Summer in Baku   (July, 2010)

I happened to be in Baku, Azerbaijan, recently, (uh ... yeah ... That's not a sentence I ever thought I’d write ...) talking to a roomful of entrepreneurs, and realized that their needs are very much like those of entrepreneurs here in Hampton Roads.

First, some background. A few months ago I was approached by the folks at the Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) to participate in entrepreneurship mentoring events in some of the former Soviet satellite states.

The goal of these events is to listen to 8-10 business plan “pitches,” critique the presentations and their underlying business models, and then do some hands-on work with the entrepreneurs to help them make a little near-term progress toward their eventual success.  It’s the kind of thing I’ve been doing for the last 15 years, but mostly here in the States, and, as you might imagine, with the presumption that the way we do things here might not translate to how things are done “over there.”

But let me tell you about Baku, and then let’s talk about why what I saw there is important to what I see here. First off, Baku is a city of about 1.5M people, their economy is based on three pillars: their port (on the beautiful Caspian Sea); a large contingent of military and government workers; and a growing tourism trade. Their traffic is terrible and getting worse. They have construction clogging up downtown, and they’re trying to preserve a number of historic buildings while also creating a world-class row of hotels, conference centers, and the like. Their winters are mild, their summers brutally hot and, they speak a highly accented version of English.

Those of you from Norfolk and Virginia Beach should be starting to find this story familiar!

Indeed, the surface similarities are striking, but here’s the really interesting part: Like us, Baku also has several research institutions and a handful of universities generating world-class technologies, but little of what we’d call an “entrepreneurial culture” ready to help commercialize those great ideas.Like us, they recognize that innovative start-ups will be fundamental to their long-term economic growth, but have struggled to develop the institutions and support mechanisms needed to fully capture the passion and energy that they’re seeing from their would-be entrepreneurs.

I don’t think it’ll surprise anyone to hear me say that, while we’ve made great strides here in Hampton Roads over the last decade, I still find much the same situation here as I did in Baku, and much to be done.

But there’s good news -- I’m also beginning to see a renewed interest in supporting entrepreneurial ventures of the sort that we all know need to be a larger part of our economy.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you check out the regional strategic plan published recently by the Hampton Roads Partnership, and look into some of the innovative projects being put in place at ODU, Norfolk State, and William & Mary that are designed to help new, high-growth firms get started and achieve their potential. If they can do it in Baku, we can do it here in Hampton Roads.

More importantly, if you are interested in seeing Hampton Roads develop and maintain a robust entrepreneurial culture there are few things you should do to help. They include: (1) join some of our local organizations that support entrepreneurs and offer your expertise and insights wherever you can; (2) think about how your business, or the businesses you work with, can add value to local start-ups by offering discounts or simply buying some of their products or services; (3) encourage your local city councils and city economic development professionals to use some of their limited resources to help establish incubators, co-working spaces, research parks, and other physical and virtual support mechanisms; and (4) think about starting up that venture you’ve always had in mind and don’t be shy about telling people what sort of help you need and why your success means success for the whole region!