RALEIGH, N.C. – The $250,000 grant from NC IDEA to CED was just the beginning of CED’s fund-raising activity in the Triangle, said Joan Siefert Rose, president of CED, in an exclusive interview with WRAL Tech Wire.

The organization, which boasts more than 750 company members, is in the midst of finalizing plans for a strategic shift that requires about $2 million.

“The world has changed,” said Rose, “we’ve now lost track of how many places there are to congregate.”

A lot of the work that CED has historically performed is no longer necessary. Added Rose, “we can declare victory; look how well it’s being done.”

She’s referring to the incubators and accelerators that have sprung up in the past four years, starting with American Underground’s space at the American Tobacco Campus (where CED is an anchor tenant).

CED doesn’t need to focus on providing services for that audience, suggests Rose, and nor should the organization. They’re needed elsewhere, she claims.

“Thirty years ago when CED began, it was enough to try to get everyone together,” said Rose, highlighting CED’s past focus on providing events, large and small, for the entrepreneurial community.

Now, entrepreneurs are attracted to and connected within their incubator, accelerator, co-working network or university program. And there’s no shortage of events.

Competition in the community

In other words, there’s competition in the market – a market that has grown significantly in the past decade. There are many, many micro-networks that have formed, and entrepreneurs tend to rely on the connections within these networks.

These micro-networks and programs challenge CED’s position as the go-to organization for early-stage support. In fact, CED has placed FastTrac, their early-stage business-planning course, on hold.

If not CED, where are early-stage entrepreneurs going to connect, ready and prepare their companies for growth?

Incubators, co-working spaces, and accelerators have virtually flooded the market, providing young technology companies with a wide array of benefits and on-demand value that CED no longer plans to deliver.

Competition – no matter how healthy – represents a concern for CED’s traditional business model.

CED has “a growing sense that the market is moving,” said Dave Rizzo, president and CEO of NC IDEA, adding that Rose is making an intelligent strategic decision, having seen the writing on the walls.

Given the rising competition, and the margins slipping away from low-revenue programs that could be (and are) provided by CED’s competitors, a strategic shift makes sense.

“The changes that we are considering are being made from a position of strength,” explained Rose.

There’s adequate timing for the changes to be implemented, she said, suggesting a three-year transitional period from CED’s current model to their new proposed strategic plan.

Is CED out of touch with the community?

Despite a comprehensive study that CED commissioned from UNC Chapel Hill researcher Randy Myer, the organization still lacks the capacity to address many entrepreneurs’ most pressing needs.

“The message from the entrepreneurs we knew,” said Rose, “was to extend their networks.”

A strategic shift for CED will enable the organization to meet those needs, particularly around increasing entrepreneur’s ability to access a network of out-of-region peers, investors and media outlets.

Myer contacted additional entrepreneurs for the study, and in aggregate, the findings showed that entrepreneurs still desire “access to capital, more private interaction with other entrepreneurs at the same stage, and better regional PR/communications so that success stories are told outside the region.”

CED does not plan to release the full study or its findings to the public.

These concerns are not new ones within the entrepreneurial community, and while there is common recognition that these are challenges that the community has, does and will face, no organization has stepped up to the plate and hit a home run.

Rose is betting that CED can make the strategic shifts necessary in order to bring about the changes that entrepreneurs recommended during Myer’s study.

How to get to $2 million: The future depends on data

NC IDEA gave CED $250,000 to start their strategic transition, and a large portion of that money is expected to be spent on building a better database for the entire entrepreneurial community.

When the organization was aware of the potential $250,000 grant from NC IDEA, Rose said the immediate thing discussed was building a better database.

“It will be essential,” said Rose. “If we say we’re going to do a better job of tracking companies, tracking milestones and tracking connections, then we need the tools to do that.”

Rose said Triangulate will sit on top of this, referring to the “digital doorway” that the organization promised 14 months ago. “Triangulate is a really important part of where we’re going,” said Rose, “you need to be able to describe the network, and we think Triangulate will be a way.”

The project manager for TriangulateNC parted ways with the organization last November. To adapt to this change, Rose said CED is restructuring functional roles internally and looking ahead to its future.

CED’s current operational structure is not the structure that will work for the organization’s strategic plans, admits Rose, and CED will take steps to ensure the transition occurs smoothly. Rose anticipates hiring a few more positions and probably shifting around some of the people internally, something the organization has done before.

“We will need to bring more skill sets on,” said Rose. “A lot of what we’re talking about trying to accomplish will be done increasingly in partnership as well with other organizations with any people currently in our network so having people on staff who know how to leverage those types of relationships and can connect them effectively will be important for us.”

The organization recently published a job description for the position of information manager, describing the role as strategic, detail-oriented, and requiring proficiency and experience as a Salesforce administrator and in managing web development teams. But a new hire won’t address all of the organization’s coming needs, indicated Rose. A large portion of their strategic plan relies on the organization raising a total of $2 million, including the $250,000 grant from NC IDEA.

In addition to their fund-raising plans, CED plans to put time and effort into restarting their stock pledge program which asks new company founders to pledge founder’s stock to CED. The organization also has looked towards a major giving program that will target primarily entrepreneurs that have been helped by CED and/or NC IDEA.

Looking forward

One of the challenges the organization will face as it completes a pivot in strategy is differentiating itself in an increasingly crowded and dynamic marketplace.

This market, which Rose describes as a good thing for the Triangle, is a sign that CED has been successful at creating the wonderful enthusiasm that is out there. The organization won’t thrive solely on enthusiasm, and Rose understands that the market will continue to dynamically change.

“We need to continually evolve,” said Rose. “We’re probably never going to be done.”