Wed 11/12 @ 12pm
It might surprise you that over the past several months there’s been over 35,000 students from more than 183 countries using Cleveland as a case study on how our region is trying to support young, high growth companies.
“It’s a very global conversation,” says Michael Goldberg, Visiting Assistant Professor of Design and Innovation at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. “There’s a lot of learning in this dialogue.”
Michael’s massive open online course (MOOC) called Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies attracts students, teachers and business leaders from around the globe interested in building an ecosystem of entrepreneurial vitality in their region. The MOOC Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies provides a path and understanding for how transitioning economies are working to catalyze high-growth entrepreneurship, and students are highly engaged in the conversation.
“It puts our experience out to the international community as a city that in 2002 was ranked 61st out of 61 cities by Entrepreneur Magazine in terms of support of entrepreneurship. We were losing lots of our young people to other cities as they tried to do start-ups. We didn’t have venture capital money, we didn’t have accelerators, we didn’t have angel money and through donor and really the foundations, the Fund for Economic Future was formed and government, primarily from Third Frontier, you had this significant support that was put into entrepreneurship and that lead to the creation of JumpStart and a number of other organizations.
“So that’s the construct of the course which is that it’s kind of a deep dive on Cleveland and putting it out there…not that everyone should emulate what we’re doing but they can look at a community that was really struggling to support entrepreneurship tried and is trying,” explains Goldberg.
As a Fulbright scholar in Vietnam in 2012, Michael taught entrepreneurship and was asked by the government to organize a seminar on entrepreneurial eco-systems. The Vietnamese government did not want Michael to focus on the success of Silicon Valley, but rather on how NEO went about the task of trying to support high-growth companies.
“Why was Cleveland’s attempt to transform it’s economy through technology based entrepreneurship relevant to Vietnam?” asks Michael. “Well, what I found very interesting is that our experience in Cleveland has relevance around the world. While most communities around the world would love to look like Silicon Valley, the reality is that a lot of places around the world look more like Cleveland than Silicon Valley. People really got this idea that Cleveland can be a model by showing our process and struggle. What students are finding is that their cities have a lot of similarities in terms of those challenges and issues as we do here in Cleveland.”
During the six week Beyond Silicon Valley MOOC course, a weekly panel discussion occurs where there’s a chance for students from around the world to pose questions to a panel based on the topics being studied in class.
The final week of the course and wrap-up week coincides with the special event Start-Ups at The City Club – Beyond Silicon Valley: Growing Entrepreneurship in Transitioning Economies. This event will be a “lessons learned” from the six week course and conversation through the Cleveland experience but also the context from people around the world. Panelists are local key players in putting together the entrepreneurial ecosystem right here in Cleveland as well as leaders and key players from Iran, Rwanda and the Czech Republic.
Position yourself in a great seat to be part of the conversation. Tickets are $15 for members and $25 for non-members. To get your tickets and more information about the event, visit The City Club’s website.
SIDENOTE: The MOOC course is a free source open to students everywhere. You do not have to be a Case student to engage in the work. The 3rd session will start-up again in May. For more info on the MOOC, click here.