A Shout-out for Incubators
My youngest grandchild was born 4 weeks early and narrowly avoided admission to the NICU. As an obstetrician, I always associated the word “incubator” with a small plastic box where a premature baby lives from birth until independence. I didn’t know much about the start-up industry who borrowed the word “incubator” to describe an organization who helped promising young businesses. Now that I am about to graduate from a start-up incubator, I have found a lot of commonalities.
A premature infant is a person with unlimited potential. Because that baby arrived too soon, it requires the help of technology and professionals to gain independence. Premature babies born in hospitals without the appropriate intensive care have a lower chance of survival. The course of each individual baby’s NICU stay is rocky, with unforeseen bad days and good days. With the right assistance and advice, a preemie graduates the NICU and goes home to a celebration. As infants, a child who started in the NICU will always face challenges. With attentive parents and continued pediatric support, most grow up to be healthy, thriving children.
Start-up businesses are a lot like preemies. Most have a great idea with significant potential. If they are brought to market too early, they are unlikely to survive. If they are lucky enough to gain entrance to a start-up incubator, the chance of survival as a business increases dramatically. There is extensive technology available to help start-up businesses. The key is you need a professional to guide your business toward the right resources and away from the wrong resources. Even in an incubator, there are bad days and good days as your advisors point out the very glaring shortcomings of your idea and business plan. At the end of the incubator, there is a celebration as you pitch your business idea to a group of investors and prominent start-up celebrities. After the incubator is over, you still face challenges. If you have the right support from your team and your investors, you can grow to be a successful and thriving business.
My co-founder, Les Hamashima, and I were accepted into the GRO incubator program at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) in the Research Triangle Park of North Carolina in the USA in August, 2023. We felt we had a solid idea with great potential for a business. But, I admit now, we weren’t ready to be an independent business yet. CED offered technology assistance and advice from professionals in our incubator, just like an NICU. We had a rocky course trying to address weaknesses in our business plan. I feel we met our milestones, just a preemie who is trying so hard to get off assistance and be independent. This week, we get discharged from our intensive care incubator in a celebration called DEMO DAY. CED has already offered continued support after graduation to make sure our business can be successful and thrive. So, hat’s off to incubator programs like GRO. If your business is a start-up preemie, you should seriously consider asking for intensive care in an incubator like we did.
