Five Questions With: Pat Sabatino

When it comes to a startup ecosystem, Pat Sabatino, founder and CEO of Datarista of Providence, thought Rhode Island could use a boost. So, he took matters into his own hands. He’s launched the Rhode Island Coalition of Entrepreneurs, which is now about 40 members strong, a community of CEOs and founders of startups that will, in part, help other aspiring entrepreneurs with mentorship and resources.

PBN:  Was there any one event that led you to realize the need for an organization such as RICE, a fledgling company leaving the state, for example?

SABATINO: No, the group came to be through a natural evolution. It started just as a group of entrepreneurs connecting and networking. The more that we talked, the more I realized that startups in the state share some universal characteristics, challenges and opportunities. We are an economic block in the state that hasn’t had a single consistent voice representing our needs to the state and local governments, universities and other institutions.

 

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PBN: Are there any particular sectors you’d like to see better represented in the Ocean State?

SABATINO: We are not focused on any one vertical by traditional measures. Startups are the sector we are focused on. The state has had a need for a group that is focused on the needs of starting a high-growth business here. There are a number of programs that foster one vertical or another, but those programs seem to miss an overwhelming number of businesses. We want to focus on the companies … that seek growth investment and could one day be one of the larger employers in the state.

PBN: The RICE website mentions that a strong entrepreneurial culture creates more indirect employment. What might some examples of that be?

SABATINO: This is an important topic where short answers don’t do it justice. Think about the amount of talent that leaves our universities every spring for the Bay Area, New York, Boston and elsewhere. If you talk to the students, many don’t think of the state or city as a place to latch on with a cutting-edge startup. And many skilled workers that live here commute to Massachusetts.

There are scores of startups taking root. Those businesses employ the skilled workforce that comes out of our universities, that gets on the T or drives up [Interstate] 95 or out [Interstate] 195. These businesses pay rent here, the employees eat in local lunch spots, they rent or buy homes locally. I have had people who have commuted to Boston who now work for my startup in Providence and I have one employee who relocated from Boston to Rhode Island to work for my business. In addition, most of the venture funding and revenue for high-growth startups comes from out of state, but the majority of our expenses are paid here.

PBN: How, in your view, can government and startups work better together to boost the economy?

SABATINO: Startups have a number of needs, including space … mentoring, funding and more. If we can align the groups to discuss the common needs, we can work to create programs that impact the broader ecosystem across verticals.

I’d like to see a Providence Startup Week done in conjunction with government groups, universities and businesses that serve the sector. We can showcase local businesses, bring in venture capital from the Northeast and beyond, and have speakers on a number of pertinent topics.

PBN: What do you foresee as RICE’s biggest challenge, as it takes shape?

SABATINO: We really need to help the state’s ecosystem attract investment. I think a lot of public opinion thinks of 38 Studios when they think of startups, but no one in our group received $75 million from the state. We can’t be afraid to make smaller investments in the local ecosystem because once in the past a large investment was made in one company.

The state and its citizens really must move on from the past and look at what is the right way to support the innovation economy and attract investment. It happens in San Francisco, Boston, New York, Austin, [Texas], Boulder, [Colo.] … [we] can’t hold ourselves back from similar success.

Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributor.