Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi Irina: What is your incubator’s business model? How is it funded? Ebony: We get a lot of support from foundations and various grants. We’ve also taken a loan. Our goal is to become a self-sustainable nonprofit organization.

Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi Irina: How is the Bizdom U program is different from what you offer? Ebony: They are not an incubator. They have a four-month accelerator program. They accept a small number of folks, and you have to have a full-time commitment. You couldn’t have a job. It is

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi Irina: Do you know how entrepreneurs get evaluated for these loans? Ebony: The loans are based on business worthiness, where they are in their stages of development, who is in place on their team, and the feasibility of their idea, what is their plan, what is their

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi Ebony: We have this quadrant approach. If you think of a quadrant, on the X axis there is the stage of business development. So, the company can be in its early, early idea phase, or it can be in its growth phase. Then, on the Y axis

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion, TechTown — Detroit, Michigan (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Praveen Karoshi I am talking to Ebony Johnson, Entrepreneurial Programs Champion at TechTown, Detroit’s research and technology park. TechTown was established in 2000 by Wayne State University, General Motors, and the Henry Ford Health System with focus on emerging high-technology industries including advanced engineering, life sciences and alternative energy.

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ken Kousky, CEO, MidMichigan Innovation Center, Midland, Michigan (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Ken: So, our client, Advanced Battery Concepts, created a revolutionary technology, lead acid batteries that have a longer life cycle, weigh half as much, and cost less to produce. We have lead acid batteries all over the world. China would like to have lots of electric scooters.

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ken Kousky, CEO, MidMichigan Innovation Center, Midland, Michigan (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Irina: Do you use a lot of volunteer mentors? Ken: Yes. Our mentor profiling is I’ll work for fame and feeling good or I’ll work for fortune. If you want to work for fortune, then you want to eventually get paid, or you’ll take equity. We’re letting

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Business Incubator Series: Interview With Ken Kousky, CEO, MidMichigan Innovation Center, Midland, Michigan (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold Ken: I wish you could interview all of our ribbon partners. We have work going on in Cadillac, Michigan, in Claire, Michigan, in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, in Marlette, Michigan. Some of these are pretty small towns. We’ve got groups supporting small businesses, bringing them what we believe

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