Innovate Marquette SmartZone launches 11 high

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - An entrepreneurial support hub brought in more high-tech development, according to its FY 2025 Impact Report. Innovate Marquette SmartZone helped create 53 jobs in the region and launch 11 new businesses.

“The Impact Report, I think, is the first break-out year,” said Joe Thiel, the Innovate Marquette SmartZone CEO. “I think usually these ecosystems take between seven and ten years to develop. It’s year ten; we should be seeing these type of outcomes, which is great.”

The hub also secured $3.2 million in “follow-on funding” for local startups. Theil says this money provides continued support for grants or services like patents.

“So, once we get that traction, they start to scale,” he said. “That’s when they have to hire people. So, most of the companies you see in that Impact Report, you’ll see have a number of employees now. C-Suite level employees or management level employees; those are high-paying jobs. So, we really want to show that traction first, that follow-on funding and then the job growth. That’s really impactful in the region.”

Thiel says his team is working on a new model called “Scale Fast,” which will help tech founders scale up and also quickly spot failures.

“Fail faster and safely,” he said. “So, give a safe place for these founders to fail, cause they fail a lot, and we want them to fail. Failure is learning, and we really want them to fail quickly to identify where they need to go with the business, and beyond that survive, survive the fastest.”

He hopes to continue to break down barriers and help more startups succeed.

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