Startup Elite Converge in Cincinnati, Drawing National Attention to Midwest Business Innovation Scene
CINCINNATI, Oct. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 1,000 of the nation's top business builders are gathering this week in Cincinnati, Ohio for the prestigious Techstars' FounderCon 2016, running today through Thursday, Oct. 20. This marks the first time in six years that Techstars is hosting their annual innovation event in a location outside of their traditional network of startup hubs including Boulder and Austin, choosing Cincinnati for its fast-growing, diverse startup ecosystem.
FounderCon brings together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporations for two days of panels, events and one-on-one business introductions and meetings.
"Historically, we've only looked at having FounderCon in known startup cities where we have actual accelerators, but we thought that if we were going to take a little bit of a risk and try a new community, then Cincinnati is perfect," said John Hill, Techstars Network Catalyst. "Cincinnati absolutely fits our ethos about being for entrepreneurs everywhere else and that entrepreneurs can have support regardless of geography."
Named one of this year's fastest-growing start-up cities in the country by the 2016 Kauffman Index of Startup Activity, Cincinnati's entrepreneurial scene has rocketed onto the start-up landscape with more than 280 businesses successfully launched and currently operating in the past two years.
The direct access for entrepreneurs to executives at the Cincinnati region's nine Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble and Kroger is largely credited with the rapid growth of the #StartupCincy community. Entrepreneurs also find strong support and capital within the two dozen accelerators and organizations that are tasked with advancing Cincinnati's place as the country's inland technology innovation hub.
"We're lucky that in the Greater Cincinnati startup ecosystem, top executives are deeply and personally engaged with the startup community, providing access to resources and knowledge," said Wendy Lea, president of Cintrifuse. "The "give back" philanthropic DNA of #StartupCincy never ceases to amaze me."
Cintrifuse, which focuses on funding and supporting the Cincinnati startup community by making grants to other venture capital funds around the country with the thought that this investment will come back to the community, is just one example of how Cincinnati organizations are finding unique ways to invest in the region. Other organizations include MORTAR, which is tasked with developing entrepreneurs in underserved and redeveloping communities and OCEAN, the nation's first faith-based accelerator.
This collection of support is how Cincinnati's startups are seeing such a high rate of success – with companies such as Lisnr, Frameri, ChoreMonster, and Assurex Health – growing into nationally-known brands that have been featured on CNBC, The Today Show, Shark Tank, Fox Business, and more in the past two years.
"Hosting FounderCon is like hosting the All-Star Game of Entrepreneurship and it signals that Cincinnati has arrived as a standout startup city," Lea said. "We're thrilled with the opportunity to show the rest of the nation something we've known all along – that if you have resilience, grit and perseverance, and don't want to get lost in the shuffle, than our city is for you."
For more information about #startupCincy, visit http://www.startupcincy.com/.
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SOURCE #StartupCincy
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