This September, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) hosted its second NJ Founders & Funders event for New Jersey entrepreneurs at its Commercialization Center for Innovative Technologies (CCIT) incubator located in North Brunswick, New Jersey. The EDA is an independent State agency that works hard to help New Jersey startups, and small to mid-sized businesses. The main goal of the EDA’s NJ Founders & Funders event was to create matches between prospective investors and entrepreneurs seeking funding for their startups.
The EDA administrates tax incentives to retain and grow jobs, revitalizes communities’ through redevelopment initiatives, and supports entrepreneurial development by providing access to training and mentoring. EDA President Michelle Brown who addressed the entrepreneur and investor attendees at the event noted the over $196 million in assistance the EDA provided technology companies in 2013 that leveraged more than $444 million in private investment for “nearly 1780 new jobs and 1860 at risk retained jobs.”
The first Founders & Founders event was held in May and received great positive feedback from many of those who attended. The purpose of the Founders & Funders event was to respond to entrepreneurs who expressed the need for assistance in finding local investors. At that May event the EDA brought together close to 30 entrepreneurs with various investors representing a wide range of industries. The event was so successful that the EDA decided to host another NJ Founders & Funders in September which was again viewed as a great success.
Founder of the Techlaunch Accelerator and active angel investor Mario Casabona explains the benefit of having this type of event, “Terrific event with the opportunity for Founders and Funders to network and exchange ideas. I was able to see deal flow and also provide some guidance. Shows the NJ EDA’s commitment to the startup community.”
Before attending the event, the entrepreneurs were required to submit a profile. The purpose of the profile was to aid the EDA in matching entrepreneurs with interested investors. At the actual event, the entrepreneur met with the matched investor and then rotated to the next match. Each session lasted for approximately six minutes during which the entrepreneurs made their pitch to the investors.
According to New Jersey entrepreneur Adnan Qadeer of AllWeb Technologies Inc., “the whole program was very well structured and provided sufficient time to all the startups to meet with the investors. The one-on-one conversations were more meaningful compared to other similar events, as the investors knew upfront about my company, and we used the 10 minutes sessions for discussing very specific details and next steps. I would highly recommend this.”
