Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jerry: When we hire students at the incubator, the university pays the students weekly, and then I bill the company and they reimburse the university for the students’ services.

Irina: How are the faculty compensated?

Jerry: It’s up to them. It could be free. It could be whatever it is. A lot of them, because they’re looking for student programs, could [do it as] a pro bono kind of thing. They could work together that way.

Irina: Is there anything specific that makes your incubator different from the rest of the incubators in the country?

Jerry: Yes. The competitive advantage I just talked about. We’re not about real estate. We’re not just giving people an office. We actually give people an ability to commercialize what they do. Our theme is to get people to the market faster at the lowest cost possible. That’s what we do. The entire purpose of our program is to encourage technology development, create jobs, which is very important. Entrepreneurs and small businesses are where all the net growth comes from as far as job creation.

Irina: Is this program only for the students or is it for the entire region?

Jerry: It’s for the entire region. The companies are independent companies, owned and operated by [the entrepreneurs]. EDC does not take equity positions in these companies. These companies come from all over – from New Jersey or New York or Pennsylvania, for instance.

Irina: Do you have any student entrepreneurs in your incubator?

Jerry: We have graduates who are here, graduates of the university. We don’t have students per se, because to start a company right out of school is a little hard to do. We have graduates who have been out in the business for a couple of years and have come back and said, “OK, now we’ll begin.”

Irina: I’ve interviewed some incubator managers who say they don’t allow students in their incubators because they don’t want to distract them from their educations. Others say they encourage students to join their incubators. What is your opinion?

Jerry: What we have is programs set up, for example, at the School of Management, for a business plan competition. We have student programs that I work with in the university to teach [students] how to run a business, how to commercialize, how to do the business plan. Those are educational programs that they can use in the future.

I never see students coming over to run a business. First, it’s disruptive to their education. Second, they don’t have experience to run a technology business.

If you were running what I call lifestyle businesses, i.e., flower shops or bakeries, they’re much easier to understand. Those are businesses you can, in fact, start with limited dollars and limited experience if you understand the industry.

When you’re talking about technology businesses, which take many years and a lot of funding and experience to get started, that’s a completely different thing. Students or those right out of school aren’t a good target market for us.

Irina: What are your sources for applications?

Jerry: I have a website, NJIT Enterprise Development Center. I go to trade shows. I partner with a lot of the organizations, primarily in New Jersey, but some in New York City.

They’re advocates of small business, organizations like NJTC, BioNJ (Bio New Jersey). We all run conferences and invite each other. When I go to those things, I always introduce myself and our services. We attract people that way.

Most of the business I’ve gotten recently has been from referrals. Because our reputation is so good, people here recommend to their friends and businesses to come in and talk to the center, a lot of referral business.

Irina: How do you process applications?

Jerry: When somebody contacts me, I say, “Fine. I’d like to see an executive summary, one or two pages.” I’d like to take a look at that and see a summary of the principles. I’ll do a quick background search. If it works out and looks like somebody who could get some benefit from the incubator and it looks like a good idea from a business concept perspective, then I invite the entrepreneurs in for an interview and a tour. We talk about what’s in the program, what’re the activities. If we decide there’s a mutual benefit to their being here, I offer them a contract.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark
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