SitemapBecoming an entre- preneur isn’t easy.
It takes patience, perseverance and a product with potential.It also takes people.
“You want to work with people who are going to help you get to where you need to be,” said Elijah Stambaugh, founder of Lightning Grader. “That’s a very important part of the process.
”Today starts Global Entrepreneurship Week – the world’s largest celebration of innovative creators who help spur economic growth.
“Entrepreneurship is critical to a healthy economy,” said Barb Ewing, chief operations officer at the Youngstown Business Incubator.
YBI celebrates entrepreneurship every day, but this week special events will be dedicated to entrepreneurship.
Ideas will churn. Words of advice will be given. Dreams will start.
An idea to better his career as a teacher is how Stambaugh entered entrepreneurship.
Stambaugh was a teacher in Youngstown when he took notice of how much time he spent grading papers. He wanted to find a tool to help him better assess what his students knew – one that would also allow him to spend more time with the students and less time grading.
He couldn’t find that tool, so he decided to develop it. “For me, it is not necessarily being here because of the business,” he said. “It’s really a calling.
”His idea was to build a program that would allow a teacher to scan tests and grade them. In 2010, Stambaugh talked to YBI CEO Jim Cossler about his idea. Stambaugh’s Learning Egg company, better known as Lightning Grader, formed that year within YBI’s space on West Federal Street.
The Lightning Grader provides a way for teachers to scan and grade tests, and gives them rapid essay grading capabilities and flexible assessment options, to name a few features.
The company now has 15 employees and works with hundreds of school districts. Development on the Lightning Grader is constant. Next year, there will be a launch for a Lightning Grader app.
“Now, we are a break-even software company looking toward the future,” Stambaugh said.
His advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to not only have the support system, but to also keep up the grind of getting your product and your business out there. “I was always involved in something,” Stambaugh said. “I am definitely wired for risk.
”Those like Stambaugh who are wired for risk use the resources of YBI, the Tech Belt Energy Innovation Center in Warren and other organizations, such as the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. – all of which support entrepreneurial endeavors. There’s a perception that the Mahoning Valley isn’t as robust as other areas because of its inability to attract new companies to the area, but that’s a misconception, Ewing explained.
“We actually have a lower rate of startups than the national average,” Ewing said. “I think it is dramatically better than it was less than a decade ago. There’s some things we need to do as a community. We need programs like YBI and TBEIC to have community support.”
George Mokrzan, senior economist for Huntington Bank, doesn’t think it’s a coincidence the state and regional economies are doing well.
“That didn’t happen by itself,” he said. “That is a function of the small businesses. They are ones implementing new technologies and hiring workers. They are breaking ground.
”In the past, reliance on larger companies and larger employers created competitive pressures, and that has helped bring out entrepreneurship.
Mokrzan said. “Entrepreneurs, as a group, do not get the claim and credit they need.”
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