[ Above: Craig Kinley with e-Merge @ the Garage in the e-Merge office space in Anderson ]
12-week boot camp at e-Merge @ the Garage may start this spring
After announcing a plan in July, Anderson-based business incubator program e-Merge @ the Garage is ready to start taking names – specifically, the names of companies and entrepreneurs to participate in it its first cohort of startups slated for a 12-week business boot camp, says company chairman and founder, Craig Kinley.
“Cohort1” will include four to six early-stage companies, each of which will develop a business or idea using mentoring opportunities, collaboration space and business support from e-Merge. Businesses should focus on products or services in the health care, information technology, education, agribusiness or culinary arts industries, Kinley says.
The industry targets were chosen from the state’s list of competitiveness clusters based on existing industries and firms in Anderson and in the Upstate. Targeted partnerships, mentoring and regional strengths will increase the chances for long-term success among e-Merge graduates, Kinley said.
“Anderson today doesn’t have the talent to go after all 16 clusters,” said the Anderson native. “When you look at the South Carolina incubators, a lot of them have a lot of technology or application-driven focus, but we want to broaden them to some of the manufacturing or agribusiness industries.”
Startups chosen to be a part of the first cohort will also have the chance to pitch their businesses to angel investors, turning the typical accelerator model upside down by offering intangible pieces such as mentoring, space and the environment up front, Kinley said. Offering seed money right off the bat can be attractive to entrepreneurs, but they might not always stay put, he said.
“We’re looking for someone or a group of people that have an idea, the team and the passion to take this to a scalable business model,” he said. “It’s a 12-week program that teaches and guides through mentors. Mentors are the secret sauce.”
Kinley said applications have already started rolling in, including a health monitoring applicant, a data analytics cruncher and an education-focused idea. While a deadline for applications hasn’t been set, Kinley hopes to announce the cohort by May and begin the program in May or June this year.
Last July, Kinley announced that the incubator project would be located in 10,000 square feet of long-vacant space in the bottom of a parking garage in downtown Anderson. The building, which was built by the city of Anderson, hadn’t been occupied for five years, and none of the heating or piping had been installed. Total renovations and infrastructure are expected to be around $400,000, which he calls an investment in Anderson’s business future.
“We didn’t have a place that you could go to as a business resource when you were starting a small company,” he said, recalling his own entrepreneurial beginnings with Anderson-based craft beer store Growler Haus. Kinley also founded technology company WiProwess LLC after spending several years in the corporate world.
“I had to go through that struggle of who do I talk to, how do I do this,” he said. “I just had to kind of get it done.”
Funding for e-Merge began with a Liberty Fellowship, Kinley said, and the organization has since received a grant for $250,000 from the S.C. Department of Commerce Office of Innovation.
Learn more at emergeandersonsc.com.
