About a year ago, a group of Twin Cities entrepreneurs launched Project Skyway, an initiative aimed at helping local start-ups find funding, grow and be more competitive.
But of the eight budding tech firms accepted into its inaugural program in August, only half remained at the end. And the companies that stayed threatened to leave because the program failed to meet their expectations.
"I don't think they necessarily had all their ducks in a row, in the beginning, and quite honestly, through the middle and through the end," said participant Scott Lombard, CEO of Cor2 Technology, a secure online document storage business. "I don't think that they completely understood the level of development that the companies needed."
Cor2 Technology was among the companies that remained with the program, which finished its first class at the end of October.
Participants complained that the program failed to connect them with investors, didn't provide them with enough mentoring and wanted too big of a stake in each of the start-up companies compared with what they were getting.
Project Skyway's founders concede that they have made mistakes, but they also say their hands were tied because the investment community was reluctant to give money in a tough economy.
"It won't be successful unless our community believes in entrepreneurs and helps them succeed," said Project Skyway co-founder Cem Erdem, who also runs his own tech company, Augusoft, in Golden Valley.
"Unless we have that kind of support, it's not going to be successful. Entrepreneurs do not succeed in a vacuum. That's why people flock to Silicon Valley, because there's that community there."