Conference Hears From CT Small Businesses

We keep hearing from the candidates in this November’s election that small business is the lifeblood of our economy. It’s where the new jobs are going to come from and how the state is going to recover its economic balance. So who are the innovative small businesses out there, and what do they want? WNPR’s Harriet Jones met with a few of them in New Haven at the the 2010 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference, organized by the Connecticut Technology Council.

Jenna Wilkinson Roche is a second generation entrepreneur. And while she’s following the family tradition, she’s doing it in the newest way possible…online.

"We’re bootstrapping everything, and so the Internet really has made this possible. I really could not have approached this any other way."

Wilkinson Roche’s company, Brands for Greater Good helps non-profits by linking them with companies that want to contribute by offering discounts and services to donors. The Weston-based company operates entirely online.

"Internet New Media is going to be where everything is. Softwares are all moving online and really services that we never before thought would be online are there, so it’s just going to grow and grow."

For Denis Nash at Tolland-based software company Control Station, defining success right now is simple.

"One of the greatest successes that we have is that we survived 2009."

Control Station makes software that supports process manufacturers, controlling and improving continuous production lines. Nash took over the UConn spinoff in 2004, and has turned it from what he describes as a $35,000 a year hobby business into a million dollar concern. He says last year, they opened a subsidiary in Malaysia.

"Our multinational customers required it. Conoco, Chevron, Air Liquide, LaFarge, Holcim. These are our customers, they have operations worldwide, and they expect someone to pick up the phone at 2 o’clock in the morning."

Precision Combustion in North Haven has also been on a growth track. The company makes catalytic devices for many different energy applications, including fuel cells. President Kevin Burns says while he’s added 12 new jobs in the last 18 months he has concerns about the state’s direction.

"Connecticut can do more than it has. It starts with a good base because it’s a great place to live and it’s got a very skilled set of people already living here. I think we have still more to do to make it an environment where companies will find they can thrive and grow easily."

The solutions he says must come both from the public and private sectors.

"That’s just a whole bunch of things that have to happen both in governmental policy, and I think that is happening at the private level where we’re as groups trying to make connections with each other and find opportunities. How to get more interaction between industry and the universities in the state; how to get the companies themselves interactive more deeply; how to bring venture capital more deeply into the state."

And as for what these entrepreneurs would like to see from the candidates this November—Control Station’s Denis Nash sums it up this way:

"Programs need to focus on the small to mid-size companies as those represent the bread and butter. Larger entities threatening to move to other states or countries actually contribute lower revenues to the state’s tax base. So shifting your eyes to those that are actually putting food on the table—maybe that’s the message."

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.