Business Incubator Series: Micah Kotch, NYC ACRE At NYU-Poly, New York (Part 3)

By guest author Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Micah: For the most part, the entrepreneurs who are on our waiting list are looking for physical space. We refer them out to other spaces. We’ll refer to Deb Johnson (Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation), or there’s something here called the Coalition of Office Space Providers.

Irina: What is the process for getting into your incubator?

Micah: Entrepreneurs submit their applications. We send the applications to our advisory board for comments. They come in and do a formal pitch, and then based on the comments from our advisory board, we’ll either ask them for additional feedback or we’ll accept them. We’ll put them on the waiting list or we’ll say, “This is probably not the right fit.”

Irina: Once a company is accepted, what are the next steps?

Micah: Once we accept them into the program, we only sign a six-month lease, which will be renewable for 24 months. It’s a two-year engagement. We want people to either close their rounds or generate enough revenue that they can find what we refer to as step-out space, a market-rate space, which we will help them to find.

Irina: How are the entrepreneurs served once they sign the lease and come in to the incubator?

Micah: We use a tool called the Startup Wheel, and we meet with them on a regular basis to understand what their needs and biggest challenges are.

Then we go about helping them fill their needs and make decisions that will help them grow their businesses. We introduce them to the other tenants, and we have an ongoing dialog with these people based on part of their application, which includes a 24-month cash flow plan. We just want to make sure they’re on track.

Irina: Can you talk about some of your success stories?

Micah: Sure. Our first graduate is a company called Pixable. The founders are immigrant entrepreneurs, graduates from MIT. They provide a unique photo discovery experience.

The company grew to about 20 people. They were funded by Highland Capital. They just closed another round of funding for about $6 million from Menlo Park Ventures and Highland.

The company stayed within the footprint of Trinity Real Estate, which is, as I said, a partner of NYU-Poly Varick Street Incubator. Trinity Real Estate has provided us with the space for a discounted rate, since we opened in 2009. Now Pixable moved into additional Trinity space across the street. The company is growing and doing incredibly well.

Pixable provides a software that allows you to discover photos, primarily on Facebook. It automatically organizes photographs into categories. You can stay updated on your friends’ photo activity. They also provide a unique software interface for photos using social media.

Another very successful company that graduated from the company is called ThinkEco. They are an R&D driven company focused on energy efficiency. They provide a modular outlet, which is currently out there in the market.

It’s basically a hardware and a software that works with pluggable loads, meaning different appliances that you plug in so that you can save energy and save money on your electricity bill.

The principle is customers can save energy in a simple, easy to use way by using one of their, what they call, a modlet, which is a hardware and a software device that helps to reduce the amount of electricity that plugged in appliances use.

Forty percent of residential energy is used by plugged-in appliances. So, how do you reduce your energy load and also save money? The way that you do that is through one of the modlets that ThinkEco makes.

It works incredibly well. In fact, it was named – by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) – as Best of CES in 2010 (Consumer Electronics Show). They were also highlighted by David Pogue, who is the technology columnist for the New York Times, as one of the highlights for the CES in Las Vegas in 2011.

Irina: How does the modlet work?

Micah: It recognizes what the device is, and then it automatically shuts off what’s called standby power, which is the power that appliances draw at the time, even if no one’s around to use it. It is estimated that it pays for itself in six months or less.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Business Incubator Series: Micah Kotch, NYC ACRE At NYU-Poly, New York
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