For more than 20 years, Monica Doss has been the face of
entrepreneurship in North Carolina.
As president of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development
since 1986, Doss has built the organization into an economic force with more
than 4000 members and 1100 corporate partners and a $2 million annual budget.
Recognized nationally, including the accounting firm Ernst
& Young’s entrepreneur honors, Doss continues to grow the CED. Burnout is
not a problem, she says, even at age 55 as retirement beckons, or when private
sector opportunities come her way.
“I’ve gotten job offers,” Doss said from her home in Mebane
where she lives with her husband Jim. (Their son, Brendan, is a graduate of
UNC-Chapel Hill.) But she remains loyal to the CED, which she joined as its
first full-time director and long before the “dot com” boom helped transform
the Triangle into one of the nation’s high-tech hotbeds.
“I look around and I know how much the people around me have
meant to our success,” Doss explained. “Will I give up the people I work with?
“I do have a strong interest in building communities, and I
look at the CED as a catalyst for many companies and a community of people.
“To be honest, I can’t see myself going into a company.
Every two years, the world totally turns over for us,” she added, noting the
constant changes in technology that require learning — and present new
opportunities for growth. “The Internet wasn’t there when we started. Now, we
are learning more about alternative energy.
“To me, that’s what’s exciting about entrepreneurship.
There’s always a new challenge. Where else would I get the opportunity to
constantly learn?”
Doss grew up in suburban Boston and Ohio before attending
Florida State University where she majored in English literature and received a
master’s degree in literature. She and her husband, who is a builder, woodsmith
and published poet, were living in Alabama when they chose to move to North
Carolina.
“We knew some people in this area, and one day we just
decided to move,” Doss recalled.
Doss landed a marketing position at the North Carolina
Museum of Art as director of the NC Art Society. She was recruited to run the
fledgling CED organization, which was launched in 1984, by prominent Raleigh
attorney Fred Hutchison and Horace Johnson, a retired Ernst & Young
executive.
“I saw how passionate they were,” Doss said. “I didn’t know
what venture capitalists were, I didn’t know anything about entrepreneurship,
but I felt it would be a lot of fun.”
Just as the Triangle grew steadily in the 1980s, so did the
CED. With infrastructure put in place — such as the North Carolina
Biotechnology Center and the Microelectronics Center — along with the presence
of tech giant IBM, RTP became a hotbed for start-up companies. And when the
Internet led to the “dot com” economic explosion in the mid-’90s, the CED was
there to help investors and inventors launch new companies.
But success didn’t come easily. As Doss noted, success was
built with sweat, equity and hard work.
“It wasn’t until ’95 or ’96 that we really turned the
corner,” Doss said. “The Park itself was a huge vision for growth.
Entrepreneurship was the next step.
“It wasn’t happening naturally, but we had all the
ingredients,” she added, noting the presence of NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill and
Duke that added invention and creation. The Biotech Center, MCNC and Research
Triangle Institute added support, creativity and technology development. Big
companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline, brought executives to the area who longed
to develop their own companies.
CED grew as it helped entrepreneurs, investors and
professors turn inventions and ideas into companies with training, seminars and
conferences on topics ranging from venture capital to biotech.
“We had the luxury of doing entrepreneurship before it
became cool,” Doss said. “We got to make a lot of mistakes, but we had
excellent buy-in from leadership.
“This region is different from a lot of places. People
really did have a vision. We had to figure out how entrepreneurship figured
into that vision and hang in there.”
The CED, one of the largest organizations of its kind, now
draws venture capital and biotech speakers and investors from around the world
for events.
Doss remains committed to growing the CED further — even as
she gardens at home. If she has frustrations to work out, she vents with her
hands.
“I like to kill weeds,” she said with a laugh. “I love to
get out there and get dirty.”