Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
Select a Page

Incuba8

Hatching Ideas Into Reality 

Incuba8 (pronounced “incubate”) is all about moving forward ideas, community, start-ups, businesses, products, and events.  We are 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 hatching ideas into reality.

Incuba8′s Purpose
• 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 start-ups 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 and should be, and navigating ambiguity to move from vision to actualization.
Common characteristics of these visionaries include:
• Mapping to understand how things fit together and work
• Engagement with the world and people surrounding them
• Identifying root causes
• Wide knowledge base
• Testing assumptions
• Divergent thinking
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).

Start-up Workshops
Our workshops were developed to help springboard aspiring entrepreneurs to the next phase. Incuba8 workshops are not lecture based. In Incuba8 workshops the aspiring entrepreneur actively works on developing their own concept.
EntreMeetup
We connect creative people with ideas to help them collaborate to make their ideas reality in a monthly meetup. This currently takes place in downtown Midland, MI at our incuba8LABS space with plans to potentially expand to other locations.
incuba8LABS
The LABS are a shared creative workspace for innovative problem solving in downtown Midland. Our goal is to provide equipment, a constant stream of inspiration, and experts to guide you through rough terrain. We encourage one another in learning new skills, as well as cross-concentration collaboration.

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, email Caryn at incuba8 dot 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
• 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.

This process 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 start-up 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.