Long Island has the cutting-edge laboratories, the world-class talent, the technological know-how, the proud manufacturing history – everything it needs to be a hub of 21st Century R&D and venture investment.

But with cornerstone institutions all over its wide-spread map – Nassau Suffolk, North Shore, South Shore – it sometimes lacks the cohesion of a New York City or a Silicon Valley.

Enter ambitious nonprofit business booster Accelerate Long Island, now 15 years into its mission to unify all this next-level R&D into a well-oiled nexus for both entrepreneurs and investors.

In today’s episode, Accelerate Long Island Program Director Dan Lloyd – the “civic entrepreneur” who also founded the successful community-oriented nonprofit Minority Millennials – discusses the challenges of melding Long Island’s far-flung innovation landscape into a single entity (plus the joys of family and, arguably, New Jersey’s most famous sandwich).