PROVIDENCE – Local startup incubator Betaspring LLC nearly tripled the number of applications it received this year from technology and design entrepreneurs seeking to take part in the 12-week mentorship program.
Nine teams comprising 25 entrepreneurs are currently in Betaspring’s program, which began June 1 and ends with a “Demo Day” on Aug. 19, said Allan Tear, the organization’s managing partner. Seven teams took part last year. The nine teams’ proposals are further along in development than last year’s seven were when they got started, he said.
Betaspring provides teams of entrepreneurs with up to $20,000 in seed funding and a three-month “boot camp” program to help them navigate the startup process and learn effective business practices. At the end, they are linked up with potential investors and Betaspring takes a small equity stake in the nascent firms.
Betaspring received 65 applications for this year’s nine spots, compared with roughly 24 last year, Tear said. The bids to join “pretty much flowed in” this year, whereas last year the group’s organizers had to work harder to attract participants, he said.
“We mostly just managed to put ourselves on the national stage, and to look reasonably credible doing it,” Tear said. Betaspring operates out of the 1 Davol Square building owned by Brown University, in space leased from the year-old R.I. Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Tear said he would like Betaspring to double the number of applications it gets again next year. But “anything above that [amount] starts to turn into something difficult to manage,” he said. Tear co-founded Betaspring with Owen Johnson, owner of the Providence brokerage Reagent, and Jack Templin, a consultant who also leads the R.I. Economic Development Corporation’s RI Nexus program.
In January, Betaspring received a $366,000 two-year grant from the Governor’s Workforce Development Board to help fund its expansion.
Additional information is available at betaspring.com.
