Michigan University Foundation, Invest UP, the Lake Superior Community Partnership, the Innovation Shore Angel Network, and the Central Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Regional Commission, to name a few. “We’ve aligned as an innovative ecosystem, and we’re collaborating on everything that we do so that we can put all of our efforts toward the same goal,” Thiel said. “That’s been something that I think has been really needed and I think all of us in the innovation ecosystem recognize that this is the way we should be doing things.” Another major benefit to the grant is the visibility it will afford Marquette in the future, as local economic development agencies seek to further their work through grant funding. “This is a very long, arduous process and a very competitive grant, one which very few people got. I really want to commend our local economic development ecosystem for being supportive and helping us write the grant,” Thiel said. “This is a really, really big win for the U.P. for visibility at the federal level. These federal grants come out every year and we’ve never gotten one on this scale. This also builds momentum and visibility at the federal level.” The successful grant application isn’t just helpful in that it’s getting Marquette’s name into the world of high-level grant funding – it can also help act as a template of sorts for additional grant applications. “A lot of the language in this grant can be used in other grants,” Thiel said. “It was a huge effort locally, working with CORI, and we’re super excited to be able to share this with the community and build on this.” For more information on Innovate Marquette, visit innovatemarquette. org. About the author: Jackie Stark has lived in the UP since she was 11. An avid reader, she also loves gardening and has been talking about learning to play the guitar for 14 years.

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