Start-ups in Bellingham!

Today, I attended an thoroughly excellent first meeting of the "Bellingham Entrepreneur Coffee" hosted by NWRIC director John Sechrest  who is executive director of The Northwest Innovation Resource Center. This meeting focused on strategies to create startup groups in Bellingham and Whatcom County.  This effort has been spearheaded this year by the "BIG idea lab"  recently launched by a number of investors. Our "Entrepreneur Coffee" over impressed me with the amount of talent, experience and will that is continuing to be drawn to Bellingham's startup and high tech community.  I find it nearly impossible to imagine any other community with so much underemployed enthusiasm, talent, business experience, and drive.  Just in our small group today, many different backgrounds and experiences were represented.


There are a number of groups that have been active in stimulating small business and startups in Belllingham for years. These include especially:

• NWRIC Northwest Innovation Resource Center 
• TAG (NW) Technology Alliance Group for Northwest Washington 
• Bellingham Angel Group 
• Sustainable Connections
• Port of Bellingham
• WA State Innovation Partnership Zones 
• Bellingham/Whatcom County Chamber of Commerce

There are a number of meetup groups designed for Bellingham and Whatcom County Entrperneurs, Facilitators, and Angels:

• http://www.meetup.com/Bellinghamentrepreneur 
• http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Entrepreneur-Coffee 
• http://www.meetup.com/Whatcom
• http://www.meetup.com/The-Bellingham-Coworking-Community 

Some notable members or our business and startup communities have subscribed.

There are any number of problematic issues in the scope of "How do I encourage greater business activity and growth in my community?".  Approaching the problem from any perspective (startups, small business, research and development, corporate recruitment,etc) lands one smack dab in the middle of thorny issues like local community needs, regional economic planning, land use, business and entrepreneur development, state and federal assistance and funding.  People who work full time on this issue most probably spend a lot of time wandering around in a vaguely dissatisified state of confusion.  This is because the problem is so multi-threaded with many possible diverse solutions.  Thank goodness the President wants to help us with this with "Startup America":

• Office of Social Innovation: http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/sicp/blog
• Middle Class Task Force http://www.whitehouse.gov/strongmiddleclass/blog
• Small Business Administration  http://www.sba.gov/empowering-americas-entrepreneurs-startup-america

With all these resources cheerleading employment development in Bellingham and Whatcom County, how could we possibly not succeed?