Chamber speaker: Supporting tech startups key to future economic development
Technology is changing the ways companies do business, and as Cullman begins embracing and recruiting technology-focused companies, it can reap the benefits of local startups that utilize it to deliver their products and services to customers.
Devon Laney, chief executive officer of Birmingham’s Innovation Depot, told local business leaders that the key to economic development in a digital world is supporting new companies as they begin to take off and by investing in infrastructure so successful ventures will remain and grow in the community, creating jobs and revenue.
Laney was the keynote speaker at the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce’s last Community Luncheon of 2017 Friday. The Centre native told attendees as a child, it was a “big deal” to make the drive to Cullman with his grandmother and eat at the All-Steak Restaurant which hosts the monthly meeting. Now as an adult, Laney leads the Innovation Depot which is a 21st Century non-profit business incubator that’s partnered with UAB to link entreprenuers with everything they need to launch and grow a new company.
His address comes fresh off the city’s recent announcement of a new Technology Village, a joint project between Cullman, the Cullman Area Chamber of Commerce, Wallace State Community College and the University of Alabama. The city renovated a 2,200-square-foot office space in the Cullman Economic Development Agency, a modern minimalist hub allowing for aspiring entrepreneurs to plug in and tap into UA resources for market research, contract manufacturing strategy among others.
Laney said the ubiquity of technology in business means that it’s easier for a company to get started anywhere.
“Twenty years ago if you were a technology company, you had two choices of where to go — New York or California, but now the costs and barriers to entry have come down so a startup can be right here,” he said.
For more information about Innovation Depot, go online to innovationdepot.org.