Kirtland resident is new president of Lakestart

Euclid native brings history, experience

Mario Jurcic says the nonprofit that gives residents resources to connect is low budget, but high value.

Growing up, Mario Jurcic still recalls going to his father’s machine shop on Saturdays with his mother to help clean the office and the machines.

“My family is ethnically Croatian. We grew up in an environment where hard work was important, expected and common,” said the Euclid native and current Kirtland resident who will be taking over Lakestart, the Raymond C. Kralovic Center for Entrepreneurship, as president.

Jurcic was young when his father started the machine shop. As Jurcic got older, he realized he was helping out without much direction.

“I was asking my parents to go there,” Jurcic said. “Fast forward — school was good for a while. I just wasn’t the perfect mold for traditional academia, but I think it was my junior year of high school I did a career paper on entrepreneurship.

“That paper had an impact because it was mind blowing to me there’s no single path and I think something about the idea of carving out my own path my own way was very exciting to me.”

Jurcic was elected by

Lakestart’s board in January.

To him, the nonprofit to provide Lake County and Northeast Ohioans with a conduit for ideas and economic development to connect, is still true to its roots — low budget, but high value, Jurcic said.

“I’m excited to pick up the reigns and continue that tradition, and have an impact for the local community,” he said. “For me, it’s kind of a restructuring of the organization in a sense of reestablishing the goal metrics for the company to make sure they’re in line with what we’re trying to achieve.”

“In my mind, it’s job creation in Lake County, so we want to see what we can do to help small businesses create additional jobs,” he added. “Surrounding counties are a bonus, but we’re in Lake County — the core focus of it.”

Jurcic’s roots with Lakestart start at the beginning, when the quasi accelerator, mentoring and coaching organization only provided some dialogue with the entrepreneurial community in Lake County to help small businesses. The organization only started out with few people, Jurcic recalled, including Ray Kralovic, cofounder of STERIS Corp. in Mentor, and namesake of Lakestart’s entrepreneurship center.

“Kralovic was immensely involved with the entrepreneurial community,” Jurcic said. “Then the next thing you know, there was about 20 people trying to steer the direction of it (Lakestart).”

An office was then obtained through the City of Willoughby to help the group out for a location and it was started with a small budget — roughly $2,000, Jurcic said. The organization is still maintained to be low budget, but effective in terms of who is brought in.

“There’s a lot with (the coronavirus) that’s changing. We’re a place that can deliver information to small businesses on how other people are approaching it,” Jurcic said. “The services are free, so I don’t think anyone has a lot to lose. If we don’t have an answer, we’re able to point out the resources within the community or Northeast Ohio.”

Even though the coronavirus has been a “nightmare for all,” it’s not unique to Lakestart team members, Jurcic said. In terms of re-branding and how Lakestart

functions, the coronavirus gets everyone out of their comfort zones to look at alternative ways of how services can be provided and how the community can be helped, he added.

A priority is taking a step back from the situation, looking around at what’s left and focusing on how Lakestart can contribute to the local community to make it a better place, Jurcic said.

“We have to do soul searching to dig through the weeds to find the light,” Jurcic said. “I think this might be potentially the biggest time of need for small businesses and start up companies with the services Lakestart provides.

“I expect that this year should be one of our biggest growth years as an organization from the perspective of how many start ups apply, how many start ups are involved in the program, as well as how many small businesses we’re assisting through the accelerator program and mentoring.”

Jurcic said with many distinguished members on the board he is excited for the opportunity to learn, grow and have an impact on the community.

“It’s my first real opportunity to lead a nonprofit organization,” he said.

Jurcic