Thousand Oaks Center Will Foster Environmental Innovation : Business: Aided by GTE, the ‘cluster’ will offer low-cost rental space to entrepreneurs addressing pollution, resource conservation and other needs.
Southern California’s first nonprofit center designed to nurture entrepreneurs with bright ideas but bare wallets will open in Thousand Oaks this summer, clustering a dozen start-up firms with environmental bents.
Bolstered by a hefty donation from GTE California, the center will offer low-cost rental space to business people who may be trying to develop pollution-free cars, write save-the-Earth software or build jungle gyms out of recycled plastic.
Entrepreneurs working out of their homes or struggling to pay for office space will be able to expand their operations by moving into the center, also known as a business cluster or incubator, said Jim Robbins, a consultant who has designed a similar center in Silicon Valley.
The nonprofit cluster will offer not only desks and phones but fax machines, reference materials and consultants ready to help solve the problems of starting a business.
All that sounds great to Glenn Morris, who well remembers his nerve-wracking struggle to create a company to recycle used automotive filters.
“I did a lot of stumbling at the beginning, especially with financial matters,” Morris said. “And cheaper overhead sure would have been nice, since everyone who’s just starting out watches their pennies. It would be very beneficial to start-up firms to have some hand-holding.”
Morris managed to survive his rocky launch five years ago and now employs five people in his firm, called Impactor Environmental Products. Such success stories have prompted Thousand Oaks City Council members to back the environmental cluster, which they hope will nourish small firms and eventually bring jobs to the community.
“The old days when large companies determined where people lived and work are passe,” Mayor Elois Zeanah said. “Now, growth and innovation are coming from small- and medium-sized firms. We’re trying to establish an entrepreneurial culture right here in Thousand Oaks.”
The cluster, scheduled to open in July, will rely primarily on donated cash and services. Already, GTE has offered the use of an empty 10,000-square-foot building for two years, a donation worth an estimated $200,000.
To help furnish the building, the Thousand Oaks City Council on Tuesday will consider allocating $15,000 in federal block-grant funds and loaning surplus equipment.
“I’m excited about this one,” Zeanah said. “The future growth companies are the ones that start today.”
Before the business incubator opens in the office on Lombard Street, organizers will set up an advisory board that includes city officials, business and environmental representatives and members of the Center for the New West, a nonprofit group that will run the cluster.
The advisory board will screen potential tenants, looking for the start-up firms with the best growth potential or the largest projected impact on the local economy.
From scientists developing electric buses to consultants working on ground-water cleanup, any entrepreneur with environmental ideas can apply. By clustering related--but not directly competitive--firms together, organizers hope to encourage networking.
“They may share customer lists or get together to jointly bid on projects,” Robbins said. “A synergy develops because the cluster has a focus. And customers approach them, too, because the cluster is well-defined.”
Thousand Oaks resident Donna Jamesson hopes to be among the 15 entrepreneurs creating incubator synergy.
Although she’s never studied accounting or finance, Jamesson plans to found a company to build playgrounds from recycled materials. So far, she has piles of sketches, lots of dreams--and no clue how to proceed.
“I don’t want to be a loner in this,” Jamesson said. “I’m looking for assistance. I have an idea for something unique and different and it’s a matter of getting people to help me.”
