In 2017, there was a dearth of laboratory space in Delaware for startups and small scientific businesses that were looking for room to grow.
To meet this need, a group of scientists, educators and business and government leaders, led by the State of Delaware, the DuPont Company and the University of Delaware, founded a nonprofit organization originally called The Delaware Innovation Space, located in a vacated building on the grounds of the DuPont Experimental Station with “the goal to transform science-driven startups into successes.”
Seven years later, The Innovation Space’s founder, president and CEO, Bill Provine, says the organization is helping meet that need. “We have 130,000 square feet of laboratory space, and we are home to everything from two or three people with a great idea to established companies who need room to grow.
We also provide virtual assistance to companies across the country, letting them know that Delaware is a place with scientific leadership.”
Although Provine says he imposes no timeline on companies to leave the Space’s “nest” for their own headquarters, he is proud of the organization’s alumni. “Prelude Therapeutics had probably 100 employees when they moved to their own offices,” he says. “When they left, they had grown to occupying about 20-25% of our total lab space.” Other notable alumni of The Innovation Space, he notes, include Adesis and Versogen, both growing, science-based companies. Today, the lab space they’ve left is being filled by other companies.
While Provine says his organization’s flexibility is a key to providing companies assistance, The Innovation Space has three primary programs:
1] An important source of revenue is First Fund, which provides eligible early-stage startups with up to $200,000 in cash, lab space and support services via a convertible note.
2] Another program, called SparkFactory, helps transform ideas into reality by giving a forum for new business founders to pitch their ideas and visions to a community of entrepreneurs and innovators and receive real-time feedback, plus follow-on mentorship. To help hone these presentations, each founder is paired with an entrepreneur-in-residence for a month leading up to their Spark Factory event.
3] Finally, The Innovation Space’s Science Inc. Accelerator provides early-stage, science-based startups the opportunity to more quickly advance their companies over a four-month period toward meeting major goals they have established.
But beyond programs, a key part of The Innovation Space’s success is the collaborative atmosphere the organization engenders. “After all,” Provine says, after seven years of success, “we’re still in growth mode ourselves.”
