Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: Could you describe an ideal company that would benefit from your program?

Ross: Most people that we bring into our program do not have established businesses. They are people who are seeking out ideas.

I can give you an example. There was a woman [Judy Davids] who had a lot of different ideas. She didn’t know which one to settle on, so we brought her into the program. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jerry: What our success is in, it’s the tech development side; it’s helping the economy grow; it’s creating jobs; it’s attracting businesses and investors to New Jersey, and building a high-tech, world-class workforce of people who want to stay in the state. Those are my mission objectives that are consistent with the university.

I look at that in a couple of different ways. For example, the 90-some companies that I have in here, their combined revenue is $82 million, which is a real good contribution, because of the tax base and everything that goes with that.

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Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Ross: [Since LLG is an online training platform for a pre-licensing exam for the insurance sales force], we can grow the company in Detroit, Michigan, but we can service the entire country and we don’t have to be in those different states in order to sell our services in those states. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Ross Sanders, Bizdom U – Detroit, Michigan and Cleveland, Ohio (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

I am talking to Ross Sanders, executive director of Bizdom U, which is a not-for-profit business accelerator, that is in some ways similar to Y Combinator and yet different in others. The founder of Bizdom U is Dan Gilbert, a serial entrepreneur, chairman and founder of Quicken Loans, among his many other companies. Bizdom U originated in Detroit in 2007 and is now expanding into Cleveland. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Jerry: One of the areas that works well for us is I have very strong networking here. One of the reasons I have those networking sessions is so that people come in, and they actually sit down and talk to each other. Because of that, they might learn that they have skills that others may need. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Tim Lavengood, Technology Innovation Center – Evanston, Illinois (Part 10)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: Are there any financial firms that specialize in software escrow?

Tim: Very few. It’s a good business to get into. It is emerging, because software code is an asset. It is a transferable asset, unlike making something in a factory. If this code has proven commercial value, it is one of the financing options that I recommend for companies.

I am talking to a team of software developers right now who can do that kind of development work for equity. I see so many people who are trying to raise $150,000 in capital from angel investors, and I see most of it is going to go to programmers. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Jerry Creighton, Enterprise Development Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology – Newark (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: How many inquiries do you receive a month?

Jerry: I get two or three a week.

Irina: Out of those, how many do you usually accept?

Jerry: That’s a very good question. It’s a cyclical thing. Typically, 50% of them are people who will say, “I like the idea. I’ll be back in six months, as soon as I get funding.” Some people say, “We’re ready right now.” I would say that 60% of all companies I talk to come in at some point, either immediately or sometime over the year. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Tim Lavengood, Technology Innovation Center – Evanston, Illinois (Part 9)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi

Irina: How many of your entrepreneurs work on software businesses? And what kind of software?

Tim: It would be probably about 50% of our companies, either half or just under half. A lot of people want to hook on to enterprise software programs. Many are interested in social networking, data mining, and Web development. >>>