Idea Lab wants to help launch start-up firms

FORT COLLINS — The acronym for the Northern Colorado Idea Lab — NCIL — is pronounced “nickel.”

Randy Willer, co-founder of Rocky Mountain Innovative Technologies, hopes the “nickel” will yield rich returns for his young business.

Willer’s company is the first to complete the Northern Colorado Idea Lab’s review process for local start-ups.

“It really helped us understand some of the areas we needed to strengthen our group,” Willer said. “We saw areas we were weak in and needed to work on a little bit more ? It helped us tighten up our business plan and the direction we were going with it.”

The Northern Colorado Idea Lab is the brainchild of Kevin Hartberg, himself a business consultant in Loveland.

Hartberg, working with Kathy Kregel, director of the Fort Collins Virtual Technology Incubator, “identified a gap” in the spectrum of services for new companies.

The incubator system, Hartberg said, is geared to companies with polished business plans and a clear idea of their product or service. On the other end of the spectrum are local Small Business Development Centers, which are tailored to hopefuls who need assistance with developing a plan.

“It takes a while to go through (the SBDC) process,” Hartberg said.

In between, Hartberg said, are start-ups with a plan, but not ready for the marketplace.

The Northern Colorado Idea Lab, launched in August, offers a “success roadmap” process for its clients, said Hartberg, who serves as executive director of NCIL.

For a $500 fee, NCIL draws on a pool of business owners and consultants to provide a concentrated review of a business plan and then offer directions.

The review process for Rocky Mountain Innovative Technologies, which is developing wireless tracking technology for pets, took two weeks.

Depending on the company’s goals, the review could include structuring a deal for investors, the shape of a public relations campaign, patent issues and management details, Hartberg said.

“The Idea Lab will not be funding companies,” he said. “But we have investors who can assess what it takes to draw dollars.”

If the model for the Northern Colorado Idea Lab works, Hartberg said entrepreneurs would be matched up with experts in a related field. Consequently, business opportunities will unfold for both the start-up and the advisors.

The $500 fee, Hartberg noted, merely pays some expenses and “screens out companies that are not serious about being successful.”

Currently, the NCIL organization includes 50 primary members. “That expands two or three times with people they know in business,” Hartberg said.

Initially, NCIL will work with one company a month. That rate will increase to two a month as the organization grows.

Kregel considers NCIL to be “a safety net for technology start-ups, so we don’t lose any of them.”

In fact, Rocky Mountain Innovative Technologies could soon move on to become a client of the Virtual Technology Incubator in coming months, Kregel said.

“It’s nice to see other people stepping up and doing things for technology companies,” Kregel said. “There’s a lot more than can be done. Kevin seems to have the hustle to be the guy to do it.”

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