New Castle Chamber Incubator Hatches Business Startups
Published Apr 16, 2008
Bob Chadwick says the business incubator helps entrepreneurs.
New Castle County is a hub for big business. Yet it also nurtures entrepreneurs, many of whom cut their teeth at corporations.
To encourage startups, the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce has dedicated 13,000 square feet in its new headquarters to a business incubator in the New Castle Corporate Commons business park. Benefits include a below-market rental rate and fee-for-service amenities, including Internet access, telephone service and Web hosting. In addition, business counseling is available at no charge.
Applicants must submit a written business plan to an advisory board; to be eligible, companies must be no more than three years old.
Participants enter into a six-month lease with three renewal options. The maximum stay is two years.
“We’re a stop on the evolutionary chain of a successful business,” says Bob Chadwick, Director of Economic Development for the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce. “Our goal is to help them graduate from the incubator so they can move into a regular rental space or buy a building, if they’re ready, and create jobs.”
That is also the goal of the Delaware Technology Park in Newark, a collaborative effort involving the state, private industry and the University of Delaware. The 40-acre park holds 54 high-tech companies, some of which have grown so rapidly that they’ve had to expand. Quest Pharmaceuticals, for instance, is in two buildings within the park and one elsewhere – and they’re looking for additional space.
“For the size we are, we are the little engine that could,” says J. Michael Bowman, president and chief executive officer of Delaware Technology Park. “We’re proud of the quality we’ve produced.”
Outfitting a space with high-tech equipment or wet labs is costly. Some companies find funding themselves.
In other cases, the park has borrowed the money and built it into the rental rate, which is why lab-based businesses may have longer leases. The Delaware Emerging Technology Center offers a different kind of service: It’s a virtual incubator for technology-based businesses.
An offshoot of the Delaware New Economy Initiative – a set of investments and programs supporting entrepreneurship – the ETC offers mentoring services and links to technology-oriented providers, including patent attorneys, accountants and companies that specialize in prototypes.
The center’s recently redesigned Web site, www.delawareetc.org, also has links to financing. “[Users] can come right into the portal and do searches,” says Judy McKinney-Cherry, director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.
The Delaware Intellectual Property Business Creation Program, meanwhile, transfers emergent technology from private corporations to benefit existing and new Delaware entrepreneurs. DuPont Co. has agreed to donate a minimum of 250 patents and proprietary technology packages.
“This groundbreaking program provides a distinctive edge for technology-minded entrepreneurs in Delaware,” McKinney-Cherry says. “No other state has ever done this before.”
Story by Pam George
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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