Taking Care of Business: Austin Technology Incubators
Austin Technology Incubators help new businesses
Capitalism is having an identity crisis. Because of the recent financial meltdown and subsequent global recession, a populist outrage directed primarily at corporate CEOs and Wall Street traders has gripped the country. Politicians from both sides of the aisle are calling for increased government intervention and regulations. Stock prices have plummeted as investors look to protect their assets from the volatility of the free market. But Austin Technology Incubator stubbornly continues to cultivate and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit despite the gloomy economic climate. ATI, which is divided into three sectors focusing on clean energy, wireless technology and bioscience, brings together the city of Austin, UT and ambitious entrepreneurs in an effort to create successful and technologically innovative businesses. A history of successSince opening its doors in 1989, ATI and the companies it has nurtured have generated more than $1.5 billion and created more than 10,000 jobs. Founded by former dean of the McCombs School of Business George Kozmetsky, ATI is the flagship programs of the Institute for Constructive Capitalism, a research organization at the University of Texas at Austin. Through its nine programs, the institute works to “strengthen the American capitalistic socio-economic system for the betterment all sectors of society.” “Science and technology is too precious a resource not to be shared and cultivated,” wrote Kozmetsky, who died in 2003. “That is what ATI and IC2 are all about.” According to Aruni Gunasegaram, the operations manager at ATI, the incubator has worked with over 200 companies and raised over $750 million in investor capital. In the last eight months of fiscal year 2007/2008 alone, the incubator has worked with 24 companies and created 150 jobs in central Texas. “This has really exceeded the wildest dreams of [ATI’s] founders,” she said. “I wish I had this kind of network surrounding me when I was a young CEO of a high tech company years ago.”
As part of a start-up working under the auspices of ATI in the late ‘90s, Gunasegaram has watched the incubator fine-tune its strategy over the years. She said back then ATI primarily followed a “space” model for growing small, innovative businesses. This strategy was mostly limited to providing offices and conference rooms to business owners. “We had to fend for ourselves when it came to finding investors, advisors and employees,” she said. “I literally had to chase out into the parking lot one potential investor who was taking a tour of the facility with the ATI director at the time.” Now, Gunasegaram said, there are experienced advisors and directors that guide young companies to success. “There is someone to call in your darkest hours and someone to pat you on the back in your brightest,” she said. “There are interns, seminars, conferences, marketing experts, consultants all at your disposal.”
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Links:
Austin Technology Incubator Web site
Institute for Constructive Capitalism Web site
18 Responses to “Taking Care of Business: Austin Technology Incubators”
really professional and nice web page. Thumbs Up-group 6!
Interesting topic.
It’s difficult to read the text on the graph because it’s so small and light. Most people probably won’t take the time to click on it, so it should probably be a little more readable on its own.
The content was very well organized. Maybe consider dividing this into two pages though because there is a lot of text in between the lead and the video. It may be more effective to have the video on one page and the link to the soundslide on the second. Very good overall though.
This is very well researched and informative, good job!
Very interesting topic. I was impressed by the amount of research done, and the different angles looked at in the story.
Nice infographics.
How about adding some subheads in the text.
The style of the poll can be improved (the color scheme, and don’t center the text).
I like the pop out quote and the layout of the page…looks quite professional. And the video was very informative!
Great info graphic, and really great information! I’d say break up this page a little; maybe move the video to its own page, and as people above have mentioned, some subheads would make this a little easier to navigate. Great story and reporting, group!!
Great work! From the first idea presentation to the final presentation, we are very proud of this group’s improvement. Really like the subheads, but the video could be tweaked a bit. Great job!
Good Job. Looks like you guys put some thought into it. The page looks well organized.
Good job! Your group’s video and soundslide are really great and visually appealing. It’s also very well organized with the subheads.
love the clean layout. good job with the video!
I can’t read the graph very well - even when I clicked on it. Can you make it darker or clearer? The poll might want to be in a more prominent spot or have some kind of label over it.
Like the layout and the organization. Great job on the video!
Love the page organization. Good job with the video!
A lot of in depth research went into this story, it shows very much. The infographics are very informative as well. However, the story is a bit too long.
All the research that went into this story definitely shows; you guys did a good job. Just a couple of nit-picky things: the headline and subhead are very similar. They use the same words and the subhead doesn’t really add anything to the title. Also, the link to the second page should be targeted to the same window…only a link leading away from the story needs to open up in a new tab/window.
Josh, the infographics are something else man! The Video and pictures also look pretty good. Good job morgan and kris.
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