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1. In Ray Leach’s email response to me and Marc, he mentioned that ratio of the overhead in 2008 ($9.1m) to the amount invested ($3.1m) was dictated by the funders. Can you list all funders who dictate this requirement to JS, specifically? We think this is important as the community can then reach out to these individuals to explain why they feel this overhead vs. investing ratio is the optimal use of JS’s budget relative to its core mission of “creating new businesses?”

2. It’s been stated that JS has invested $19.3 Million in companies as of December 31, 2010. We ask again, what has your total funding been from all sources, to-date, since the formation of JS in 2004? Not just investments made, as this is material to the argument being put forth; have we created a bureaucracy or are we supporting entrepreneurs with capital to start new businesses?

3. Can you please publish or attach to this response all the IRS Form 990’s that Jumpstart has filed to-date with the IRS? What were the total staff salaries in 2009 and 2010 and total operating costs as well as total investments made for those years?

4. How do you reconcile the 2-400 numbers of companies that JS states have been assisted by JS since its inception and the 3,000 figure that the President spoke of last week? Who in our community or JS gave the President those numbers? Can the 3,000 figure be validated or proven?

5. Ray also communicated new job numbers (828) that JS has helped create are aggregated monthly by staff and audited externally annually. If any are indirect, your economic impact claim is subjective if you consider them a “result” of JS investing; we would prefer to let the entrepreneurial community come to their own conclusions on that matter.

A. Of the 828 jobs created, how many are direct and how many are indirect jobs?

B. Can we please see all the audits ever taken?

C. Who performed them?

D. How were they performed?

E. How much were the external auditors paid for this work?

F. Of those 828 jobs, how many are currently active toady and paying payroll taxes? (Taxes are what pays back the original funders; the taxpayers of the State of Ohio.)

G. Can you please provide the community (since it’s done monthly by staff; this should be rather easy to gather,) a list of all companies ever existing that have been funded by Jumpstart and their respective employment level gains (or losses) since they have been funded? Please distinguish between staff that existed prior to JS investing and those jobs created after JS investing and please list by company so that they may be validated.

7. Much has been made of the fact that many in our community feel that Ray Leach’s annual compensation of nearly $500,000, in light of the lackluster performance of Jumpstart (Ohio) on the whole, and the target community he is supposed to be assisting, is not just inappropriate, but reflects a fundamental lack of Board oversight and a contempt for Ohio taxpayers and Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs who struggle to start new businesses here. In Ray Leach’s email response to Marc Canter and myself, he claimed that his compensation was determined by the Board of Directors of Jumpstart (Ohio) using a number of factors including results and comparables of other organizations as well as an external firm.

A. Can you please list the other regionally focused economic development non-profit groups, who get a majority of their budget from state or local government dollars that were used in the board’s comparable compensation decisions?

B. Can you publish the recommendation document?

C. What external firm produced the recommendation to the board?

D. How much was this firm paid.

E. Who paid that firm?

F. Does the board have a governance or compensation committee?

G. If it does have a compensation committee, can you please publish a list of the members and the minutes of all discussions and decisions of that committee (or entire board if that be the case) relative to the compensation levels for Mr. Leach and senior staff of JS?

H. Again, please publish the complete compensation level for Mr. Leach and other senior staff including base salary, bonuses (if any, for producing results… and those attendant result thresholds) and complete benefits packages for the year 2009, 2010 and budgeted for 2011?

8. To argue why Jumpstart may not want to change their model rather than continue what your public, private and philanthropic partners insist you keep doing… despite someevidence that it may not producing the desired results… Ray previously mentioned that the current model of support that JS provides in the entrepreneurial space in Northeast Ohio has been proven by statistics and he uses that notional argument as leverage to why JS should not be an alternative model that many entrepreneurs in this community would love to see JS become. Will you please provide us those statistics and their sources?

9. When Ray has spoken about Jumpstart America, he has mentioned that it is a separate 501(c)3 organization from Jumpstart Ohio, it would be separately funded, and its existence wouldn’t take any money or resources from Jumpstart Ohio. As Ray is now working to launch Jumpstart US, and it truly isn’t using any of Jumpstart OH’s money or resources like he claimed, how long has Jumpstart US been paying Ray’s salary, office space and expenses while it has been being formed?

10. If Jumpstart is going to use their claimed results and impact as the main response to critics, we think it is important that these claims be scrutinized to make sure they are accurate and not misleading. Due to this, we believe the follow questions need to be answered…

A. The contact info for the group or groups that published all of JS’s economic impact reports each year since JS’s inception?

B. How much JS paid each year for each of these reports to be published?

C. How did the groups who published these reports obtain the data on the jobs and salaries created with all of the JS assisted companies?

D. Although JS claims they invest in pre-seed companies that are too young to attract other investment, if you look through all 53 investments, only a small percentage (15-25%) fit those criteria. Although I am pointing out that Jumpstart’s claims are different from reality, I am not saying they shouldn’t be investing in these types of companies. My question is… if Jumpstart invested in a 3 year old company that had 7 employees and already had $300k invested into it prior to their investment, JS invested $300k along with 5 others in a $1.5m round and 2 years later, that company has 20 employees and other positive growth numbers, what criteria does the group publishing JS’s impact report use to determine how much of this company’s existence is due to JS’s involvement?

E. Do these reports distinguish from local/regional jobs created by JS portfolio companies and jobs created outside of NEO?

F. Can you let us know of a way we can verify these job claims?