If you were asked by a colleague to name the top 5 cities in America for young entrepreneurs, would Tampa make your list? If not, you may want to rethink your answers. In 2013, Forbes named Tampa as the 2nd best city for young entrepreneurs.*
This might come as a surprise to many, but it is actually old news for entrepreneurs living in City of Young Entrepreneurs. Not only the city of Tampa, but the entire Tampa Bay region, including St. Petersburg, has become an incubation center for technology start-ups.
Programs that help hatch these start-ups can be found on both sides of the bay. Such programs include the Tampa Bay Wave (www.tampabaywave.org), Tampa Bay Technology Incubator at the University of South Florida (www.research.usf.edu/rf/tbti.asp), Gazelle Lab Tampa Bay (http://gazellelab.com/tampabay), and Tampa Bay Innovation Center (http://www.tbinnovates.com).
Young entrepreneurs face many issues including attracting funding and market breakthrough. Protecting their intellectual property, which is often the entire basis for the start-up, is critical in attracting valuable funding and market positioning.
Recent changes to U.S. patent law has created new challenges that must be faced head-on with out-of-the-box creative strategies to protect start-up technology. Whether the technology is software based, a new consumer product, or a new service, creative strategies must be used to balance the delicate nature between funding and protecting the technology. Unfortunately, with recent patent law changes, one miss-step could result in losing the exclusionary rights to the technology and place the entrepreneur at a severe disadvantage. Because of this, start-ups and entrepreneurs should consider aligning themselves with an intellectual property law firm at the very beginning stages.
* Where Are New York and San Francisco On The Top Ten Cities For Young Entrepreneurs (http://goo.gl/iXaL6)
The IP Water Cooler 