Efforts to build a Portland Metro Region Innovation Hub are moving forward and recruitment is open for three key roles: an executive director and two navigators.
The Innovation Hub is being housed at Portland State University and the school is acting as facilitator for a coalition of 37 community partners. The massive group consists of higher education, community development centers, local governments, Northwest Tribes, economic development groups, entrepreneurship groups and private companies.
The goal of the hub is to foster connections between entrepreneurs and people and resources who can help them build their businesses.
“The structure we are trying to invest in is (that of) connection,” said Joseph Janda, assistant vice president for innovation at PSU. “There are people that know everyone (and everything) that is going on and if you are lucky enough to catch them when they have capacity you can get connected (into the community).”
But that ad-hoc — and largely volunteer — method does not scale up, Janda said. The hub is designed to professionalize that.
The first year of the Innovation Hub is being funded by Business Oregon. The coalition sought $1 million from the state, but was awarded $750,000, Janda said.
With the reduced funding the group has scaled back the scope of the work by reducing the number of navigators from three to two and cutting budgets on planned programs.
Programs are expected to include a flexible, on-demand skills building program to help groups of entrepreneurs experiencing similar challenges. There will be a community liaison program with part-time, compensated members in rural or underserved communities to connect people to the hub. Plus there is a planned on-demand mentoring program to help match entrepreneurs to other leaders based on the needs of a business and a focused scope of work, said Arsh Haque, director of the PSU Business Accelerator.
“We ask startups the problems they have and what deliverables will be helpful and match people based on what is needed,” said Haque, adding that these will occur in eight-week sprints.
The executive director will be key for seeking longer term funding for the program.
The navigators are designed to maintain relationships with different resource groups in the three-county area and connect entrepreneurs to those folks, said Janda.
The hub will be in a building that most recently housed the office of the U.S. Geological Survey at Southwest Fifth Avenue and Southwest Lincoln Street. The university received $2 million from Prosper Portland to renovate the building.
Work is expected to be completed early next year. In the meantime, the hub will be located at the existing PSU Business Accelerator on South Corbett Avenue. Once work is complete the accelerator will move into the renovated building as well. The project also calls for other resources to co-locate in the building.
The hub itself will be branded separately from PSU and will look and feel different than the school’s programs.
“That is by design,” said Janda. “The information out of the surveys and the consultants we hired and chats with core partners (was) if we are serving the tri-county and if we want this accessible it needs to be a separately branded organization.”
