Invisible business incubator promoted in Fort Collins

FORT COLLINS – This city soon could become home to Colorado’s newest business and technology incubator if one man can persuade the city of its long-term benefits.

The incubator will differ from the conventional model, however: It will be invisible.

Frank Bruno, director of policy and special projects for the city, is proposing an “incubator without walls” that would eliminate the need for an expensive feasibility study and physical space.

“Ever since I’ve been here, we’ve had the discussion: Maybe we need an incubator?” Bruno said. “The problem arises when we come to the question, who’s going to pay for the feasibility study? I was getting frustrated year after year hearing that stuff.”

Typically, business incubators offer startups the opportunity to rent commercial space at a considerable discount. Usually, the lease also provides access to business services and equipment, such as accounting and legal professionals, and copiers and fax machines.

Many incubators, especially those with a technological focus, are located on college campuses that already have professionals on-site and can find the space to house the companies.

Since the mid 1980s, when business incubators were constructed nationwide to feed starving local economies, almost 500 privately and publicly funded incubators have opened throughout the country.

Bruno has devised a plan to circumvent the estimated $50,000 study needed to launch a traditional incubator. He suggests eliminating the commercial space aspect of a model incubator and simply gathering the resources for entrepreneurs to use.

“People can typically find the space,” he said, explaining that most entrepreneurs convert a section of their home for their business. “What they can’t find are the other resources.”

Bruno wants to invite established business-service centers and professionals to offer equipment or expertise. He wants to compile a booklet of accountants, attorneys, marketing professionals, advertising representatives and financial advisers willing to advise and service incubator business operators free of charge.

These volunteers may be lured by the idea that someday the entrepreneurs might flourish and stay loyal to them on a paying-customer basis, or perhaps they will simply want to seize the opportunity to get involved with the community, Bruno explained.

To avoid the unscrupulous business person who would take advantage of free services, or the business idea that is sure to flop, entrepreneurs would first have to submit a business plan to a designated committee, Bruno said. He likely would sit on that committee.

Colorado has about eight business incubators. The National Business Incubation Association in Athens, Ohio, lists three technology-oriented incubators on the Front Range: the Colorado Innovation Foundation in Golden, the Colorado Bio-Medical Venture Center in Lakewood and the Boulder Technology Incubator in Longmont.

Bruno said the biggest obstacle that he has to overcome is convincing people that the idea would work without a specific location. Operators of the traditional models agree that an incubator without walls is a viable alternative.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between having walls and not having walls,´ said Bev Adameit, office manager for the 11-year-old Colorado Innovation Foundation. She explained that the interaction and the relationships that develop are what generate business success, not space.

Research demonstrates that business incubators provide adequate wombs for healthy business. The National Business Incubation Association reports that more than 80 percent of incubated businesses survive. That figure is even more remarkable considering the U.S. Small Business Administration statistic that 80 percent of small businesses fail within their first five years of operation.

Ultimately, Bruno hopes, the Fort Collins incubator will obtain walls, preferably close to or on the Colorado State University campus. More immediately, however, he hopes to have brochures with information on incubator services and professionals printed and distributed by the first of the year.

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