Graduates Find Incubators Help Breed Success

By George Berkheimer, STAFF WRITER



To get ahead in life, many people start by gaining knowledge and experience at a college that suits their needs. Fledgling businesses have a similar option available to them through the state's many technology incubators.

Like committed college students, incubator tenants find that the right attitude and hard work help put them on the fast track to greater opportunity after graduation.

Hagerstown-based P&D Creative Co. got its start in 1993 as a home-based business specializing in industrial grade biodegradable degreasers and cleaners. A year later, company President Paresh Shah seized the chance to become the first tenant at the Hagerstown Community College's new Technical Innovation Center.

In many respects the program was a gamble. "There wasn't a specific assigned person to coordinate with, and everything was handled by the Junior College," Shah recalled. But good things soon began to happen.

"We were able to use a large conference room with equipment that was very impressive to the clients and other visitors who came to see us," he said. "The Internet was still in its early days, but we had access to a high speed connection through the college that made things a lot easier for us."

The opportunity to work closely and network with other companies that were active on the campus brought new clients to P&D Creative.

The company has gone global since graduating in 2002, opening an office in India and exporting its product to additional overseas markets in China, Singapore, Europe and Africa.

In the domestic market, P&D Creative is poised to introduce a new liquid laundry detergent and several new glass and bathroom cleaning products to the retail world through Target and a number of food chain stores.

Success might have followed naturally without the incubator experience, Shah reflected, "but it certainly would have been harder to achieve without the access to technology, financial assistance and reasonable rent we found there."



Milestones

Founded in 1994, the contract engineering and manufacturing firm DVF Corp. is another successful Technical Innovation Center graduate.

Access to computer numerical controlled milling, turning and inspecting equipment at the college's advanced technology center saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, said co-owner Jay Wolf.

His company returned the favor by sponsoring and participating in a variety of seminars and programs that served as marketing opportunities.

"Our clients certainly felt better knowing we had a dedicated facility," Wolf said.

Since graduating in 2000, DVF's volume of business has steadily increased to the point that the company recently bought its own building, which it is now in the process of outfitting.

"Without our incubator experience we'd probably be working out of somebody's house right now," Wolf said.

For serial entrepreneur Chris Sleat, the best value at the Chesapeake Innovation Center was "the things that we were exposed to, such as business opportunities, access to capital and working with the center to gain access to customers."

Sleat serves as COO of Inclinix Inc. of Annapolis, a clinical trial enrollment solutions provider that has experienced 20-fold revenues since graduating from the homeland security incubator.

"It's a whole different company now," Sleat said. "We started with eight or nine employees and now have 90."

Like Shah, Sleat believes his own motivation might have taken him just as far, although he acknowledged that several significant milestones were made possible by the incubator program.

"We landed two key contracts as a direct result of being there," he said. "Without that opportunity, the company might not be where it is today."



Growth Posture

ADF Solutions President J. J. Wallia admits he wasn't overwhelmed by the building he encountered at the Maryland Technology Development Center (MTDC) in Rockville, but the cost and location were right, as was the experience the company received while working to position itself for growth.

"We had access to other Maryland resources through the program," he said, and an introduction to the state Department of Business and Economic Development that led to a $150,000 investment from the agency.

ADF Solutions provides cyber agents and first responders with high tech forensic tools that scan computers for criminal evidence. The so-called intelligent triage has led to a reduction in the backlog of computers being analyzed for fraud and other cyber crimes by law enforcement agencies, he explained.

"We've got clients in nine countries today, and we're profitable," Wallia said.

More specifically, he noted that while other companies are hoping just to hold on through 2009, ADF Solutions is on track to double its 2008 revenue figures.

"We found people who were wonderful to deal with, and it was a pleasant experience," he said of the company's tenure.



Contact Development

Focused on the development of therapeutic drugs to combat infectious viral diseases using monoclonal antibodies, Biofactura of Rockville was founded in 2003. The company has shown great promise as a partner in the civilian and military biodefense effort through its work to develop a smallpox therapeutic. It is also developing platform technologies in-house to discover, develop and rapidly manufacture other therapeutics.

"Our biggest problem was space," said President and CEO Darryl Sampey. Facing what amounted to a daily rental situation at the University of Maryland, "we looked at different incubators and found that MTDC fit us best in terms of lab space and utilities."

Administrators at the incubator helped develop network contacts in a number of different spheres and were able to assist with business development, Sampey added.

The company also found ample opportunity for collaboration with other tenants.

Since its recent graduation, the company has joined another former tenant to purchase a shared building and has made significant progress in advancing one of its programs from the pre-clinical arena to being ready to apply for FDA studies for clinical trials.

"We knew we had a lot to learn about getting a company off the ground," Sampey said. "The incubator was a great foundation to operate from in that respect."



Smart Choice

The reasons for entering a business accelerator program at an incubator are as varied as the companies themselves, but there are a few generalities, said CIC Executive Director Sarah Djamshidi.

"Our job is to figure out what they need and try to connect them in a way that will take them from Point A to Point B," she said.

Some need help with business plans, others need help with financing, but every tenant benefits from the additional business contacts that the programs make possible.

There is also a certain amount of technology scouting that incubators do for government agencies and systems integrators such as Northrop Grumman, Boeing and the National Security Agency, Djamshidi said.

"Anything that helps build relationships is positive," she said. "Incubators are a conduit to becoming better established in the marketplace, helping tenants establish the credibility they may be lacking."

There was a time when the venture community looked at incubator tenants as companies that couldn't take care of themselves in the marketplace, Djamshidi observed.

"That attitude has changed over the years as incubators became smarter and began offering more services to entrepreneurs, and they're still evolving," she said.

It's no longer considered a sign of weakness when companies reach out to incubators when the going gets rough or confusing.

"That's the sign of a smart entrepreneur," she said.