TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo connects entrepreneurs to opportunities
After a five-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland’s premier entrepreneurial event is finally making a comeback. TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo was created to bring together investors, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and other business resources.
TEDCO is known as Maryland's leading source of funding and support for early-stage, technology-based businesses and collaborates with various assets to build an inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurial statewide ecosystem. Maryland’s more than 70 federal laboratories, more than 10 incubators, numerous research universities and access to world-class experts allow collaboration across industry sectors. TEDCO is a driving force for ecosystem success, growth and collaboration to all of these assets.
Meeting Challenges With Solutions
When benchmarked against other U.S. states, Maryland is a leader in the innovation economy. In WalletHub’s Most & Least Innovative States 2024, the state ranked as the sixth most innovative state in the nation. Contributing to this ranking was its workforce, research and development (R&D), business density and attraction of venture capital.
Plus, the state is home to one of the most educated workforces in the nation, leads in research and development and has made tremendous strides in technology transfer and commercialization. This has caused an increase in new Maryland-based companies and entrepreneurs in the technology and life science industries.
However, even with these assets, startups and entrepreneurs can find themselves struggling to find their next steps toward success.
“There are three common challenges for entrepreneurs: time, talent and treasure. With our Entrepreneur Expo, we want to bring together all of the resources to help entrepreneurs in Maryland improve in these areas,” says Troy LeMaile-Stovall, CEO of TEDCO.
LeMaile-Stovall elaborates on this idea, explaining that entrepreneurs need diverse talent, not only on their teams, but in the valuable resources that support their businesses like lawyers and accountants; they need time to identify and build relationships with leaders and organizations that will help them build a scalable business including entrepreneur support organizations like incubators, IT firms and facilities like wet labs. Finally, entrepreneurs need “treasure” (or funding) and access to investors.
This event has a history of bringing all these aspects together in one place at one time. The outcomes are measurable over time building into some of the most successful businesses in the state.
Investors Welcome
“Entrepreneurial success is all about the people — from those starting the company, to those dedicated to investing in it and supporting its growth,” said Bob Ackerman, founder and managing director of AllegisCyber Capital and co-founder and managing director of Maryland-based Cybersecurity Studio, DataTribe.
“TEDCO’s Entrepreneur Expo not only highlights this but brings together those essential elements of success to support the continued ecosystem growth, creating a space for people for all backgrounds to come together, learn from each other and start to collaborate. The event allows venture capital investors, like me, to meet with up-and-coming entrepreneurs, begin understanding where the innovation market in Maryland is evolving to and make connections that could lead to successful investments.”
Any Technology. Any Stage.
TEDCO’s 10th Entrepreneur Expo will be held in Baltimore on December 4 at the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel. This event brings together more than 1,000 of the region’s top entrepreneurs, business owners, angel and venture capital investors, legislators and influencers for workshops and roundtable discussions. Attendees will foster relationships and provide entrepreneurs a myriad of resources, no matter their stage.
TEDCO recognizes the difficulties that emerging entrepreneurs experience in knowing where to look for guidance and resources that help grow their business and expand their companies’ chance of success. The Expo brings together entrepreneurs of all levels to create a lasting community of collaboration throughout the ecosystem.
“The event will celebrate entrepreneurs and our regional ecosystem,” says LeMaile-Stovall. “We want entrepreneurs across Maryland to attend. Any technology. Any stage. Even if someone is leading a business that wouldn’t be defined as a technology company – if they have developed technology to improve their business or industry, we want to see them.” I95 Content Marketing
Source: I95Business