Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What is your own background? How did you arrive at this point?

Chris: Thank you for asking. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve done four or five of these things. I’ve had successes and I’ve had failures. My biggest success is that I was one of the founders of MapQuest. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Would you talk more about warrants?

Chris: The concept here is that, if we think one of the companies – or two of the companies – has a lot of promise, we could put an additional $250,000 into that company and really help move them into their next round, whether it’s funding, just getting them off the ground hiring people, whatever the next step is for them.

When we do that, we take a much more active role. We get a board seat. We put in some of our people . . . some of the LaunchBox partners get very involved with the companies to help them go through this next phase. We still have, of course, our role with the other companies. We’re still active, but we’re doubling down on the handful of companies that we think show the most promise. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you compensate mentors who come in to help your entrepreneurs?

Chris: They’re all volunteers.

Irina: What are your metrics of success at LaunchBox?

Chris: There’re two measuring sticks today. The ultimate measuring stick, as a venture fund, is a return on investment to our investors. That’s obvious. We all know that that’s probably three, five, or seven years out that we see that.

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Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Chris: The board of advisors for each company enrolled will include two LaunchBox partners and two to three outsiders, who will meet every week for an hour and help to drive this company through the 12-week program. It’s really great. I sit in on every one of those [meetings]. It’s just the most fun thing in the world. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Do you announce in a press release or on the Web that the next program session open, and companies start applying?

Chris: That’s correct. We do some outbound marketing. We get some mentions in the technology and entrepreneurial press. We’ve run for three years now. There’s a very strong word of mouth in this community for these accelerator programs.

Irina: When will you start accepting applications for the next accelerator? What is the process? >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What would be the ideal company to have in your incubation program?

Chris: For the most part, first-time entrepreneurs who have a reasonably mature concept of what they want to build in a fairly large market or large market opportunity; something where the value is [so] obvious that they succeed in implementing their vision.

On an individual basis, the team is a bright, well-rounded team. We do not accept, for the most part, one-person teams. We like for there to be at least one, if not two developers on the team. We’re looking for A teams and really nice market opportunities. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Chris Heivly, Executive Director, LaunchBox Digital (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Chris Heivly, executive director of LaunchBox Digital, an accelerator program for  entrepreneurs based in Durham, North Carolina. The program structure and workings are similar to Y Combinator and TechStars. >>>

An Interview With Debera Johnson, Founder And Executive Director, Pratt Design Incubator For Sustainable Innovation (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Are there any other metrics that you measure?

Debera: No, just whether [the companies are] able to shift from needing the support of the incubator to being their own companies. That’s our goal, basically, that they’re launched and they’re successful. >>>