Wednesday, April 27, 2011

How I See It

MassAdvantage: The economic ecosystem of Massachusetts

By Vin Bisceglia, partner at Genovation Capital

Amid threats of government shutdowns in Washington and ferocious tax and spending debates in state capitols across the country, we have lost sight of the real issue: Economic growth across the country remains mostly flat. 

Fortunately, Massachusetts is an outlier, a beacon of hope. That’s because our state has an enduring tradition of innovation, dating way back to John Adams and his fellow patriots, who dared to dream that a country of immigrants could be free to determine its destiny. This kind of disruptive thinking is the most important ingredient to our state’s long tradition of innovation and invention. We have invented or developed a remarkable string of innovations, including anesthesia, radar, microwave technology, the computer, biotechnology, nanotechnology, email, and, perhaps most notably, the Internet itself.

That tradition continues. The Kauffman Foundation, the nation’s foremost organization for entrepreneurship, consistently names Massachusetts the top “New Economy” state. Boston was named the most innovative city in the world by the Australian Innovation Agency, 2thinknow. In 2010 CNBC named Massachusetts the top state in education and number two in access to capital. 

These acknowledgments are key to our advantages in this global economic race. We have a world-class information infrastructure, a highly competitive educational system, world-class health care, and a safe, natural environment that is family friendly. We have the highest level of venture capital investment per capita on earth. Students from every continent line up to attend our extraordinary colleges. These natural economic resources constitute our MassAdvantage.

But we face formidable challenges as other states and nations rush to match our advantages. As business leaders, we must realize our ecosystem’s advantages and leverage these attributes to spawn new companies and attract existing companies to our state. Venture capitalists, angel investors, corporate executives and educational leaders can all participate in this challenge by aggressively investing their resources and capital in the new and disruptive ideas that surround us.

We are entering a new technological era — one characterized by mobile devices and pervasive high-bandwidth connectivity — that is already spawning innovative new businesses.
Industries will be disrupted and new markets will be created. The winners and losers of this new industrial era have yet to be defined, and Massachusetts is poised to reclaim the mantle of economic primacy in this disruptive technological transition.

Our incubators are teeming with energy and extraordinary intellectual property. Innovators are flooding the startup pipeline with new solutions for mobile applications and networking, cloud computing, cleantech, digital games, health IT, robotics, social media and video innovations. Matching disruptive leaders with the capital and customers needed to fuel this economic fire is essential to our success. 

We can make a difference. Our call to arms includes: increasing our Bump Rate, networking with the best and brightest; investing time, energy and capital into our schools; mentoring entrepreneurs to find capital sources and management here in Massachusetts; encouraging companies to hire and build here; and offering our political leaders concrete suggestions to optimize our business ecosystem.

We are at the threshold of a pivotal economic challenge and Massachusetts has the economic resources to become the epicenter of this new economy. History will judge how we respond to this challenge. MassTLC isn’t waiting for the history books to be written. We’re rallying our 400-plus members and all of Massachusetts to create the jobs and growth this region needs to remain a leader. We are determined not to disappoint John Adams. 

 

This is the second in a series of articles by members of the the Mass Technology Leadership Council outlining its action plan for fulfilling its "2020 Challenge," adding 100,000 new tech jobs by the end of the decade.