Brendan McNally, PBN’s 2010 Innovation Mentor, is the director of the Rhode Island Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
The center, founded in April 2009, focuses on helping inventors find and marshal the various forms of expertise needed to bring a new product to market, particularly in the areas of life sciences and technology.
RI-CIE recently launched a new endeavor, an incubator space for entrepreneurs. Its doors at One Davol Square were opened to seven local ventures on Nov. 15. RI-CIE’s incubator provides affordable office space (between $200 and $400 depending on the number of people) and support services to early-stage, knowledge-economy ventures.
The Incubator Program members will be able to grow their business ideas under the guidance of RI-CIE’s community of experts and mentors for a maximum period of 12 months. “This is an up or out environment – make progress or move out – to help as many promising ventures as possible,” RI-CIE said in a new release.
PBN: The RI-CIE incubator is here. Who is going to be working at the space, and what kinds of businesses might we see come out of it?
MCNALLY: We’re really excited about the companies selected to participate in our RI-CIE Incubator Program. We have seven new ventures representing a variety of knowledge economy businesses. Each venture has at least two team members, so the incubator will be full of energetic entrepreneurs. The ventures are: Bakodo (barcode scanning app for consumers and retailers), Banyan Environmental (nano-technology to clean up mercury spills), DiaVibe (non-invasive anesthetic medical device), Jobzle (student job and internship software platform), ManPacks (web retailer for men’s underwear), Ryon Technologies (specialized spectrometers), and Tracelytics (performance and analytics software tools for online businesses).
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PBN: What kind of response did you see from the community? Were there a lot of applicants?
MCNALLY: Since the initial planning of RI-CIE, the community has always indicated there is a need for supported office space for entrepreneurs. Our challenge has been to distinguish between ventures that just want inexpensive space and those that want and need a range of support services. We’ve done lots of research to understand who best benefits from incubator programs, so our outreach was targeted toward entrepreneurs in Rhode Island whom we felt were at the right stage to benefit from our services and have a very strong chance at success. We had an encouraging response and had to pass on a bunch of interesting businesses.
PBN: What kind of role does RI-CIE play in the incubator space? In the news release, it mentions that there are office hours, forum events and workshops. … How much mentoring can these entrepreneurs expect?
MCNALLY: In planning RI-CIE, we learned from other successful “business acceleration” centers that cheap office space is not a key to success. Rather, before an office or lab incubator is viable, there needs to be a very active and healthy ecosystem of mentors, serial entrepreneurs, educational events, networking opportunities and programs targeted toward supporting early stage ventures.
In RI-CIE’s first 18 months, we’ve been able to help create that healthy ecosystem in Rhode Island, so we believe our Incubator now will be of great value. Some of the programs we’ve established to help the entrepreneurs include Office Hours; forums on term sheets, cap tables and intellectual property; and workshops on funding, accounting and hiring for startups.
All of our programs contain a networking component, so entrepreneurs can connect with experienced mentors and one another. We also have on-going collaborations with the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, Slater Technology Fund, R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council, Brown Technology Ventures Office, Betaspring, Social Enterprise Rhode Island, Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, and Rhode Island Entrepreneurship Faculty Group. All of these provide support services and events to help RI-CIE Incubator members.
PBN: What kind of mile markers does RI-CIE set for the members? Are there certain elements that every venture should meet in a given time frame?
MCNALLY: Our model is to provide transition support for early stage companies, so we ask that all incubator members communicate milestones for their businesses and apprise RI-CIE of progress on a regular basis. We are designed for short stays of 6-12 months, in renewable 3 month blocks. We expect most to use their time in the incubator to finalize a prototype or new product and secure an initial round of investment funding.
PBN: Incubator spaces could attract more startups from out-of-state or give innovative locals a chance to develop their ideas. Why is this important to a small economy like Rhode Island’s?
MCNALLY: We know there is a wealth of talent and ideas in Rhode Island, and many people would love to launch and grow their businesses close to where they live. On a daily basis I see the power and value of Rhode Island’s small size: access to leadership, world-class institutions (colleges, universities, hospitals, research centers), and a great quality of life near major cities like Boston and New York. We welcome ideas, opportunities and connections outside the state, but it is imperative that we create an environment that allows as many innovative ideas and companies as possible to succeed in Rhode Island. We hope RI-CIE’s Incubator is just one of many resources to keep talent here in Rhode Island.
