Business incubator launched
By Austin Harris
Online Editor

The Babcock Graduate School of Management launched a long-awaited business incubator Nov. 13 as part of a recent city initiative to attract more small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Known as the Babcock Demon Incubator, it will serve as a unique new undertaking by the university’s focal point of entrepreneurial activities, the Babcock School’s Angell Center for Entrepreneurship.

Located in a 1,200-square foot basement of a university-owned home on University Parkway, the incubator has been in planning for nearly a year, though Babcock School officials only recently announced the project.

The university appointed Paul Briggs, a former Duke Energy executive and Winston-Salem resident, director of the incubator. A graduate of Davidson College and a member of the Winston-Salem State University Board of Visitors, Briggs will oversee the activities of the incubator, as well as identify start-ups that may be able to take advantage of the incubator’s services. A twelve-member board of local businesspeople will also guide the incubator.

The goal of the incubator is to assist local entrepreneurs, many of whom are graduates of the university, in starting and succeeding in their own business ventures. The incubator also provides an extensive network of expertise from successful entrepreneurs and service providers in the Triad area.

“The Babcock Demon Incubator is a place where new ventures can come and find support while they find their legs,” Jack Wilkerson, Dean of the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy, said.

The incubator, which will hold between three and five start-ups at a time, gives each tenant a year to solidify its operations and find a permanent home. Each company is given office space and an Internet connection in exchange for monthly fees. The university possibly will obtain an equity stake in each company as well.

The Triad Entrepreneurial Initiative, a private group created to promote economic development, awarded the Babcock Demon Incubator its first grant, $40,000. The winner of TEI’s annual business-plan competition will be one of the next companies to locate in the incubator.

Cygentics Corporation was the first company to sign up to participate in the Babcock Demon Incubator. A newly formed company, Cygentics develops technologies to be used in the retail industry. The company will operate within the incubator while it seeks funding and outside support. The chief business development officer of Cygentics, Jim Richmond, is a recent graduate of the Babcock School’s evening MBA program.

Fifteen other companies reportedly have expressed interest in joining the incubator. Despite the enthusiasm, Babcock School officials plan to be extremely selective when choosing participants in the venture. “Getting a business into our incubator is a competitive process, but the incubator is open to the best ideas we can get in there,” Charles Moyer, Dean of the Babcock School, said.

MBA candidates from the Babcock School are instrumental in solving the businesses’ problems as they arise. “There is lots of advisory and consulting work that needs to be done, and our students will play a large role in that,” Moyer said.

Both Moyer and Wilkerson expressed enthusiasm for the recently announced Calloway School entrepreneurial center and incubator space. The space is part of an addition to Calloway Hall, made possible by a $5 million gift from the F.M. Kirby Foundation.

“More and more students are interested in the entrepreneurial track,” Wilkerson said. “A team of students in the Calloway incubator will take a fledgling concept, nurture that along into a business plan, exit our incubator and perhaps end up in the Babcock incubator with a concept.”

Moyer showed interest in the potential for cooperation between the Calloway and Babcock Schools. “There are huge opportunities for Calloway students,” both in the upcoming entrepreneurial center and in the Babcock Demon Incubator. “Calloway students will be able to assist [in the Babcock incubator], particularly on the accounting side,” Moyer said.

The incubator hopes to influence the broader Triad community beyond the scope of the university. With mergers and consolidations occurring at a frenzy, little room is left for smaller businesses to compete. “(The incubator) is one of a number of different elements that is going on in this community. We want to convert this town from a three or four horse town in terms of business … into a town hospitable of technology,” Moyer said.

“There’s no shortage of ideas in the world, but there is a shortage of promising ideas,” he said.