Biz incubators to start up joint support system; NEOinc. to add on-site entrepreneurial experts, encourage tenant companies to work together

BYLINE: CHUCK SODER

After a state program forced them to get together once, the people who run Northeast Ohio's five state-funded business incubators decided it would be good for their tenant companies if they hung out more often.

The incubator directors are working to exploit their combined connections and resources via the Northeast Ohio Incubator Collaborative, or NEOinc. The first purpose of NEOinc is to hire entrepreneurial experts to be stationed at each incubator - the reason the state asked them to collaborate in the first place.

On top of that, however, the group will help tenant companies from different incubators work together, establish a list of businesses and consultants friendly to entrepreneurs and refer tenants needing specialized advice to other incubators that are better equipped to provide it.

NEOinc also plans to track the revenue and jobs created by the five incubators - the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (Magnet) incubator in Cleveland; the Akron Global Business Accelerator; the Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE) at Lorain County Community College; the Youngstown Business Incubator; and the Braintree Center for Business Innovation in Mansfield.

NEOinc director Wayne Zeman said the groups together can provide more for tenant companies than they could separately because they each have their own strengths. For instance, his incubator at Magnet specializes in manufacturing, while the Youngstown Business Incubator is known for its expertise in information technology.

The incubators each know businesses, lawyers, accountants and others who are willing and able to work with start-up companies, and the tenants themselves are a resource as well, Mr. Zeman said, noting that Magnet incubator companies have collaborated in the past.

``We're trying to open this up so there's a regional support system in place,'' said Mr. Zeman, vice president of venture development at the Magnet incubator.

The roots for the initiative can be traced back to the state's Third Frontier Project, a $1.6 billion program aimed at strengthening the high-tech component of Ohio's economy.

Northeast Ohio technology advocacy group NorTech applied last year for money from the Third Frontier Entrepreneurial Signature Program, which funds the hiring of business experts to give advice to start-up companies. The incubator directors worked together to help NorTech on the proposal because the state would accept only one application from each region.

Those meetings sparked talk of more collaboration.

It was a goal of the Entrepreneurial Signature Program to start such cooperation, said Pat Valente, director of the technology division for the Ohio Department of Development.

``It's a long time coming,'' Mr. Valente said.

NEOinc has no budget other than the Third Frontier money that the group is using to hire entrepreneurial experts, though Mr. Zeman said it might raise money in the future.

The organizations have grown ``a heck of a lot closer'' since the directors started meeting monthly last fall, said Akron Global Business Accelerator director Mike LeHere, who added that they also talk by phone at least once a week.

``I have spent more time with them in the last three months than I've spent with them in the last three or four years,'' Mr. LeHere said.

NEOinc in April released statistics showing the economic impact of the companies in all five incubators: Between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2006, the companies created 463 jobs, generated $145.8 million in revenue, attracted $59.6 million in investment capital and had a payroll of $58 million.

NEOinc plans to updates the statistics each year.

``When we add them all together, the numbers, we think, are pretty darn impressive,'' Mr. Zeman said.