Money is of course the fuel but entrepreneurs are the fire.  Communities need to embrace their entrepreneurs.  They are the ones hiring and creating new jobs.  It’s great to have a new manufacturing plant move in but most likely, they left somewhere else and they can leave you when the economics dictate.

But it’s a long term play.  It may be two or three or four years before startups reach 25 employees.  So, have a lot of them.

And failure?  So what?  If a company forms, raises $2 million, hires 25 people, pays them great salaries for 5 years and does’t make it, why is that not a good thing?  They payed taxes, bought cars and refrigerators, office supplies and paid office rent.

Then again, they may grow to be worth $billions.

Home grown companies tend to be sticky.  After all, they chose your community to get started.  They must like it there.  Make sure they don’t leave.