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November 3, 2010

Company incubator opens at the Cummings Center

By Paul Leighton Staff writer The Salem News Wed Nov 03, 2010, 01:50 AM EDT

BEVERLY — One entrepreneur wants to convert waste into biodegradable plastic. Another hopes to develop a mattress with air-powered cells to prevent bedsores.

Those ideas could soon be transformed into full-fledged companies, and the jobs that come with them, with the help of the new Biotech InnoVenture Center at the Cummings Center.

The center, which opened Thursday, is designed as an incubator to help startup life sciences companies until they are strong enough to succeed on their own.

The new companies will be given rent-free space at the Cummings Center and supported by mentors with experience in developing startup biotech businesses.

"It's much more than the physical space to me," said David Bertoni of Beverly, the president and CEO of Stromacell, the company looking to develop the mattress to prevent bedsores.

"You get plugged into incredible knowledge capital," Bertoni said. "You very quickly realize that all the people here have done this a couple of times. It's a DNA thing. Entrepreneurs are of the same species, and they tend to spend time at the same watering hole."

The center is run by North Shore InnoVentures, a nonprofit public/private partnership formed by technology, business and political leaders who were looking to capitalize on the area's reputation as a center of biotechnology. Last year, the partnership opened an incubator for clean-tech companies in Lynn.

North Shore InnoVentures is funded by corporate sponsors and a $50,000 state grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. It is also looking to acquire federal funding. Cummings Center is donating office space, while other companies are donating legal, insurance and marketing services.

"They're all interested in these companies becoming their customers someday," Biotech InnoVenture Center CEO Martha Farmer said. "In the meantime, it's pro bono when pro bono is needed most."

The incubator can also put entrepreneurs in touch with investors looking for viable startups.

"The North Shore has a significant number of wealthy people. There's a lot of money floating around," said Beverly resident William Bardosh, president and CEO of startup TerraVerdae. "But how do those people know how to get involved without being pestered? This is a place everybody can look to. If you're an emerging company and you have a Cummings Center address, it builds credibility."

With 35 biotech companies at the Cummings Center, Beverly is already considered a center for the life sciences industry, Farmer said. She attributes that in part to the pioneering work of New England Biolabs, which started in Beverly in 1974 as one of the first biotech companies in the country.

"They helped Beverly write the permitting regulations," Farmer said. "Beverly is very friendly to biotech companies."

Six startups are expected to join the incubator and move into the Cummings Center in the next few weeks. In February, the center will move upstairs to a much larger area that includes lab space.

The companies will be given up to two years in the incubator before they are expected to become viable on their own.

"Our goal is to graduate people as soon as possible," North Shore InnoVentures Chairman Harry McCoy said. "We want successes, and we want to make room for the next guy."

Staff writer Paul Leighton can be reached at 978-338-2675 or by e-mail at pleighton@salemnews.com.

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