Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Troy: So, by all objective measures, [last’s year program], it was a success. There is a lot of energy and passion in the Chicago marketplace and we’ve decided, obviously, to continue. We have funded the program for the next three years. We raised a fund for three years. We are in the process of admitting our class for 2011, which will be 10 more great companies to shine that bright spotlight on and show what Chicago can do.

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Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Troy: SurePayroll eliminated the cost of all those pieces: the paper checks and reports, the delivery guy, the car he drove in, and the building drove from and the operator. It really reduced the cost and make it much simpler and easier for small businesses to process their payrolls. We started working on that in 1999, launched it in early 2000, raised a bunch of venture capital. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Troy: So, in my early days of entrepreneurship I was sitting in the basement writing custom database applications. It quickly became clear that there were more businesses that needed my help than I could personally help. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 10)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ross: If entrepreneurs don’t take [equity investment] from us, then we ask for 33% ownership in the business because we are giving a ton of assistance to these businesses, I mean, all the training upfront was paid for by us, we paid living stipends, and we pay for the ongoing mentorship. That is all provided to the entrepreneurs. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Troy Henikoff, Excelerate Labs – Chicago, Illinois (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Troy Henikoff, co-founder and CEO of Excelerate Labs, a Chicago-based intensive summer accelerator for startups. The program attracts dozens of mentors from around the country to work closely with, usually, ten teams of entrepreneurs. The 13-week program begins on June 1 and on August 31 culminates in an Investor Demo Day, where the entrepreneurs showcase their startups to more than 200 angel and venture investors. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ross: We set goals. We set a monthly goals for the number of phone calls that the entrepreneurs have to make, which then translates into a number of meetings they are able to set, and a number of proposals, and a number of contracts that they need to sign. We monitor that. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Linda Darragh, ARCH New Business Incubator, University of Chicago – Illinois (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Vandana Upadhyay

Linda: We are talking to impact investors from around the world to determine their criteria for investing. We are also looking at corporations in these countries to see what kind of products and services they would buy from entrepreneurial companies, to see if there is market as well that we can stimulate. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 8)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: What are some of your successes stories?

Ross: We already talked about the online training company [Launch Learning Group]. They have been doing it for only six months. They have raised outside funding.

Campus Commandos is another good one. It does marketing and brand awareness on college campuses. So, if you are a brand, a large brand, and if you want to spread awareness on a college campus, this young man – his name is Adam Grant and he came out of Michigan State University – he will go on a college campus and do promotional programs, contests, and spread brand awareness. He has already covered his expenses for several months and is making good progress. >>>