Incuba8 (pronounced “Incubate”) is all about moving forward ideas, community, startups, businesses, products, and events. Incuba8 is about cultivating action in community to create a positive impact. It’s about mobilizing ideas and concepts with the best design and support possible. Incuba8 is about making ideas reality.

Incuba8 is a program centered in Midland, MI that inspires and generates entrepreneurial activity.

Incuba8′s Purposes

* accelerate the formation of entrepreneurial thinking through encouraging and enabling people to take on smaller projects that they can learn from (experiential learning)

* cultivate close knit communities of action whether that is within a group, a university, a business, a city, or a state

* give business startups the tools, resources, know-how, and connections to launch successfully

Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mindsets

Being an entrepreneur is a mindset; learning through a constant inquiry, looking for what could & should be, and navigating ambiguity to move from vision to actualization.

Common characteristics of these visionaries include:

Wide knowledge base
Engagement with the world and people surrounding them
Divergent thinking
Mapping to understand how things fit together and work
Identifying root causes
Testing assumptions
Exploring interconnectivity

Developing this entrepreneurial mindset is best done through experiential learning. Entrepreneurs have three main ways of learning: talking, failing, and doing. Incuba8 encourages people to experiment and step out and do something. One of the best ways we’ve observed people initially cultivate their entrepreneurial mindset is through organizing an event or conference around something they are passionate about.

Incuba8′s Approach

Incuba8 has designed the following elements to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship. Each element focuses on the individual who has ideas and mobilizes them through connecting them to knowledge, resources, encouragement, and opportunities (the four things that can hold people back).

Startup Workshops- To help springboard aspiring entrepreneurs’ to the next phase. Incuba8 workshops are not lecture based. In the Incuba8 workshops the aspiring entrepreneur’s actively works on developing their own concept.

EntreMeetups- Connecting creative people with ideas to help them collaborate to make their ideas reality in a monthly meetup. This is currently in Midland, MI and will expand to other locations.

Idea Hatchery- A shared creative workspace for innovative problem solving & breakthrough

All of Incuba8′s initiatives incorporate the key elements of “hotbeds of Talent” identified by Daniel Coyle in the The Talent Code, including “targeted methods of practicing, specific methods of motivating, and coaching.”

For more information contact Caryn Shick, caryn(at)incuba8.com.

Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

As articulated by MI Rick Snyder at the Michigan Emerging Conference, an entrepreneurial ecosystem has 5 main components:

Great ideas & technology
Talent
Capital
Infrastructure- the connecting web of support structure
Culture

Incuba8 focuses on creating a culture that incorporates the other elements to naturally spur entrepreneurial activities. Cultivating entrepreneurship can be done through intentional design of the entrepreneurial pipeline to mobilize people realizing their ideas.

It involves mapping out the entrepreneurship process and making sure there are mechanisms in place to help provide the tools aspiring entrepreneur’s need.

We focus on creating a toolbox within a culture (i.e. the support structures to accelerate the aspiring entrepreneur’s personal ability to navigate the startup process) and even the owner’s manual of how to use these tools. Incuba8 encourages individuals to pursue their ideas and watches them go. The aspiring entrepreneur’s own their concept; there is no hand-holding. We have simply helped facilitate the pipeline to make it natural.