Chrundle the Great said:
Can you speak to what specifically plug/play will do that entities like Greater Brazos Partnership don't already do for recruiting entrepreneurs?
If the resources at Rellis and TAMU are the selling point, it's not clear what role Plug/Play provides.
Plug and Play is a facilitator. They gather entrepreneurs on one side of a room. They gather investors on the other. In another corner of the room, they gather existing "corporates" like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics.
The entrepreneurs make their elevator pitch. The investors (venture capital) listen and decide if they're interested and if so, offer seed capital to get the idea off the ground and bring it to market. Simultaneously the corporates assess the entrepreneurs to see if their tech is a fit for their company and if so, snatch them up.
It's very much like the TV show "Shark Tank," albeit without the cameras and the entertainment aspect.
Tactically, the hope is that something new and exciting is discovered, perhaps locates here and creates jobs.
Strategically, the hope is we become a regional hub for innovation and entrepreneurship whereby young, smart entrepreneurs see Aggieland as the place to be. Were that to actually happen, it's Austin Tech or Silicon Valley right here in Brazos County.
Overlay Rellis, with US Army Futures Command here and the proving grounds for testing there, and you have an amped up possibility that an aerospace/defense innovation hub could be established here.
That's the idea. Will that happen? Maybe. Could it fail? Of course. That's the nature of entrepreneurship itself. So again, I made a decision at the margin, as one member of council, that it was worth a shot. I can only give you my word that in the "back room," I asked a lot of tough and challenging questions. The answers I got made it worthwhile, in my opinion, to support it. My colleagues agreed.
This isn't Macys. If it fails, I accept full responsibility for the decision I made.
Respectfully
Yancy