South Florida Business Journal, Mar 23rd, 2013.
by Jane Teague
You’ve made the decision to start your own company. Although the road to successful entrepreneurship may be long, lonely and riddled with potholes, good incubator and accelerator programs can help you minimize risk, form great partnerships, raise seed capital, and achieve milestones more quickly. In fact, a number of new facilities and programs have emerged throughout the region, but selecting the program that best suits your needs may be critical to ultimate success or failure. Business incubation is not new in South Florida, or Florida, for that matter. The non-profit Center for Health Technologies (CHT) was launched in Miami in the mid-1980s to help emerging health technology businesses enter the marketplace. The center provided coaching and networking events, but the program ceased in 1997 when CHT lost use of its building. In 1999, Enterprise Development Corp. of South Florida (EDC) launched the Technology Business Incubator in Boca Raton in partnership with the Florida Atlantic Research & Development Authority. It now runs both virtual and brick-and-mortar incubation programs.
EDC collaborates with academic and business partners that provide space. Entrepreneurs typically pay rent, but EDC services are offered free of charge. The organization recently expanded within the Research Park at Florida Atlantic University to offer both co-shared and standard office options for technology entrepreneurs, and will open additional facilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties in the coming months.
Entrepreneurs must consider many factors when selecting the right environment in which to grow their business. Programs vary by duration, degree of structure, quality of advisors, variety of resources and amenities, and, of course, cost.
Incubate Miami, located in downtown Miami, launched in 2009 as the first structured accelerator program in the region. Participants spent time in the incubator and followed a 12-week curriculum that culminated in a public Demo Day.
The Launch Pad Tech provides a structured, 12-week program where 10 select teams work full-time to create and launch their businesses. The accelerator and incubator offers qualified companies mentoring, coaching, seed grants and free space for a set period of time. The Launch Pad’s affiliated Venture Hive is accepting applications now for May occupancy.
Also in Miami is The Lab Miami, marketed as a campus for social and technology entrepreneurship and located in the Wynwood Arts District.
Pipeline Brickell offers shared workspace for a diverse community of entrepreneurs, startups, independent professionals and small business teams.
The University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park combines co-sharing space as well as offices and wet labs for emerging and mature life science and related companies. And there are others.
Each model offers something unique. Whether you are seeking a collection of like-minded software developers, scientists, biomedical engineers, or graphic artists, you should consider the quality and price of the resources provided; the duration and flexibility of the program; proximity to academic, workforce and other key resources; and degree of ongoing support, if any, after you graduate.
Chances are there is a program that is just right for you, regardless of your needs or where you want to be located.