Juan Figuera
Meet Juan Figuera. I just did. He’s a Venezuelan who, after being kidnapped for ransom, fled to Massachusetts in 2005 in pursuit of the American Dream. He found it, too, completing an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at UMass Lowell in 2007 and landing a gig at Tyco. But Juan didn’t stop there. He’s finishing a master’s in mechanical engineering next spring (also at UMass Lowell), so he’ll be even more of an asset to the local economy soon.
His dream is expanding; he’s already worked up a killer website, Golcio.com, which I had a look at (though it’s not available to the public quite yet). He wants to help his well-educated friends in Venezuela start companies, so Golcio.com will broker contracts between U.S. companies and Central and South American ones.
When Juan arrived at the Communispace Corp. offices on Monday to hear Governor Deval Patrick speak about the findings put together in a $150,000 report compiled by UMass’ Michael Goodman, he hoped to hear what the Bay State has planned to make starting his company and realizing his dream easier. He was disappointed. Here’s why.
Coincidentally, I sat next to Juan at the event, and he quickly struck up a conversation with me by mentioning how few young people were in attendance.
“I thought this place would be full of guys like us,” he said. I agreed, and we both settled in to hear what the governor and his “IT Collaborative” had to say.
We almost high-fived when Governor Patrick stood up, thanked the contributors to the study and said, “The IT sector is already a global hub for innovation and a cornerstone of the Massachusetts economy. … The industry generated 65 billion dollars in economic activity here in the state, representing some 18 percent of the state’s GDP in 2008.
“We have a clear benchmark from which to measure our progress going forward. And we mean to measure that progress, and to develop and respond to the public policy agenda, the economic development agenda — whatever is necessary — to ensure that our lead is secure and grows.”
It was around this part of Governor Patrick’s speech that Juan and I both began to realize that no new actual methods for encouraging tech growth in Massachusetts were going to be revealed today, even if we didn’t acknowledge it.
I can’t say that I was surprised by this revelation, but Juan seemed to be.
Juan wanted to know what the state will do to help him stay here. He wanted to hear about incentives his new company will take advantage of. He was curious what kinds of steps the state might be looking at to improve this robust sector of the economy.
Juan got none of that.
Here’s what I got:
What was presented at this event should stand as further reason for tech nerds and idea folks to join forces and become part-time think-tank enthusiasts. (Patrick even suggested such chest thumping as putting Boston branding on hot items like the “Rock Band” video game and iRobot.)
The message should have been simply: Innovate!
(And I would have added: Collaborate! Orchestrate! Deviate! Connect!)
Clipped subserviently from the PDF of the public report
Juan and I were both excited to hear from Goodman that software has become the young stud of innovation in the state, and is now larger than it was nine years ago.
Software is the only leg of the IT sector — which also includes IT services, hardware and network communication — that has shown steady growth over the last 10 years.
By the way, the IT sector in Massachusetts peaked in 2000, but it’s been growing steadily since 2004.
Software is king in IT, and Information Technology is the second largest employment sector behind health care these days, so software is going to be a hot button sector.
The software sector findings were good news for Juan, but it wasn’t enough.
His plan for Golcio is to make it easier for U.S. companies to find products and services in South American markets at competitive prices. It’s really pretty awesome in my opinion — especially given the fact that there are countless resources available in these regions. Take, for example, the vast quantities of Lithium, needed for batteries, which are deposited in Central and South America.
If Massachusetts is to compete with California’s IT sector, and the report suggests it can, what will Mass. do to supply Juan and those like him with a competitive advantage? What will Massachusetts do to make it possible for Juan and his fellow foreign classmates to put the great educations they’ve received here to work in our economy? And what will Massachusetts do to make his software-based internet startup more viable?
These questions remain unanswered, and Juan is still waiting. But how many like him will be lost to California, or worse, return to their home countries to pursue their dreams?
If you have an answer, please leave it in the comments section. Or, email me at kyle at bostinnovation dot com. I’ll be happy to pass along your thoughts to my new friend, Juan Figuera.
Tags: deval patrick, Edu, entrepreneurs, massachusetts
