VT KnowledgeWorks - an incubator in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center - is doing a fantastic job of recognizing entrepreneurs, growing them, and moving them out of their incubator, such as VTCLI.

If you have any interest in starting a business, they have a systematic approach through their boot camp to determine if you have what it takes to make the leap. Contact them and see if your are their next success story.  

  If efforts to attract new companies are not at level we want and when these efforts are successful, it often does not bring knowledge-base jobs… If existing businesses are not growing at rates we want… Where will job growth come from?  The only answer is entrepreneurship development. The challenge is entrepreneurship development is a long-term strategy and solution and the other two are short-term fixes. No doubt we need a balanced and diverse portfolio of job growth activities, but what mix is ideal? It seems the short-term fix has been the dominant strategy perhaps because people in those activities have more short-term mindsets because of their age and risk level as it related to their own lives and careers. This mindset is probably not beneficial to future generations. An aggressive and long-term commitment to an entrepreneur development program is badly needed and for whatever reason as been absent for far too long.

Roanoke, Virginia native Cameron Johnson is down to the final three in Oprah’s Big Give with the final episode this Sunday evening, April 20 at 8 pm on ABC.

A CNNMoney article recently examined how entrepreneurs, like Cameron, have an advantage on these TV reality shows.

More than having the advantage on reality shows, having more residents with an entrepreneurial spirit differentiates your regional economy and allows it to compete in the global economy. We must have more entrepreneurs working for themselves rather than working for someone else. Cameron is our poster child for the young professional/ young adult movement in Roanoke and entrepreneurial spirit needed in the 21st century.  

Our friend Fahad Hassan who has been instrumental in assisting local young professionals consider entrepreneurial opportunities in the region was featured in yesterday’s Washington Post. His firm Daylert is attempting to offer a better way for college students to communicate and become personally effective.

Fahad spoke to the City of Roanoke’s first Entrepreneurship Express Workshop in April of 2006 led by the Virginia Department of Business Assistance.  

We tried to keep the Virginia Tech graduate in the region, but our attempts were unsuccessful as he received venture capital from a Maryland-based firm. However, Fahad continues to use the region’s higher-ed institutions to test and develop his product.

 Congratulations to Fahad and his team for this fantastic media coverage.

The very popular Bacon’s Rebellion blog made this post on November 2 in response to the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership news on November 1 outlining their new strategy.  What is amazing is that the post received 42 comments - yes 42 comments. What does this tell us about the interest in the plan, the city or the popularity of the blog? First, it seems people think the plan is sound. Second, a lot of people have an affinity for Roanoke. Three, this blog gets a lot of people talking online and we need more Roanoke blogs engaging people about these important topics.