Business Incubator Series: John Richards, BoomStartup, Provo, Utah (Part 5)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

John: We have about 50 top mentors who are listed on our website. Sometimes they provide only a few hours during the summer. Sometimes, they’ll come in and provide four hours every week because they fall in love with the program. They do it all free. >>>

Business Incubator Series: John Richards, BoomStartup, Provo, Utah (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

John: So, Bazari contacted the top 15 microfinance institutions in India and met with 13 of the 15 to offer them their online loan reporting platform.

[Bazari offers SMS interface to manage reporting and tracking of lending and collection of the micro-borrowers accounts.] >>>

Business Incubator Series: John Richards, BoomStartup, Provo, Utah (Part 1)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

I am talking to John Richards, co-founder and co-managing partner at BoomStartup, which is a mentorship-driven accelerator in Provo, Utah.

Irina: Hi, John. Where are you originally from?

John: I grew up in the Seattle area. Actually, I was born in Pennsylvania, and then my parents moved back to Seattle. I grew up in Seattle and had a long career in Seattle until I moved to Utah for the teaching position. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Mark Lieberman, Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, California (Part 7)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: What kind of support do you offer to your entrepreneurs with funding?

Mark: I mentioned before that Pasadena Angels are a resonance to our incubator. They do their screenings here. They do their due diligence sessions here. They do the prescreening sessions here.

We also have a special loan program geared for our clients, where they are eligible – again, the key word is eligible – to receive up to $200,000 in loan money. We are currently lending at 6% fixed, and for a startup company that’s very, very inexpensive. And of course we are looking at collateral and personal guarantees on those loans. The process is very similar to an SBA loan. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Mark Lieberman, Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, California (Part 6)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: Actually, Gold Star started by thinking that [they were] going to be an employee benefits company, but they rapidly realized that they can only grow so far in doing that, and opened up to the public and that just took off. So, they did, in a sense, an industry pivot. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Mark Lieberman, Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, California (Part 4)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: We receive about five or six applications a month.

Irina: How many out of those do you usually take in?

Mark: We have two programs. One is the resident program where we devote most of our resources. We also have an affiliate program. The affiliate program is for clients who aren’t residing here, maybe a bit earlier than we would like to see them, but we feel [they] have good potential. We don’t want to turn them away [so] we put them in our affiliate program. Of those five, perhaps one or two are not ready. One or two will go into the affiliate program. One or two might come into the incubator. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Mark Lieberman, Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, California (Part 3)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Mark: We have connections to two of the largest angel groups in Southern California. The Pasadena Angels reside in our incubator. That’s over 100 member organization. And The Tech Coast Angels, I think, is the largest angel network in the world with close to 300 members, all here in Southern California. >>>

Business Incubator Series: Mark Lieberman, Business Technology Center of Los Angeles County, California (Part 2)

By guest authors Irina Patterson and Candice Arnold

Irina: Could you give an example of what kind of entrepreneurs you would like to see applying to your incubator?

Mark: Yes. I am looking at a spin-out at a university where they might have had an SBIR [Small Business Innovation Research Program] grant or an STTR grant [ Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program]. They made a prototype. They have approached a couple of companies to figure out if there is a market there. >>>