By now you know at least a little about the incredible things that have been going on in Youngstown (yes, Youngstown) lately. And if you don’t, you can find out more here and here. While no one person can take all the credit for the turnaround, few would argue with the notion that Jim Cossler, the “Chief Evangelist” for the Youngstown Business Incubator is a major, major force behind the changes taking place there. Today we’re proud to add the YBI Action Plan to the Action Plans section of TechFutures, and to give you the following brief glimpse into what makes YBI’s Jim Cossler so deserving of his Chief Evangelist title:

Tell us a little bit about the role the Youngstown Business Incubator plays in Northeast Ohio’s economic landscape. How do you see YBI transforming Northeast Ohio?

The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) has a primary mission of accelerating the formation, growth and success rates of technology-based business startups. Within that mission, our primary focus has been working with business to business (B2B) software application companies.

The purpose for limiting the types of companies we work with is rooted in our belief that it is impossible for an incubator to be good at incubating a wide range of technologies. No incubator, that we are aware of, possesses all the requisite resources to deliver on such a claim. Although, if someone was willing to step to the plate with all necessary the funding, we would volunteer to be the first to try.

But, we do believe that an incubator can cost effectively gather all the necessary resources to be very good, or even world class, at incubating a single technology. And the “clustering” of the same types of companies in a single space adds tremendous value to every company’s growth, without a real cost to the program. That’s what we have done in Youngstown with B2B software companies, and I think our results over the past 5 years validates our strategy.

Do we see YBI transforming Northeast Ohio? It certainly would be nice to believe so. But, in all honesty, we would be thrilled with a meaningful transformation of the Mahoning Valley, a tough enough challenge on its own. That said, we also firmly believe that ideas can be transformational. And we are beginning to see the ideas and the model that we have adopted here spreading to other organizations throughout the region.

How does your role as CEO/ED impact YBI?

The greatest impact by far on YBI, and our portfolio companies, has nothing to do with me. Nor does it have anything to do with any other single person. Rather, it comes on a daily basis from a community of talented serial entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, university presidents, professors, researchers, and economic development specialists we have gathered together from throughout the Cleveland to Pittsburgh corridor. This is a community that we have carefully assembled, constantly educate, and work tirelessly to earn and keep their trust. And this is the community that delivers our greatest value to our companies… by opening “doors” for them, by introducing them to key resources and customers, by answering their highly complex or technical questions, and by mentoring them through the perilous roads a startup must travel.

My role is what it says on my business card…Chief Evangelist. I’m simply here to raise the level of visibility for YBI, and for our companies, to ensure the high quality resources keep flowing our way. And to do occasional emergency plumbing work in the building.

Where do you see YBI five years from now? Ten years from now?

We get asked this question all the time by the countless visitors and guests our building seems to attract, and we love answering it.

When we were first contemplating our tech focus in 2000, we were far from certain of our success. Youngstown lacked the three prime drivers for such an economy…a noted research university, a research hospital, or an indigenous community of tech-based companies from which a bright young engineer could leave to form her own venture.

But, when our first software company successfully launched in mid-2000, we began to feel more confident. But, we still were clear to our community that, while we thought we could grow some very successful software firms, we would not be growing a billion dollar company in the Valley.

That outlook very much changed by late 2005. We now sincerely believe that we have the makings of a billion dollar software company in the very near future.

And in 2006, as we anticipate construction to add a second building to our complex this fall, we can see a multi-building high-tech campus, full of successful B2B software companies engaging global markets, a very real possibility for us someday. And a lot sooner than some may expect.

Few would of thought that possible just a few years ago.

Why did you decide to develop an action plan for the TechFutures project?

Our mothers taught us to play well by sharing? Actually, that’s not too far off. We’re pretty proud of what we have accomplished in Youngtown, in spite of the fact that so many thought our goals were impossible when we began. Do we have a perfect model for tech incubation in Northeast Ohio? No. But, we do have a proven model that we feel others can learn from and improve upon. We would welcome learning ourselves from the improvements of others.

What are the top three things you need to accomplish/implement this year as a result of your action plan?

First, we need deeper, more productive and more frequent conversations with universities throughout the Cleveland to Pittsburgh corridor. Second, although many believe our visibility to be already quite high, we need to raise the awareness of our program to even higher levels. And third, we need the State of Ohio to respond positively by funding the joint Entrepreneurship Support Program grant application, spearheaded by NorTech, which would endow a number of Northeast Ohio tech support organizations with new resources to accelerate their respective missions.

How do you think these will benefit your organization as well as Northeast Ohio as a whole?

The short answer is that they are going to increase our ability to see emerging opportunities presented by regional entrepreneurs and assist us in delivering an even higher level of support to them.

If you could partner with any organization to help you achieve your goals, who would it be and why?

We are pretty pleased with all of our partnerships throughout Northeast Ohio. We all seem to work more co-operatively here than in any of the other regions of which we are aware. For YBI, in particular, and maybe for others as well, we still need to work on improving our university relations. Universities have cultures that seem to be the antithesis of entrepreneurial and risk taking, which is at the heart of what YBI and others are doing. So, for us, we think it is about improving our existing partnerships rather than the seeking of new ones.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing Northeast Ohio’s future?

The “disbelief” which we don’t think is unique to just Youngstown. Rather, we think it pervades the thinking of much of Northeast Ohio. It was certainly prevalent when we got started here. And, to some degree, very much still exists. But, much of it has been own our fault by over promising to the public what really can be achieved. Can Northeast Ohio be the next Silicon Valley? Unlikely. But, can we incrementally transform segments of our economy to be globally competitive and develop clusters of world class technologies. Absolutely.

What do you see as the most important opportunity that Northeast Ohio needs to take advantage of in order to transform itself into a more technology driven, knowledge based economy?

Celebration of our history of manufacturing. We have said, until some have tired of hearing it, if you reduce a software, biotech, nanotech or an advanced fuel cell company to its most common elements, it’s a manufacturer. Plain and simple. Put a bunch of raw materials together and make a new product. We’ve been doing it with our “eyes closed” for over a century. So given our history of building some of the top manufacturing companies the world has ever seen, why does anyone doubt that we can not do the same with those types of firms?

What do you love about living and working in Northeast Ohio? Why?

My mother-in-law can drop in on a moment’s notice? Seriously, first, both my wife’s and my family and extended families all live here. That’s a blessing few have in their lives. Second, you have to love the grit and the determination of those who live and work here, particularly, those who could easily live just about anywhere else. That should help to build strength in all of us for the challenges ahead.