The Next Innovation Economy: NACIE & TechHubNow!

In 2014, I leaned into an opportunity to apply my entrepreneurial mindset and skills to ecosystem building that would build and strengthen regional innovation economies. I experienced the value of connecting nodes across public and private sectors to ensure benefits flow across all stakeholders in an ecosystem, lifting economic resilience.

When I started this work nearly a decade ago, I didn’t imagine that a pandemic would accelerate those efforts and lead to opportunities to serve at the national and state level. Since March 2020, Energize Colorado has sought to “create a resilient and equitable small business ecosystem” and to meaningfully address the nearly half-billion-dollar gap in funding for women, BIPOC, veterans, and rural small business owners and entrepreneurs in Colorado.

Energize Colorado was a natural extension of my previous roles leading regional ecosystem initiatives, advising city and state government developing partnerships, and supporting innovation initiatives that align and connect  industry with universities, governments, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs to catalyze innovation and increase economic impact. 

In April 2023, I concluded a three-year term as CEO of Energize Colorado, stepping into the role of Chair. Moving to the role of Chair of Energize Colorado gave me the opportunity to focus on Colorado’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by leveraging national programs aligned with Colorado’s “Industries of the Future” and Workforce strategies, resulting in economic lift through innovation and entrepreneurship.

And, since April 2023, Ihave led TechHubNow!, an initiative supported by Governor Polis and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) that seeks Colorado’s federal designation as a Regional Innovation Hub.

Appointments to NACIE and the Center for American Entrepreneurship

In 2022, I accepted two opportunities to share my expertise in entrepreneurship and innovation at the national level. I joined the Advisory Board of the Center for American Entrepreneurship, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.–based research, policy, and advocacy organization that “works with policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels across the country to build a policy environment that promotes new business formation, survival, and growth.”

In the same year, I began serving a two-year appointment to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), a federal advisory committee managed by the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship under Gina Raimondo, U.S. Secretary of Commerce.

NACIE is charged with identifying and recommending solutions to drive the innovation economy, including growing a skilled STEM workforce and removing barriers for entrepreneurs ushering innovative technologies into the market. The council also facilitates federal dialogue with the innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce development communities.

In that role, from late 2022 into early 2023, I led a subcommittee of advisory council members tasked with shaping a $10B Regional Innovation Hub program that will be funded by The CHIPS & Science Act. The program prioritizes advancing technologies, building new businesses, and shifting talent patterns around diversity, inclusivity, and job opportunities. It will invest “catalytic” $1B over five years in ~10 state ecosystems that qualify for Tech Hub Designation.

TechHubNow! Accelerates Statewide Collaboration

In April 2023, Governor Polis and the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) launched TechHubNow!, a new public-private initiative to accelerate statewide collaboration, highlight Colorado’s strengths as a tech hub, and bring together partners who will develop equitable, inclusive, and highly competitive applications for Tech Hub Designation.

TechHubNow! seeks to catalyze innovation and entrepreneurship in Colorado “through advanced technologies that deliver economic and national security.”

When I helped launch TechHubNow! with Brooks Johnson and JB Holston in 2023, with the goal of pursuing an EDA Regional Innovation Hub (Tech Hub) grant in collaboration with the Colorado Governor’s Office/OEDIT, I was optimistic that Colorado had created the right conditions (supported by policy, programs, and investments in “Industries of the Future” and Workforce) to make a compelling case to receive designation and ultimately compete for federal funding for advanced technology development to support national and economic security in the U.S.

TechHubNow! Leads to Elevate Quantum

After co-leading a series of information sessions on the what/why/how of the Tech Hub program with OEDIT, seven teams convened multiple times to pressure test and present their hypothesis for a specific advanced technology area. For the second presentation, an expert panel of investors, academics, and industry leaders reviewed and scored the presentation against the EDA’s grant rubric.

Advanced Energy and Elevate Quantum presentations advanced from that effort as they best leveraged Colorado’s strengths and supported national and economic security goals for the EDA grant opportunity.

Four hundred applications were submitted across the U.S., two from Colorado. Elevate Quantum was one of 31 regions selected for a designation and one of two quantum designees across the U.S.

Elevate Quantum’s EDA Tech Hub designation allowed us to pursue the first tranche of grant capital, $40-70M (The Tech Hub program is authorized at $1B over ten years). In February 2024 we submitted the phase two application, and the EDA will announce the awards in summer of 2024. We remain optimistic that we will secure funding to support Elevate Quantum.