Worcester lays foundation for young entrepreneurs
PHOTO/SAM BONACCI
U.S. Rep. James McGovern speaks with Drew Wilson from Vegfest New England during a recent tour of the RunningStart co-working space in Worcester.
Inside a former mill building in Worcester, a potentially new wave of businesses toils away. One has launched a new way to read the news while another is honing a robotic wok.
These entrepreneurs are part of a growing number of college students seeking to evolve their ideas into businesses.
And officials with the city and the chamber of commerce want to keep them here and help them grow.
That's the idea behind the two organizations – RunningStart and Technocopia – that occupy the building at 95 Prescott St. and offer space and resources entrepreneurs need to hone their ideas. The two spaces are becoming gathering sites for a growing number of people looking for office space or manufacturing equipment.
These are just two examples of an entrepreneurial push that's growing out of programs at Central Massachusetts colleges, such as Becker, Clark, Holy Cross and WPI, which emphasize entrepreneurial studies. Worcester has a long history of companies launched by college graduates, dating back to the city's manufacturing heyday. But now, they just look different, says Commerce Bank President Brian Thompson.
“It is a little different than if you wound the clock back 15 years ago,” when such startup ventures “would have been more mechanical.”
“I think that we are in a very exciting time in that more people are thinking about starting their own businesses ... than anytime before.”
The Worcester business community has tried to foster these new startups by strengthening connections to the colleges, facilitating internships and utilizing Startup Worcester, a program that each year gives 12 businesses memberships in RunningStart, the Worcester Regional chamber and The Venture Forum, says Karen Pelletier, the chamber's director of higher education and business partnerships.
“The chamber recognized that we needed to be doing more overall in terms of talent retention,” Pelletier says. “We recognize there is a real void in opportunity for students when they graduate to start their own businesses here.”
But some businesses have made their start here, with positive results. Sam Shepherd co-founded his company Skyscope, a video production and marketing services provider, in Worcester after he graduated from Clark University in 2011. Shepherd decided to stay because of the resources that were already here, along with the more reasonable costs of living and office space.
“We like the value that you get and the flexibility it gives you to take big risks,” Shepherd says. “We have a whole floor of the (office) building and it would (cost) 10 times as much” in Boston.
Joshua Croke, the CEO and creative director at Origin Consulting, decided to launch in Worcester partly because of the city's financial benefits, but also its sense of community. Having lived in San Francisco and New York City, Croke found that Worcester is large enough to have a thriving social scene and small enough that one person can step in and make an impact.
Croke recently started his own not-for-profit, Action! Worcester, which helps engage college students with the community and connect with the schools. There's a need to educate students about the city and show them that it's a safe, vibrant community they can be part of, he said.
“It's important for our future to have new businesses start and develop here,” Thompson said. “Expecting a New York stock exchange company … to locate a plant here and hire 200 people, you are always hopeful (of that) but that doesn't happen as often as we'd like.”
Getting more entrepreneurs to stay will mean maintaining the work that's being done and increasing the efforts. Chief among their needs is money, said Shepherd and Croke, and a grant program for seed money would go a long way toward providing another incentive to remain in Worcester.
There are competitions set up by The Venture Forum and Holy Cross that offer cash prizes, but a few thousand dollars isn't enough, said former Holy Cross student Ben Kaplan. He started his own business, WiGo, an app that lets students communicate their social plans, in Boston because that's where his financial backer was located. The company is now valued at $14 million.
Connecting entrepreneurial minded students with local businesses is also important, the entrepreneurs said. Many students pursue internships with startups in New York or Boston, according to Kaplan, so having this kind of connection here would help retention. Also, encouraging the growth of feeder companies, such as digital solutions provider ten24, where enterprising students can work for a year before striking out on their own, is important, Shepherd says.
That will take time, says Gina Betti, associate director and co-founder of WPI's Collaborative for Entrepreneurship & Innovation.
“Worcester is once again on the cusp of building a culture and I think we will see (the) emergence of more start-ups in the next five years,” Betti says. “I believe when the city targets an area, offers incentives … and actively invests in working at the table with all of the players, then you will see clusters of new start-ups emerging.”
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