Replanting the Economic Forest in Northeast Ohio (cont.)

• Investments: JumpStart’s Investment Fund can invest an average of $250,000 of early-stage funding into selected portfolio companies. Individual investments range from $50,000 to $900,000, depending on a company’s needs and how it progresses through mutually determined milestones.

• Acceleration services: To accelerate growth, each portfolio company also receives intensive mentoring support. A JumpStart Entrepreneur/Executive-in-Residence is assigned to each company to provide guidance and to help ensure that key milestones are met.

The JumpStart process

Our process begins with the solicitation of ideas and business plans from the 15-county area we serve. A formal application process is conducted three times per year. We seek companies with a demonstrated potential to attract follow-on capital, create or support high-paying jobs, and generate revenues that will increase Northeast Ohio’s economic wealth.

After gathering ideas and business plans, we find the brightest ideas through a thorough and intensive due diligence process. We then proceed to a carefully structured, three-tiered investing and business development process:

• Advise: We advise companies by reviewing their business plans, providing constructive input and referring them to resources in our network where they can find valuable help.

• Assist: Half of the companies we advise will, based on the merits of their plan, participate in our Assist Program. We assist companies by helping strengthen their business plans, identify and fill plan gaps, and provide input from industry experts.

• Accelerate: From the pool of companies we assist, we choose 12 each year to accelerate by directly investing in the company and by accompanying that investment with intensive support from our Acceleration Group.

Our goals

Over our first three years of existence, JumpStart expects to advise 225 high-potential companies in Northeast Ohio’s 15 counties – significantly increasing opportunities to create economic wealth. We’ll be investing $9 million in equity capital in 45 to 60 of those companies over a three-year period, and expect those companies to attract add-on capital from private sources of $27 million over three years and $63 million over five years. We project that these efforts will create or support at least 200 high paying jobs over the next three years.

As 2004 came to a close, JumpStart made its first investments in five carefully selected businesses in several sectors, including technology, advanced manufacturing and service businesses. We anticipate funding six to eight more businesses before the middle of 2005.

In just two application cycles, we’ve been able to confirm that there is no shortage of bright ideas in Northeast Ohio. We have already received more fundable plans than we have the capacity to fund and are currently evaluating options to address this truly “happy problem.”

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