Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Skip Simms, President And CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK — Ann Arbor, Michigan (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Skip: [The entrepreneurs that come to us], everyone’s a little different in their company growth. So, all of our programs are customized. We differ from many incubators in that regard. I think the kind of consulting services that we provide are custom, too; they are specific to particular milestones as opposed to being a generic milestone plan. You know, one lesson fits everybody … we don’t follow that model. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Skip Simms, President And CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK — Ann Arbor, Michigan (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Describe the ideal company that would benefit from your incubation?

Skip: It could be a company that’s providing a new diagnostic software that can be used in an alternative energy industry or conserved life sciences industry. It may be a company that’s working on software that helps the IT industry with manufacturing processes and procedures. It’s probably two people who have the product largely developed, but not quite finished. They have an alpha version of their product, but now they need to fine-tune it. >>>

1M/1M: VCs, Angels, Incubators, Accelerators – What WE Do With Your Rejects

Last week I wrote the post VCs, Angels, Incubators, Accelerators – What Are You Doing With Your Rejects? following which I had a number of significant private discussions which I curate here for the benefit of others who have the same kinds of questions. Overall, I think it will help the ecosystem better understand how we simply supplement existing resources and add value. Existing resources include incubators, accelerators, financing marketplaces like AngelList, and of course VCs and angels. >>>

Business Incubator Series: An Interview With Skip Simms, President And CEO, Ann Arbor SPARK — Ann Arbor, Michigan (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to Skip Simms, president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, a nonprofit business development consortium in Michigan that works in partnership with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), the state’s economic development agency, to help early-stage entrepreneurs and growing companies. >>>

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. >>>