JCC Revamps Place for Entrepeneurs to Take Off

By Amber Lester Thursday, February 04, 2010

James City County’s business incubator has been retooled as a program to boost more than technology business.

The James City County Economic Development Authority (EDA) has teamed with the College of William and Mary’s Technology and Business Center (TBC) to broaden the program’s reach. The project has been renamed the “James City County Business and Technology Incubator.”

The new focus came at the urging of the incubator’s manager, the Hampton Roads Technology Council. When the incubator opened in 2007, it had about six clients, but growth started to “tail off,” according to Keith Taylor, director of James City County’s EDA. In 2009, the incubator attracted one virtual client and one resident client. “We were just a little disappointed,” Taylor said. “When we queried HRTC, they said it might be worth considering shifting gears and trying to make it more inclusive.”

The JCC business incubator was launched in 2007 under the management of the Hampton Roads Technology Council in an effort to boost technology business in the Hampton Roads region. HRTC also operates an incubator in Hampton, opened in 1998. HRTC is a nonprofit devoted to launching regional technology companies into international business.

The incubator concept has two components – a physical “incubator” and mentoring services that nurture technology entrepreneurs in Hampton Roads. Taylor believes start-up businesses can benefit from sharing space. “When you have entrepreneurs gathered in one space, the information starts to fly,” he said. “If someone is trying to find a good patent attorney, someone else may be able to suggest one. It’s that kind of synergy.”

The “incubator” is a 2,260-square-foot office located at 5300 Palmer Lane. It features low-cost office space and common areas, plus a conference room, kitchen, restrooms, maintenance services and unreserved parking. The offices have high-speed Internet access, AV equipment and a copier and printer (fee maybe required). The fees for clients are determined on a case-by-case basis.

Mentoring services come in the form of pro bono advice from advertising firms, lawyers and other business experts. “People are normally willing to do that on a pro bono basis if at the end of the tunnel, they might get some business out of it,” Taylor said. “Now that we’ve got the college technology business center on board, we’re starting to establish credibility.”

The incubator is funded through April 2011 by the EDA with $70,000 in county funds; the county also supplies the furnishings for the office building.

William and Mary Technology and Business Center Director Bill Bean will organize the application process. The partnership with the college also will add opportunities for mentorship from business professors and experts, Taylor said.

“With the EDA’s support, we intend to provide more mentoring services on a broader variety of core business knowledge needs areas in a more structured approach,” Bean said in a release. “Each company selected for incubation will have to satisfy some basic criteria relative to what and where its business model or business plan is in terms of evolution. We will then customize a menu of program milestones for each of them to achieve in order to graduate.”

In January, the incubator welcomed a new resident – MODU-System America, LLC. MODU System is the first U.S. subsidiary for Malaysia-based MODU System, a manufacturer of multi-flex modular conveyor systems. The Williamsburg office employs two people. Taylor said the business is the first in the incubator not “technologically driven.”

“The geographic location here is strategic to our efforts to penetrate the U.S. market, and the incremental office space approach that the incubator provides gives us the flexibility to grow as our market share and employee needs grow here,” said John J. Douglas, vice president of sales for MODU System America, in a release. “We can also learn more about the ins and outs of establishing a foreign-based subsidiary here through the incubator’s advisory services.”

The restructured management agreement will run through March 2011, when the EDA and TBC will evaluate the incubator’s success. HRTC’s Executive Director Tim Early said he believes the change in management is a good move. “We believe this is the right step for James City County’s EDA to take,” he said. “HRTC has offered to continue to provide advisory support to the incubator and its clients as needs warrant.”

Entrepreneurs interested in becoming incubator clients should contact Bill Bean at 757-221-7825 or email him at webean@wm.edu.