NewBoCo expands resources for start-up businesses

CEDAR RAPIDS - The New Bohemian Innovation Collaborative (NewBoCo) has expanded its Iowa Startup Accelerator from a single fall session to three sessions each year.

'Instead of focusing on a 90-day accelerated program, we're looking at a 12-month commitment for accepted entrepreneurs to work with staff and mentors to build their businesses, which is a significant change,” said David Tominsky, managing director of the accelerator. 'Mandatory programming has been condensed to Fridays to provide more flexibility for founders to get out into the community as they grow their businesses.”

Tominsky said entrepreneurs will be able to join the accelerator in the spring, summer or fall. Each 'batch” of entrepreneurs will have a full-week's orientation.

'All the accepted teams will be able to pitch their business at launch day on Dec. 7, 2017, regardless of when they were accepted,” Tominsky said. 'The Iowa Startup Accelerator plans to invest in at least 10 companies and deploy up to $500,000 in capital this year.”

Tominsky said increasing the flexibility of the accelerator and making it a more rigorous full-year program will enable staff and mentors to work with a wider variety of entrepreneurs.

NewBoCo Executive Director Eric Engelmann said the organization has added the three new programs for early idea-stage entrepreneurs trying to determine if their concept is a potential viable business.

'The way we were structured originally was for entrepreneurs who were ready to dive in 100 percent all day, every day,” Engelmann said. 'We needed a way to cultivate people who were not that far along.”

Engelmann, also chairman and founder of Geonetric, said an intensive six-week start-up boot camp, offered twice a year, will help entrepreneurs work through issues involved in starting a business by surrounding them with experienced staff and mentors.

'On the very first day, we introduce them to Agile, which is the work style we use at NewBoCo and Geonetric,” he said. It 'helps you prioritize ruthlessly the things you must do to get them done.”

Engelmann said NewBoCo's software development and hardware engineering teams can help entrepreneurs create prototypes of their product to get feedback from prospective customers. He said the cost of the prototypes will be heavily discounted, as most entrepreneurs have limited start-up capital.

Engelmann said NewBoCo also will offer topic-specific educational programs in Cedar Rapids and other Iowa communities.

'There are a lot of entrepreneurs in Iowa and we would love to take the programs to Iowa City, Davenport or Des Moines,” he said. 'We will be exploring that this year.”