The co-founder and CEO of what has been called “the world’s largest startup accelerator” is inviting Cleveland’s old-line businesses to join in his 21st century way of building businesses.

Saeed Amidi proffered the invitation on Tuesday, May 15, at the 2018 annual meeting of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a business chamber of commerce that traces its history to 1848, when grain shipping was the region’s hottest growing business. Amidi earlier this year brought an outpost of Plug and Play, his fast-moving business accelerator, to the Global Center for Health Innovation.

“I believe if you bring the large corporations together with entrepreneurs it can create value for everyone,” he said in his keynote remarks. “We’re going to build great innovations together.”

Amidi recounted his entrepreneurial journey from a landlord in Palo Alto, Calif., to startup businesses including PayPal and Google, when it had only three employees, and the investments he and his brother made, often in lieu of rent, in many of those companies. He said his decision to come to Cleveland was part of a strategy he developed after realizing that while he had investments all over the world, his U.S. investments were focused on the coasts.

Read the full story at Crain’s Cleveland Business.