80-year-old Progressive works to stay in touch with startup businesses
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Tricia Griffith, CEO of Progressive Corp., speaking at the virtual annual meeting of the North Coast Venture Fund.
Progressive Corp., the Mayfield Village-based insurer, may be the largest company in the region and, at 83 years old, one of its great growth stories, with a worldwide market. But, said CEO Tricia Griffith, it's important that the company think young and stay in touch with what's happening at companies in Northeast Ohio and elsewhere that are struggling to get off the ground.
"That's how I think about startups," she told the virtual attendees at the annual meeting of North Coast Ventures, the 15-year-old Cleveland investment group that helps to finance technology startups, primarily software businesses. "I think about the fact that they don't have the legacy systems and they can be really nimble, and that is going to be expected of all (businesses) to be that way, even though we're over 80 years old. And that's really, my goal — to be, to act, like a startup for consumers."