Commentary: Va. ecosystem supports growth

It has been almost four years since I began leading economic development and innovation efforts at George Mason University, and what a whirlwind! This is an exciting time to be in Virginia, and getting to do this job every day feels like winning the lottery.

It all started with the Amazon.com HQ2 win in 2018, leading to the buildup of George Mason’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion on our Mason Square campus in Arlington, and the opportunity to leverage the 10 programs George Mason operated to support the entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow.

Focused on continuous improvement and building an ecosystem with more partners, bringing in more resources to Virginia, George Mason now has 24 entrepreneurial support programs — and growing — to match the pace and type of technologies expanding in Virginia.

Here’s what the Virginia ecosystem looks like through the eyes of a not-so-newbie who came here from Michigan:

1. Northern Virginia’s transient culture has made it very welcoming. This creates a nice culture that extends to attracting entrepreneurs from outside Virginia. I’m eternally grateful to all the people in the business and economic development communities who provided introductions and offered to help. When we launched the large-scale annual Accelerate Investor Conference in 2022, it was a marvel to see how the community came together to help pull in, screen and prep tech companies to pitch investors nationwide.

2. Public universities have significant opportunities to leverage assets and collaborate. There is no 800-pound research university gorilla in this state. This means the door is open to mutually beneficial collaboration across institutions. The people involved in moving laboratory technologies to market come from an incredible array of world-class educational, business and government backgrounds. Virginia does a great job of leveraging the government as a customer (the world’s LARGEST customer).

3. The commonwealth has core assets that other states dream of having. Virginia’s economic development talent at the local and state levels is very impressive. The counties play a large role here in developing the regional economy, and I am blown away at their capacity to collaborate. I get really excited when we all discuss the buildup of the knowledge economy here and each “next” exciting program to leverage our assets.

4. We have the same problems but more opportunities than everyone else. I get together a couple of times a year with leaders of tech economies in the nation’s hot spots. Every region in the country will tell you they can’t get enough talent. That’s why I particularly love working for a university where most students are from the region and stay here after they graduate — that’s a real economic growth cycle. George Mason was the first to offer cybersecurity and cloud computing as degrees that were built in partnership with the businesses located here. Also, our faculty and students seem to seamlessly move between joint classes, certifications and entrepreneur programs.

5. We are at the epicenter of the next evolution in tech. Large companies and startups alike are joining in the AI race, and Virginia is singularly at the center of policy, law, defense and digital innovation in a way that other economies wish they could be.

We’re in a global race, and if we want to take a global role, we need to execute strategies that lead the way. Amazon HQ2 is the perfect example of a collaboration between state and regional governments that turned the tide for this economy by leaning heavily into the universities to build out and reach their potential as powerhouses.

Paula Sorrell is associate vice president for innovation and economic development at George Mason University. She directed the University of Michigan’s Economic Growth Institute before joining George Mason in 2020.