After a refreshing holiday break spent with family and friends, we are ready to make 2018 a great year. This past year we celebrated Idea Foundry’s 15th birthday, which allowed us to reflect a bit on what we have accomplished in the past 15 years and what we see on the horizon for the future. Over the last 15 years, we have been able to help over 200 companies through our accelerator and fellowship services and have contributed over $1 billion in direct economic impact to the region. We are proud of these accomplishments, but we are not planning to slow down either. For 2018, we want to be a part of a stronger Pittsburgh through job creation, innovation, inclusivity, and diversity. Here are our 2018 New Year’s resolutions a few days early, to bring about this vision for the region.

1. Keep moving forward with impact innovations- This year we combined our accelerator services for science and social enterprises into a single “Impact Innovations” Accelerator and Fellowship. We believe that innovation, by definition, doesn’t fit well into constraints and often overlaps sectors. Moving forward, we want to help companies that are making an economic, social, or environmental impact in an innovative way.
2. Strengthen our global partnerships- 2017 saw a lot of advancement in our global initiatives and in 2018 we seek to strengthen this even further. With Pittsburgh growing in a multitude of sectors, we would like to connect Pittsburgh to international resources, both to promote what Pittsburgh has to offer for the rest of the world and what the world can offer Pittsburgh.
3. Become a stronger promoter of inclusivity and diversity in business- Growth and innovation does not happen in a vacuum, and we want to ensure that equitable opportunities are available to individuals from all types of Pittsburgh’s communities, to contribute to Pittsburgh’s economy, innovation, and global presence.
4. Reach out to old friends- We like to boast of our 200+ portfolio companies and our wide network stretching across pretty much all sectors of Pittsburgh’s business world. One of our greatest satisfactions is making connections across our network. This year we would like to reach out to our friends old and new to catch up, collaborate, and make new connections.
5. Strengthen and streamline our objectives (the business equivalent of the popular “losing weight and working out more” resolution)- We offer a lot of different services and have found that people are often not aware of the scope of our initiatives and how they are linked to our mission. This year, we want to be always mindful of our mission of regional job creation and the many ways in which we can promote this mission. Both internally and to our network, we want to create a clear picture of how each of our Impact Innovations and Global programs strengthen and support this mission

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