Yes, although the Innovation Center is unique as a Certified Technology Park in our immediate tri-state vicinity. For a general listing of business incubators in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan (and throughout the country), visit the National Business Incubation Association Web site at www.nbia.org.
[permalink] Our mission is to help entrepreneurs create successful businesses. We assist businesses in all stages of development in their efforts to become successful. That is why the CEE program and the Innovation Center were created and why we have both resident and affiliate clients. Incubator best practices suggest cost of space should be stepped in parallel with the market. We do everything we can to maintain stable monthly charges to assist our clients with predictable monthly cash flow. The package of business assistance, mentorship, space, and client synergy is the benefit of incubation, not cheap rent. In order to fully serve the nascent idea marketplace, more early stage venture capital needs to be accessible in the Region.
[permalink]Assuming good performance in goal attainment, proper observance of lease conditions, and in the short term (3-5 years), yes, but in the long term, no. The purpose of NIIC incubation is to ready our clients for self-sufficiency and commercial success. All NIIC incubation clients are periodically reviewed on progress toward the goals established upon their acceptance into the program. Our facilities, while generous, are limited and reserved for those companies showing the greatest potential and the greatest progress toward achieving that potential.
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No. Office furnishings are included as part of each lease. Upon applying for and receiving written consent from the NIIC, clients may supply additional or substitute furnishings of their own, but doing so will not result in any lease rate reduction.
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No. today, we do not require any equity in the companies entering incubation . However, NIIC reserves the right to negotiate equity/royalties based on the value of its in-kind services or cash infused into the business. Due to insufficient early stage capital for tech companies; however, today, the Innovation Center has no such cash resources to invest.
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No - just the opposite, in fact. NIIC Gateways encourages an even higher level of engagement. NIIC Gateways clients are encouraged to meet weekly in a joint meeting with both NIIC Gateways and NIIC CEE business coaches.
[permalink]Yes! The Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence (CEE) will work with existing businesses that have recognized the need for development of entrepreneurial endeavors, growth imperatives, and innovation initiatives within their organizations. The CEE works to enhance the creative and innovative potential of individuals, companies and their environments through entrepreneurial/business development for faster growing companies.
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Yes, the NIIC lease covers utilities — water, electricity, gas, and sewage disposal — so long as clients are not overusing utilities. If a client has demonstrable, independent need of additional utility services beyond those provided by the NIIC, such arrangements will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, with installation and service charges being the responsibility of the client in most cases.
[permalink]No. Business incubators graduate strong and self-sustaining companies into their communities, where these companies build, purchase, or rent space. Because incubated companies are more likely to succeed than nonincubated companies, landlords of incubator graduates face far less risk than they otherwise would. Also, while they’re in the start-up phase, incubator client companies can obtain flexible space and leases that are more appropriate to their stage of growth than they could on the commercial market.
[permalink]The Cole Foundation, IPFW-SBMS, City of Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana Innovation Center jointly fund the CEE program. The program began March 1, 2002, and the CEE’s annual budget is approximately $100,000.
[permalink]People sometimes use the term “business accelerator” as another term for “business incubator” in an attempt to differentiate themselves in the market. During the recent dot-com boom, numerous terms like “accelerator” emerged to describe business incubation programs. In the current market, many of these terms have fallen away, but “accelerator” remains a relatively popular term to describe business incubation programs.
[permalink]Research parks (sometimes called science parks or technology parks) are property-based ventures consisting of research and development facilities for technology- and science-based companies. Research parks often promote community economic development and technology transfer. They tend to be larger-scale projects than business incubators, often spanning many acres or miles. Research parks house everything from corporate, government, and university labs to big and small companies. Unlike business incubators, research parks do not offer comprehensive programs of business assistance. However, an important component of some research parks is a business incubator focused on early-stage companies.
