When Providence Equity Partners LLC founder and CEO Jonathan M. Nelson addressed the annual meeting of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce before Thanksgiving, he said that "this country is awash in capital and it's all searching for a home."
We have some ideas about where it could put down some roots.
The state's most active business accelerator, Social Enterprise Greenhouse, has been helping entrepreneurs get their social ventures off the ground for years, and currently is mentoring health and wellness ventures.
Forming a health-product company is not an ordinary challenge. Regulatory hurdles make bringing a product to market expensive and time consuming. For that reason, only a subset of investors are willing to take the risk.
Gov. Gina M. Raimondo is trying to help out with the state's Innovation Voucher award program, as does the Slater Technology Fund. But the state's health and wellness entrepreneurs need more.
Perhaps Mr. Nelson and Gov. Raimondo can convince some overflow capital to find its way to Rhode Island. •