Start-Up WV: Accelerating Innovation and Economic Development

1. Academic Media Day Oct. 7, 2019

2. / Javier Reyes, Milan Puskar Dean, John Chambers College of Business and Economics; Vice President, Start-up WV

3. AN OVERVIEW OF START-UP WV PROGRESS AND INVESTMENTS

4. What does it mean to become a start-up state? Technologies Clusters Macroindustries

5. We have the resources to move toward innovation. Advanced Manufacturing Proctor & Gamble Boeing

6. Start-up WV Goals Tactic: Create a dedicated economic development team at WVU to augment the resources of the State Development Office Tactic: Create Vantage Ventures, a campus hub with targeted acceleration programs to proactively accelerate the highest-potential startups and disruptive inventions • Assist the WV State Government in its economic development activities • Create and strengthen entrepreneurship in West Virginia • Focus: Accelerate the growth of Regionally-focused businesses & local communities • Commercialize high-growth disruptive technologies, especially those based on WVU innovations/IP • Focus: Accelerate the creation of startups from Inventors & entrepreneurs commercializing WVU IP

7. Create a Dedicated Economic Development Team at WVU • Current WVU Tools & Resources: • WVU Center for Business & Economic Research (John Deskins) • WV Forward (Rocky Goodwin) • WV Brownfield Development Center (Patrick Kirby) • WVU Manufacturing Extension Program (Jerry Biser) • WV Legislative Summit & Public Education Collaborative (Donna Peduto) • Common Challenges: • Workforce development & talent pipeline • External perceptions about WV • Internal perceptions about WV • Site Readiness • State tax & investment incentives • Wholesale electric rates • Other legislative issues Assist the WV State Government in its economic development activities

8. INVESTMENTS STRATEGY Identify gaps for investments with programs, infrastructure and talent internally at WVU and align resources to develop start-up growth. Focus on areas of strength for WVU that present growth opportunities for the University in alignment with RI designation and land-grant mission.

9. Detail availability, strengths, weaknesses and prioritization of funding/investments for programming, infrastructure and talent at WVU. Detail availability, strengths, weaknesses and prioritization of available capital for investment in start-ups in the region. Identify ways to overcome location gaps with investors. What technology can we use to keep them connected?

10. Identify and engage alumni and supporters connected to WVU to build a robust mentor and contacts network. This network will focus on entrepreneurs from the last 10 years who have launched, participated in and/or funded start-ups or accelerator programs.

11. Create problem-based networking events and invite industry to pose real-world problems. Develop a regular line-up of expert speakers in the realm of entrepreneurship and innovation. Identify the best mentors who are already succeeding in West Virginia. Expand executive education programming with a focus on development of high-level executives.

12. Leverage and showcase key relationships and successes to demonstrate that West Virginia is a phenomenal place to live, work and play.

13. Identify relationships and wins we already have and can leverage in start-up space; this will help CEOs and key players in innovation and entrepreneurship at a national level notice West Virginia. Develop an external communications plan to showcase our wins. This will include key messages that emphasize the transformation of West Virginia into a start-up state/innovation economy and that this is a beautiful state to call home and grow your business. Partner with key State organizations (i.e. Tourism) to cross-section stories that attract people to WV and expand our reach.

14. Build and strengthen win-win partnerships with industry leaders to define problems or to develop innovation/start-up partnerships; position WVU to activate our network to present solutions and collaboratively seed innovation in areas of interest. Develop and promote “Sandbox” models to attract and cluster disruptive innovation and start-ups in areas of interest and strength for WVU.

15. Strengthen relationships between industry and academia; determine what attracts them to West Virginia so that we can leverage it. Realignment of central Career Services and college Career Services activities to capitalize on industry partnerships. Create a network for companies to do customer discovery.

16. Develop entrepreneurship programming that harnesses the strengths of WVU to solve the problems of the State and to meaningfully impact communities and to attract businesses to WV.

17. Build collaboration across campus with deans and colleges to form a cohesive, system-wide programming strategy. Define the outreach components of the innovation continuum at WVU and coordinate efforts tightly and effectively. Host coordinated community outreach events like hackathons and reverse pitching to seed State development and solve problems. Identify ways to overcome location gaps between entrepreneurs and support structures with a focus on technology available to bridge mentors, funders and entrepreneurs to start-ups in WV.