[permalink]The U.S. Small Business Administration administers the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) program to provide general business assistance to current and prospective small business owners. SBDCs (and similar programs) differ from business incubators in that they do not specifically target early-stage companies; they often serve small businesses at any stage of development. Some business incubators partner with SBDCs and share management in order to avoid duplicating business assistance services in a region.
[permalink]Incubator graduates create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, and commercialize new technologies, thus strengthening local, regional, and even national economies. NBIA estimates that North American incubator client and graduate companies have created about half a million jobs since 1980. That is enough jobs to employ every person living in Denver. Every 50 jobs created by an incubator client generate approximately 25 more jobs in the same community. In 2001 alone, North American incubators assisted more than 35,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment for nearly 82,000 workers and generated annual earnings of more than $7 billion. Business incubators reduce the risk of small business failures. Historically, NBIA member incubators have reported that 87 percent of all firms that have graduated from their incubators are still in business.
[permalink]Incubators help client companies secure capital in a number of ways: Managing in-house and revolving loan and microloan funds, connecting companies with angel investors (high-net-worth individual investors), working with companies to perfect venture capital presentations and connecting them to venture capitalists, and assisting companies in applying for bank loans.
[permalink]The CEE is a knowledge hub (one stop resource for entrepreneurs) and catalyst for the promotion of entrepreneurial activity and success in Northeast Indiana. It is designed to meet the need, identified in the Strategic Development Group study of northeast Indiana, for more higher-level, sophisticated and complex needs [product development, marketing, gap financing, research, strategy] of all entrepreneurs through the vehicles of entrepreneurship education, experiential learning/growth and consulting.
[permalink]We are a community based technology incubator. Additionally, we embrace and model the best practices of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA). Some of those best practices include: a selection process for admittance; business assistance programs; established parameters for graduation; and provide office space and services for business launches. Also, other providers of business support do not offer the combination of services or high-level support we offer. (ie. Tech transfer, VC, partnerships, acceleration of your businesses success.)
[permalink]Indiana is fortunate to have a fine community of business incubators of various sizes and focus. The NIIC differentiates itself in several ways:
· We are ISO9001:2000 certified. We not only teach best business practices, we apply them ourselves. To our knowledge, we are the only Indiana business incubator to achieve this certification, and one of only a handful in the entire country.
· While many business incubators are direct programs of specific colleges and universities, the NIIC has affiliations and cooperative relationships with almost every educational facility in Northeast Indiana, including:
- Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW, and one of the NIIC’s founding organizations; the new IU School of Medicine Regional Campus is just west of the NIIC’s own campus)
- Taylor University (whose MBA program is housed in the NIIC)
- Ivy Tech (whose new 167,000 sq. ft. Technology Center is being built adjacent to the NIIC campus)
- Huntington University (whose Venture Works program is a NIIC “node” serving Huntington County)
- Tri-State University (home to another NIIC node, serving Tri-State and Steuben County)
- St. Francis University
- Indiana Institute of Technology (IIT)
- Indiana Business College
- Fort Wayne Community Schools, and many other city and county school districts throughout the region.
The exceptional quality and depth of our training and coaching programs. For example, in the annual Purdue University Business Plan Competition, NIIC clients have swept the top 3 prizes for the past three years running! Great businesses start with a great business plan, and the NIIC has demonstrated a proven ability to help new ventures develop a winner. (Also consider that the business best-seller, How To Create A Winning Business Plan, was co-authored by Karl LaPan, the NIIC’s CEO, and Steve Franks, the Director of the NIIC Gateways program.)
[permalink]Today, there are about 1,000 business incubators in North America, up from only 12 in 1980. There are about 4,000 business incubators worldwide. The incubation model has been adapted to meet a variety of needs, from fostering commercialization of university technologies to increasing employment in economically distressed communities to serving as investment vehicles.
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In general, available space is determined by client needs and NIIC capacity. Such variables as client staff size, wet or dry lab requirements, and client-owned equipment are taken into consideration.
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