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April 2008 Presentations

IdeaCrossing

Creating Connections

April 15, 2008

IdeaCrossing is hosted by Cleveland’s JumpStart program, whose mission is to accelerate the growth of innovative early stage businesses and ideas into venture ready companies by providing a continuum of resources to entrepreneurs and the community. When JumpStart found they had more than 4,000 instances of entrepreneurs coming to them with funding requests … investor interest in NE Ohio increasing ... they were receiving an average of 40 service provider inquiries per week ... and community members were regularly offering to help … the vision for IdeaCrossing was born.

IdeaCrossing is a free online community resource for all individuals and organizations with an interest in entrepreneurial activity. It is about creating the connections that build businesses. Entrepreneurs, investors, service providers and business mentors are all welcome on the site and can find connections and support to help meet their goals.

For entreprenuers, the value of joining IdeaCrossing is multi-fold. First, they can receive visibility with investors who they may not be able to find otherwise. Second, they can find business mentors who are willing to provide pro bono help in their industry. Third, they can search service providers to find the help they need to grow their business. Finally, they can access a robust resource center, including events, news, articles and discussion forums.

For investors, the easy search-and-match feature of the site allows them to find deal flow based on specifically identified criteria. It also provides private and secure access to funding profiles, which can browsed anonymously, and investors may contact only those of interest, protecting their identity and contact information.

Business mentors may connect with entrepreneurs seeking specific advice, and browse their profiles anonymously. They may then share expertise on a pro bono basis with only those in the entrepreneurial community they choose to advise.

Service providers can use IdeaCrossing to expand their customer base with a service listing that’s visible to all IdeaCrossing users. They can track performance of their listing and adapt as needed to make it strong and appealing, and access the robust resource center, including contributing articles and information to it to enhance credibility and appeal.

The IdeaCrossing profile matching allows investors to create specific profiles of types of companies they are interested in. The system then matches that profile with information provided by entrepreneurs. Information on those entrepreneurs is sent to the investor anonymously, so the investor may decide whether or not to pursue the opportunity. All information is easily available in the investor’s account for future reference, while the entrepreneur sees only that X number of investors have viewed their profile.

DimpleDough, Inc., an entrepreneurial company registered on IdeaCrossing, says they began getting contacted by interested investors within a few weeks of registering with IdeaCrossing. Ultimately, they received funding from an Angel investor outside their region, someone they never would have connected with if not for IdeaCrossing.

Currently, the system has 1,371 user registrations. Of these, 721 are entrepreneurs (52.5%), 88 are investors (6.4%), 438 are service providers (31.9%) and 58 are business mentors (4.2%). Other users make up the balance of 66 (4.8%). Over 8.3k matches have been made between investor and entrepreneurs and 966 profiles have been viewed by investors. There have been 56 contacts made.

Interestingly, while there is an overall ratio of 33:1 of entrepreneurs to investors, IdeaCrossing currently has an 8:1 ratio.

The program is being marketed through online advertising and a national PR effort. It is also focusing on investors nationally through related online advertising and print/sponsorship opportunities. Registration is free at www.ideacrossing.org

Contact:
www.ideacrossing.org