MOLLY MONTGOMERY PHOTO
HealthHavenHub Executive Director David Pearlstone and Co-Founder Donna Lecky with Ned Lamont in New Haven Tuesday night.
On the ninth floor of a Church Street office complex, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont Tuesday night showed a room full of entrepreneurs and techies that he can speak their language. Including their buzzwords.
At a campaign stop at HealthHavenHub, a new nonprofit dedicated to supporting healthcare startups, Lamont rolled with the talk about “ecosystems” and “coworking” to offer his take on how if elected he envisions helping build Connecticut’s jobs of the future.
Riffing on tech-popular TED Talks, event moderator Donna Lecky, co-founder of HealthHavenHub, dubbed the event “the NED Talk.”
Lecky asked Lamont, who started a telecom business called Campus Televideo, to discuss how hot topics in entrepreneurship might affect the state.
“It seems that the topic of innovation is all the big rage today,” she said. “We use code words like ‘entrepreneurship,’ ‘disruption,’ ‘coworking.’ Based on your background, can you help us to focus in on what all of that really means, and what innovation really means for Connecticut?”
Lamont responded with an anecdote about his background.
“Well, you know, in my life, I worked for cable vision systems for three years right out of Yale SOM [School of Management],” he said. “I learned every piece of the business I could. I saw some niches that were not well served by the cable TV industry, and I know you young people now think it’s a lumpy old utility, but back then it was pretty cool. We were the internet of our day and age.
“So I started up my business with a $250,000 loan from People’s Bank, and we found a niche market. Our niche market, you know, I couldn’t compete with Comcast broadly, but I could find a piece of the market where I could kick them, because they didn’t understand the market like I did. And we went after universities.”
NED Talk in progress.
“When it comes more broadly to what you do about innovation in a state like this,” he continued, “we have so many extraordinary advantages.”
To illustrate one of those advantages, Connecticut’s universities, Lamont described a recent visit to University of Connecticut.
“I’ll tell you a slightly amusing story. I’ll tell you how the world has changed. I was up at UConn – we were having one of our endless debates there about two weeks ago. And the next day, I’m just walking around the campus, talking to the students. And all of a sudden I see three Blackhawk helicopters flying in. And I go, ‘This is great. I mean, Mick Jagger, Obama, what’s happening?’
“So I was with all the kids, I was running after the choppers. And they all land in front of the UConn school of engineering. This is a Sikorsky recruitment effort. Didn’t happen when we graduated, did it? I don’t know how I got there, but… It’s an example of the engineering talent, the basic research that UConn Engineering is doing in close association with Sikorsky.”
Lecky questioned Lamont about one more buzzword.
“We hear the word ‘ecosystem’ : Everything’s an ecosystem. How do you view that word?” she asked. “Who do you view as the key stakeholders of that ecosystem?”
Lamont: Keep spouses like me busy.
“Well, I am the trailing spouse in the Lamont household, since my wife is a healthcare venture capitalist,” Lamont replied. “So part of it is, you better have something for the spouse to do, and you better have a pool of like-minded talent, so that if you want to move, there are other options. You want to make sure that there are a lot of people you can collaborate with, and it’d be really good if you had academia, capital, and businesses, that fit within that basic rubric.”
Audience members were both curious about topics Lamont didn’t have time to address and appreciative that he was well-versed in their language.
LaurieAnn Scher, president of CT Alliance of Diabetes Educators and vice president of partnerships and integration at Fitscript, said that though she had hoped to hear more about healthcare entrepreneurship, she was glad for Lamont’s business knowledge.
“The fact that he’s familiar with entrepreneurship and the venture capital community is really good for us,” she said.
The fact is Ned created VALUE in his ventures. He didn't exploit people with payday loans like Bob did. Imagine if you are middle class, working pay check to pay check, and your kid comes down with an infection, and you need to pick up a script for antibiotics ASAP? Stefanowski charged that parent 30% interest. That is dead wrong .
Ned may not be the most suave on the stump, and jee willligers he just mind his euphemisms -- at least Joe Ganim knew when to swear -- but Ned is a thoughtful businessman who actually CREATED STUFF
If Malloy won by half a percent in a Tea Party wave year in 2010, and then by a similar margin in 2014 -- another GOP vintage year -- I think anti-incumbent sentiment will cancel out a blue crest, and the election will settle in a tie .
I mean, what did Malloy do, besides eliminate the death penalty, decriminalize weed, institute criminal justice reform via a second chance society, invest in infrastructure, such that I can take a train from the New Haven green to Bushnell Park, and allow in state residents to pay in state tuition regardless of paperwork or immigration statue? And oh yea, I rather like being able to by wine on Sundays without the state caring about my decision.
Say what you want about Malloy -- he was arrogant, and could have used a few lessons in collaboration and team spirit - but he was effective.
The real issue the media should focus on is that both Stefanowski and Lamont are self-funding millionaires, ignoring the public financing system progressives advocated for.
And only Ned is for revamping the DMV with them, investing in computer and software systems that actually talk to one another. He also wants to make drivers licenses digital, so that they are in out phones, rather than our wallets.
Ned may not be Mr. Hip and Wit, but he is a forward, savvy innovator problem solver and creator value.
Stefanowski is the perennial grumpy old white guy complaining about taxes w/o any solutions or insight.