Tri-ED's entrepreneurial support division "ezone" expands reach

Since launching in 2001 as Northern Kentucky's office of the statewide Innovation and Commercialization Center (ICC) program, the ezone has served more than 260 local entrepreneurial projects to the tune of $132 million in investments.

 

Working primarily with fast-growth, equity-seeking ventures in industries like agriculture, energy, information technology, healthcare and advanced manufacturing, the ezone helps open doors to valuable professional networks and specialized grants and investment capital from a variety of sources that include:

 

At any given time, Covington-based ezone works with 30 to 40 clients ranging from early-phase concepts to multi-million dollar international corporations. This year, the ezone will join its ICC counterparts in undergoing a statewide rebranding process that calls for a new name -- the Kentucky Innovation Network -- a new logo, and a renewed commitment to creating jobs and economic growth in Northern Kentucky.

 

"I think after 10 years, everyone should probably freshen up their branding and see what they could be doing better," says ezone's Director Casey Barach. "Plus, over the course of 10 years we've developed some resources and expertise across the state, and we really wanted to identify those and figure out how to share them better. Instead of being siloed in Northern Kentucky, we want to figure out how to reach out to the rest of the state and obtain help for our companies."

 

 

Prior to merging with Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation (Tri-ED) in 2007, the ezone was not affiliated with any university or public organization. According to Barach, the merger has proved instrumental in paving inroads for related businesses and creating job opportunities for graduates of Northern Kentucky University's College of Informatics. 

 

"The goal of the statewide network as opposed to more isolated offices is to share various knowledge and specialties that exist throughout the state and serve as a catalyst," says Barach. 

 

Barach describes a recent scenario in which he was able, at the request of a fellow Innovation Center director in Paducah, to connect an entrepreneur there with some of the services available through NKU.

"It's more of an open process that encourages reaching out to other territories for help " he says. "I have a couple companies who are actively seeking funding, and I've spent time in Lexington and Louisville talking to angel groups, trying to open up doors to funding with this idea that we're all one big state and one big network."

 

 

Those angel investors -- that is, high-net-worth individuals who contribute high risk seed capital for startup companies -- play an important role in ezone's mission to encourage a thriving entrepreneurial base in Northern Kentucky. In addition to helping to secure grants through the state's Cabinet for Economic Development's Office of Commercialization and Innovation, the ezone works with angel investors to identify projects with potential, encourage networking, ease the flow of information, and guide investors through Kentucky's unique tax credit policies. 

 

"In Kentucky, unlike most states, the angel tax credit program dictates that investors work through a fund in order to invest and to take advantage of the tax credit," says Thomas Prewitt, ezone founder and chair of Tri-ED's Entrepreneurship Committee. "The current bill, which will be brought up again before the [2013 Kentucky] General Assembly, is designed to allow individual angel investors to take advantage of the tax credit that already exists for angel funds, as opposed to individuals."

The ezone also works with the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation (KSTC), which serves as the statewide headquarters for the Kentucky Innovation Network. Established in 1987, KSTC is a private, nonprofit corporation committed to the advancement of science, technology and innovative economic development in Kentucky. 

 

 

Each year, the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development's Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OCI) publishes a report detailing the impact and successes of the state's 10 Innovation Centers and three satellite offices, as they relate to entrepreneurship and economic growth. For its part, last year, the ezone was able to attract 15 new clients, bringing the total number of clients served to 31, resulting in $15.6 million in private investment funds. 

 

Also highlighted in the report were the successes of UpTech, an entrepreneurial "super accelerator" program that the ezone operates in conjunction with Northern Kentucky University, Tri-ED, Campbell County Economic Progress Authority, and the Vision 2015 plan for Northern Kentucky.

 

UpTech launched in June 2012 and currently includes eight member startups selected from an applicant pool of 57. Those eight companies range in scope from an online beauty vlogger forum to a firm specializing in money-saving solutions for small shipping companies. To date, the program has raised over $1 million dollars in funding from local businesses, foundations and private investors lending to the program's overarching goal of creating an informatics industry cluster in Northern Kentucky that will provide jobs for the 700-1,000 students graduating each year from NKU's College of Informatics.

 

"We tend to think of economic development as attraction of new businesses to the region and retaining and expanding businesses that are already here," says Prewitt. "Entrepreneurship is an important component of economic development, not just because it creates jobs in and of itself, but also because it's a really important component for the attraction of new businesses to the region and for retention of businesses. It's a net-positive for the culture of the region, and there's a lot of really good stuff going on in and around this region."