Page 71 - Innovation Delaware 2019

1313 INNOVATION IS A WILMINGTON-BASED CO-WORKING SPACE.
SUSAN TAM ROBERT HERRERA
KEN TOMLINSON
ACCELERATORS AND INCUBATORS by the Numbers
150
The number of companies that Delaware Technology Park has helped launch since its founding in 1992, chiefly by providing inexpensive office and lab space
100,000
Square feet of multi-use lab space available at Delaware Innovation Space
Up to
400
Download speed available for tenants at The Mill, in megabytes per second
SOURCES: 1313 INNOVATION, DELAWARE INNOVATION SPACE, DELAWARE TECH PARK, THE MILL
experience. There’s an old saying that they look for investment from ‘friends, family and fools.’ But we’re the ones who can be honest with them and tell them, ‘Don’t max out your credit card,’ if we think the idea is never going to work.”
SevOne, an IT company now located at STAR Campus, with a heavy invest- ment from Bain Capital, well illustrates the importance of finding the right space and the right funding. It started as two students from Bulgaria who had an idea, Mike Bowman says. Now it has 250 em- ployees and a niche market it describes as “the industry’s fastest, most scalable and comprehensive real-time IT infra- structure monitoring, troubleshooting and performance reporting solution.”
Bowman also helps successful com- panies stay in Delaware once they’ve outgrown their quarters at DTP. One example is Quest Pharmaceutical Services, better known as QPS, which started at DTP in 1995. Bowman made sure the company’s space accommodated its growth needs and made key introduc- tions that helped take the business to
the next level, according to QPS CEO Dr. Benjamin Chien.
DELAWARE INNOVATION SPACE
Some of DTP’s “graduates” who need more space end up in facilities man- aged by Bill Provine at the Delaware Innovation Space, which opened to
its first new tenant in late 2017, at the former DuPont Experimental Station. According to Provine, the Innovation Space has three anchor companies — DuPont, Chemours and Incyte — and eight smaller firms. “We have programs such as the virtual incubator, where we’re helping train on how to start a company, as well as having residential companies with six-months leases who are trying to get to the next step.”
Provine also sponsors the Delaware FastPass competition with the Delaware Division of Small Business, which is valued at $50,000. The winner receives one year of free access either to the
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