CEO Troy LeMaile-Stovall said the Maryland Technology Development Corp. will work to ensure more startup founders outside of traditional large research universities are able to benefit from Maryland's growing technology economy.
"When we invest in our next person from Johns Hopkins we need to be intentional as TEDCO to make sure we introduce them to somebody from Bowie [State University], somebody from Frostburg [State University], somebody from Coppin [State University]," LeMaile-Stovall said.
The move is one of several changes — including the potential establishment of a $500 million Equitech fund — LeMaile-Stovall has made during his first two years running the state's venture capital arm.
New networking opportunities to connect disadvantaged founders include a Howard County initiative in partnership with Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) focused on Black women entrepreneurs. The program is open to anyone, and LeMaile-Stovall hopes that people of all races and genders attend to learn about the challenges minority entrepreneurs face.
“We actually would love the idea of the one white guy being in a room with 24 Black women so that he could get a sense of the challenges faced by these women,” LeMaile-Stovall said. “That way, when he's out in the real world, he can be more sensitive and more appreciative and make different decisions.”
LeMaile-Stovall spearheaded the creation of TEDCO's social impact fund, designed for people who received money from the organization's builder fund but were not ready for a traditional seed round. The builder fund, another opportunity for underserved founders, will grow from $5 million to $8 million over the next two years because of increased support from the state government.
Several other financial changes are also coming to the institution. The state of Maryland will no longer fund the TEDCO Maryland venture fund, forcing the institution to fund the program solely through returns. $30 million of TEDCO's assets are dedicated to the Maryland venture fund and LeMaile-Stovall plans to invest an additional $10 million into the fund through the State Small Business Credit Initiative.
“We’ve got the tools we need to continue,” LeMaile-Stovall said.
TEDCO is also trying to streamline the application process for companies to make it easier for startups to receive funding. LeMaile-Stovall wants founders to apply to TEDCO as a whole, instead of figuring out which specific fund fits their needs better.
"Creating a sense of a singular portfolio, not driven by the types of funds or programs, really does help TEDCO better serve the ecosystem," he said.
While TEDCO works to refine its funding mechanisms and provide more opportunities for people to enter the tech industry, remote work has made it more difficult to measure how many jobs the organization creates in Maryland.
Many jobs created by TEDCO companies may be remote, because of changing trends within the tech industry. LeMaile-Stovall pointed out that traditional definitions of job growth can get messy in a remote work environment. When a California company hires someone in Maryland, or a Maryland company hires someone in California, the state where the company is based may receive the payroll tax, even if other forms of taxes such as property and sales benefit the place where the worker lives, LeMaile-Stovall said.
"The metrics that we've used to define economic development in the past have to be rethought," LeMaile-Stovall said. "And in some cases, some of those metrics may not be telling us the whole truth."
