By Linda F. Jarrett
Entrepreneurs who are all dressed up with no place to go (long on ideas, but short on space) will soon have space with the opening of the new IT Enterprises.
IT Enterprises will operate under the University of Missouri-St. Louis umbrella, and
differs from other incubators in that it provides computation with faculty available to help test hypotheses.
Located at 4633 World Parkway Circle, approximately two miles west of the UMSL campus, IT Enterprises (ITE) will provide a place to translate groundbreaking ideas in the IT and life sciences field into reality.
Long-range goals for ITE include:
- House multiple startup IT and life science companies and provide facility resources and access to the UMSL faculty and
students.
- Develop new start-up companies from University inventions which will provide job opportunities for UMSL graduates
and others in the field.
- Serve as a cross-discipline research
center of excellence supporting all
academic and industry researchers requiring high performance computing.
- Operate as a springboard for major external funding supporting research, technology transfer and economic development.
Why Another Incubator?
UMSL Chancellor Thomas F. George says that establishing the incubator was part of the University of Missouri-St. Louis mission.
"We are a land grant university, part of the University of Missouri at Columbia," he says. "We have an obligation to help with economic development. That's part of what we do, and an incubator, whether it's new business for faculty members, or whether it's
for people outside the University. They need the opportunity to incubate, and that helps the economy so we felt it was the right thing to do."
George says that this endeavor is "an information technology niche" for UMSL since the fields of biotechnology and biochemistry have taken root in the St. Louis area.
"If you look around the country where the successful biotech efforts are, there's always a complementary information technology effort," he says.
"They go hand in hand. So, to us, it made sense.
"We created a new business technology and research department on campus and that first tenant is Express Scripts with their headquarters on our campus."
Nassar Arshadi, Vice Provost for Research at UMSL, says that the incubator concept is new in the St. Louis area.
"We are approaching this from a different model in that it is an open source model," he says. "In the old fashioned way, we had these huge computer centers that required a tremendous amount of initial cost with very little marginal cost, so it precluded people getting into business.
"Our new model is keeping the initial cost low with cluster computing and, as the need arises," he says, "We can expand. If the need goes down, we can contract."
The Beginnings
This concept took root in 2003, and came to fruition over three years with three grants, Nassar says. "Part of my job as research officer is to help the faculty go after federal, state, or private grants for research purposes."
The initial investment for IT Enterprises was approximately $5 million.
"I was able to get one million from the Small Business Administration," Nassar says.
"We received an $850,000 grant from the Missouri Technology Corporation that was part of the Lewis and Clark Discovery Initiative. Then we got a grant for $530,000 from the Ameren Community Development Corporation, plus I got a private contribution for $200,000 from an individual."
Nassar praises Senator Christopher "Kit" Bond who, he says, "facilitated the grant application processes," and Gov. Matthew Blunt has been supportive in the project.
"However," he says, "This entity has to be self-sustaining, so this is only to get started. We don't want to be constantly looking for subsidies to make this place work. If that's the model, then we have failed. Besides the initial support, it has to pay for itself."
What's Inside
At 56,300 square feet, the incubator features 42,200 square feet of rentable space for multiple offices, along with wet and dry labs.
"We really only need about 30,000 for the IT incubator," George says, "and that leaves about 26,000 square feet of what's basically lab space, so we do have the opportunity of some life sciences companies coming in here, as well as those with an interest in information technology. So we're talking some potential clients who would come here with a life science thrust."
A High Performance Computing Center occupies 3,100 square feet in the middle of the building.
Kelly Crone-Willis, director of IT Architecture, oversees the center. "Since we are an incubator, tenants don't have to bring in their own IT guy. I'll monitor their service after hours, so if anything would happen, we'll take care of rebooting, restarting or taking care of backups and securing their data."
The plan is for the incubator to have 12 information technology tenants with some additional life science/biotech companies.
"The idea is to have it set up so companies will interact with each other," George says.
Keeping the companies here is another goal. "Once we have a small company who is doing well," George says, "we expect that they would stay in the region rather than move out of state."
The Goals
Nassar says IT Enterprises is geared for two types of tenants. "Pure information technology companies can be a good place, but also life science companies that require computation," he says. "We want to do something different than other incubators in town. While they are great incubators, they don't have the computation facility. If you require extensive large scale data analysis, this is the place to come."
Jim Brasunas, director of the Information Technology Entrepreneur Network, says that although he has an office at another incubator, he will also have an office at ITE.
Brasunas' company helps nurture information technology companies by finding "angel investors or venture capitalists' to look at them with an eye to investing.
"I am hoping IT Enterprises will be a focal point for these companies," he says. "There are companies I talk to who have overlapping business plans and they don't know it. If they all get together, one good company could come out of that."
Jean Robertson, chief financial officer of software developer Appistry, believes that ITE will become a center point for people who are interested in technology to learn about what is going on in the community and find the right fit for them.
"It's hard to keep up with all the new things going on," she says, "So I think what we're doing here is trying to bring things together to a point so that St. Louis will become a place where people will go to look for new technology."
New Incubator Tenant
IT Enterprises first tenant, binarydock Inc., an information technology firm, moved here in July.
Rohit Pasam, managing director and CEO says his company provides a complete package of technology solutions including project management.
"We specialize in one particular area, rapid product prototyping," he says. "In layman's language, if you have an idea, we can scan and see if something similar has been done elsewhere, and we can see if it will work or not."
Pasam said one of the reasons he chose ITE was the university environment.
"This particular spot is the collaboration of our vision to associate with a university. This is where cutting-edge research is going on, and you need leverage with what you're working on right now such as federal grants or even students writing papers.
"It is the responsibility of these industry leaders to work with academia and the university to make those intangible ideas into tangible products that would help our community."
With 15 to 20 employees, binarydock is still in the "growing stages," Pasam says.
He added that he plans to stay in St. Louis because, for one, its "geographical significance. It's within five hours of Nashville, Chicago, Memphis, and Kansas City. As a technology company, it's important to get the clients.
"We can also reach the universities such as University of Illinois and University of Missouri - Rolla with their valuable resources for hiring."
The lower costs of living, labor and running a business is another reason, he says. "Any new company wants to save money."
Finally, he adds, being in a smaller city means less competition for clients.
"We try to leverage opportunity and
thatÕs another reason we want to be here in St. Louis."
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