Tagged: DECD

Doubling Down on Connecticut Innovations

Because Connecticut Innovations, that quasi public agency self-charged with leading um, innovation in Connecticut has done such a great job creating tech jobs, Governor Malloy and the DECD are throwing more money at them. From the Hartford Business Journal:

 

Connecticut Innovations Inc. announced the ambitious business-development program Wednesday, one it says aims to build jobs.

The $125 million in new funding from the state was included in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's jobs bill, which was signed into law in October, CI said.


CI says its plan is to match this state funding for each of the next five years with its existing cash and funding from its investment returns.


"CI's capabilities are essential to the success of the technology sector in Connecticut," Malloy said in a statement announcing the initiative. "Adding to their tool kit and providing more funding will allow the organization to accelerate its success in creating jobs and growing Connecticut's economy." 


Included in the plan is:




• $4 million per year for CI's pre-seed program, which offers loans to support the formation of new Connecticut technology companies. 

• $22 million per year for seed stage and Series A investments, which help entrepreneurs grow existing businesses, and for follow-on investments in CI portfolio companies.

• $6.5 million per year for a newly developed loan program, which provides growth and working capital for technology companies. 

• $7 million per year for the aggressive recruitment of emerging technology companies nationally and internationally. CI plans to work with the Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and other state agencies to design a relocation incentive package, similar to the governor's "First Five" initiative. 

• $4 million per year to help Connecticut companies capture more of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds each year, as well as increase industry partnerships and the state's technology talent pipeline. 

•  $4.8 million per year to establish technology business accelerator hubs, which will provide support services to startups, and to create a corporate technology transfer initiative.

 

Citizen-Journalist, meet Journalist-Citizen.

Steve Collins was not going quietly into the night.

Back on November 11, 2008, I posted an installment to a thread I revisit occasionally (like now), categorized on this blog under Media, wherein I sporadically chronicle the chronic condition of traditional media, specifically print media, here in your state, CT. The post was entitled Connecticut print media about to shrink again?, and it referred to a story on Steve Collins’ blog about the imminent demise of Steve’s employer, the Bristol Press, along with a bunch of other holdings of the bankrupt Journal Register company. I was sure that both Steve and his wife, who also worked for the Press, were goners.

Turns out, Steve had a bit more fight in him than he let on. Read A look back on the effort to save the Press on Steve’s blog, wherein he discloses his December 4, 2008 letter on the subject to state Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, Joan McDonald.

Worth reading.

Due to a prior commitment I will be unable to attend the right-in-my-wheelhouse event tonight at The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford; “a screening of a critical new documentary on the future of newspapers, “On Deadline: Is Time Running Out For The Press?” followed by a panel discussion led by WNPR’s John Dankosky with some of those involved in this changing trade.” I’m going to have to settle for the airing of the film on CPTV 8 p.m. on Thursday or 10 p.m. on Friday.
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