Director, UMass partnership poised to revitalize STCC business incubator

Date: 6/1/2010

May 31, 2010

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- A director and a new relationship with the University of Massachusetts (UMass) is expected to yield a different direction for the Springfield Incubator at the Scibelli Enterprise Center at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC).

At a press announcement on May 27, UMass Chancellor Robert Holcomb joined with STCC President Ira Rubenzahl and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno in describing the new partnership.

According to Frank Colaccino, the chair of the advisory board of the Scibelli Center, 29 businesses have "graduated" from the incubator since its inception in 1999 and have created 250 jobs.

Marla Michel, executive director of strategic communications and outreach at UMass, will become the new director of the incubator. There has not been a director for the program since last fall. Michel will establish ties to UMass research centers, institutions and programs and will add the duties of director to her present ones at the university.

Michel said the Springfield Incubator would be "a national model for how incubators can go."

She predicted, "We will be the entrepreneurial hub of Western Massachusetts."

She told Reminder Publications there would be a new emphasis on the tenants accepted building their businesses at the incubator. She is looking for information technology companies as well as companies developing "green" products and services in order to take advantage of the fiber optic network at the college.

She added that by having companies within the same basic fields, a greater sense of community and support could be generated.

In addition, an UMass spin-off company, Texifter LLC, will move into the incubator.

Businesses accepted for the incubator not only get an office area and support services, but receive the advice of a team of attorneys, marketers, accountants and other business people on how to develop their businesses, Colaccino explained.

The Small Business Administration said that only 40 percent of business startups are still operating after six years. The Springfield Incubator has a success rate of 90 percent, Colaccino said.

Michel said the occupancy rate at present is between 30 and 40 percent and she said there is room for six or seven more businesses.

Two businesses are leaving the Springfield Incubator to offices downtown. Dennis Driscoll and Peter Ellis own DID Designs, a full service Web design agency. They have been at the incubator for six years and Ellis described the experience as "supportive and very instructional."

The company has six full-time employees and expands to 12 to 15 during the busiest times of their year, Driscoll said.

Todd Gordner, the owner of Print Now, had already been in business seven years and spent two years at the incubator changing his business. He said the time at the incubator was "definitely vital" to the success of his firm.

The "greatest thing" was the advisory board assigned to his business, he said.

"All those resources come together in one place," he said. "[It was] fantastic."

For more information on the incubator, contact Michel at 755-6109 or by e-mail at marla@admin.umass.edu.