 Star Tech tenants include Gary Damon, president of Homeland Intelligence Technologies in Largo. For more information on Star Tec, Tec Launch’s program manager, visit startecflorida.com. |
Last fall, when Cobra Design & Engineering founders John Tischner and Brian Rennick decided to take a handful of products into the marketplace, they turned to Tec Launch.
A 9-month-old program started by Star Tec, a public-private technology and manufacturing business accelerator in Pinellas County, Tec Launch is designed to assist early-stage companies with market development and expansion.
Tec Launch is working as a business development partner with Cobra to find buyers for three to five of the company’s products, including a thermal control module that protects suitcase-sized electronics such as communications equipment from extreme heat or cold. If Tec Launch is successful, Cobra Design will pay a fee to program manager Star Tec.
When Star Tec launched in 2003, it set up rigorous criteria for the companies accepted into its accelerator program. Unlike an incubator that focuses on startups, Star Tec looked for companies that already had a business plan and some funding but needed help getting products to market. Nine companies lease space at market rates in Star Tec’s 56,000-sq.-ft. facility. Its staff of 14 and network of outside volunteer consultants help companies evaluate their business plans and management teams, recommending ways to augment management with an advisory board and mentors. Businesses at Star Tec range from an explosives detection business to a firm that has developed a towing-monitor system for recreational vehicles. Three companies have graduated or left the program.
About a year and a half ago, Star Tec hit a wall in recruiting businesses. “The companies with the qualifications to get in here were drying up,” says Star Tec President James E. Failor. That prompted the board to look for ways to expand its reach, leading to Tec Launch. The program uses a fee-for-service model with no long-term commitment.
Failor’s long-term goal is to serve a “super region” spreading from Tampa Bay to metro Orlando and Alachua County. “We continue to refine our model,” says Failor. “We all have a passion for this. It isn’t just a job.”
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Hitting the Market
Ricky Lockett, a St. Petersburg osteopathic physician, practices medicine by day and is an inventor by night. For the past year, he’s been developing a diagnostic treatment apparatus for lower back pain. Before spending more money on the project, he signed on with Tec Launch to conduct market research. “I want someone to look at it with an objective eye,” says Lockett. |