About 100 years ago, 20 percent of Cleveland's population was composed of immigrants. Those entrepreneurial and innovative minds helped shape the Rockefeller-run city. Today, Cleveland's immigrant population has sunk to 4 percent.
TiE Ohio is hoping to reverse that trend.
The organization (founded in the 1990s in Silicon Valley) is filling a niche in Northeast Ohio's business-development landscape by focusing on immigrant and minority entrepreneurs within the region � and encouraging others to consider Ohio as a destination for new businesses.
The Ohio chapter of TiE (The International Entrepreneur) is the 50th out of 53 worldwide and celebrated its one-year anniversary in October. So far, so good.
While the chapter covers the entire state, most members are based in Northeast Ohio. Every month, 113 members of TiE Ohio meet at the organization's Cleveland office to socialize. And talk shop.
R�ka Barab�s, the executive director of TiE Ohio, says networking is key, but the organization also provides support to up-and-coming entrepreneurs through mentoring and business education programs.
But, why Cleveland?
"If you think about what the made the U.S. great -- and Cleveland for that matter -- it was immigrant entrepreneurs," she says. "If you came to the US to pursue your dreams, you were a risk taker� When the immigrant population is gone, you lose that fresh, entrepreneurial spirit."
There are plenty of opportunities to re-create a lively economy in Ohio, with a burgeoning medical and technology base. And the potential for lots of additional jobs.
"We certainly hope that will be the ripple effect of what we do," Barab�s says. "In our first year, we are just trying to promote international entrepreneurship."
Source: R�ka Barab�s
Writer: Colin McEwen