Business Incubator Series: Fred Hoch And Terry Howerton, TechNexus, Chicago, Illinois (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Is there an ideal company that would benefit from your incubation?

Fred: It’s an ideal mindset. It’s a company that’s open to the idea, it’s collaboration, it’s community.  There are benefits of working with not only the people who are here in the space itself, which is a traditional incubator space, but also the fact that we have the [Illinois Technology] Association headquartered here, along with the Community Trust – which is another nonprofit organization headquartered here – that bring in a constant flow of people. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Fred Hoch And Terry Howerton, TechNexus, Chicago, Illinois (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to the co-founders and managing partners of TechNexus Fred Hoch and Terry Howerton. TechNexus was originally developed by private investment and community support in Chicago in partnership with the Illinois Technology Association (ITA) to serve as a “clubhouse” for the local tech community, and it evolved into co-working space and incubator for Chicagoan entrepreneurs. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Irina: Do you take equity in the companies that you incubate?

Diane: We do. Because we are nonprofit we can’t technically enter into financial contracts with our companies. But we can enter into what’s called a pledge agreement.

We’d talk to them, and the template for us is something like this: We’ll have a pledge of 5% equity in the company and then 2% or 3% of revenue for two or three years. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Irina: Would you give us more details on your three programs?

Diane: Yes. The first program is the eSpace incubator, which we have talked about quite a bit.

The second program is called the Straight to Space (S2S). In this program, we provide entrepreneurial aerospace companies both in our incubators and outside our incubator with training grants to support the training of technicians and engineers they have hired from outside the aerospace industry. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Diane: Once they become an official incubator company, the mentor helps them to develop a first order strategic plan. What are you going to accomplish in the next three to six months? Whom do you need to meet in order to be successful? These are some questions we ask. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Diane: The other program we have is called the Venture Design program. And this is with the University of Colorado Aerospace Engineering Sciences program. We support a number of graduate hands-on and design projects in the aerospace department, in the hopes that one or more of them will transition in the incubator. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Irina: What would be an ideal company that could benefit from your incubation?

Diane: It might be one to four people who have just earned what is called an SBIR grant [Small Business Innovation Research]. They may have earned a Phase I SBIR or NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] or AFRL [Air Force Research Lab] grant, and they have a potential investor already. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Diane Dimeff, eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, Boulder, Colorado (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

I am talking to Diane Dimeff, who is the executive director of eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship in Boulder, Colorado.

The center’s mission is threefold: 1) to help aerospace entrepreneurs to start new companies, 2) to develops commercial applications from the innovative technologies created within these companies, and 3) by collaborating with industry, government, and academia to provide career opportunities for high school, community college, and university graduates. >>>