Incubator assistance // Startup mentoring for tech firms blooming

Technology companies hit ting it big after humble origins in home basements and garages make great stories, but many of the entrepreneurs behind them will tell you these isolated environments were a hindrance and not a help on their road to success.

"I sure wish I had an incubator in 1986 when I started ... in my attic in Middletown," says Alan Todd, the founder of KnowledgePlanet and one of the midstate's most successful tech entrepreneurs. "I had no access to inexpensive office space, no copier, no voice mail, no accountant, no lawyer and, most importantly, no mentors."

Thanks to efforts by Todd and the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania, that kind of setting for tech startups is blooming in what has long been unused space on the second floor of the Harrisburg Transportation Center downtown.

A new startup by Todd and members of his family, Corporate University Xchange, is one of two companies that have rented space to help launch this incubator, which has great potential synergy with the emerging Harrisburg University of Science and Technology across the street. Its location above the Amtrak and bus stations also will offer easy access for out-of-town venture capitalists who want to take a look.

A lot of good things and great ideas have happened downtown in recent years -- from Whitaker Center, to Restaurant Row, to the university. This is another one.