NJIT Business Incubator Offers New Programs to Minority Newark Residents

Minorities and underserved residents in Newark will soon have unique opportunities to establish high-tech businesses, based on three new programs from the VentureLink arm of NJIT's New Jersey Innovation Institute.

Great ideas can come from anywhere, but too often there aren't enough resources available for disadvantaged groups to turn those ideas into sustainable companies. VentureLink leaders believe they can help people around the Brick City, based on their expertise helping those within the Highlander community, explained NJII's Chelsea Samuelson, director of growth and entrepreneurship.

"We believe in the power of surrounding people with like-minded individuals, giving them some resources and time, and seeing what happens," Samuelson said.

The incubation organization's plans call for Brick City Entrepreneurship Training, which is a part-time boot camp from Nov. 8 - Dec. 10 to teach the basics of building a company, whether technology-focused or traditional. Participants can be from any minority or underserved group. Entrepreneur-in-Residence is a full-time, paid program specifically matching people of color or from indigenous heritage with NJIT-owned intellectual property. It will initially run from February through July 2022 and is supported by a significant donation from the Paul V. Profeta Foundation, as is  Newark Startup Studio, which is planned for 2023 as a larger version of Entrepreneur-in-Residence for any minority or underserved group, with participants having access to the full range of VentureLink services normally reserved for startup founders from inside the NJIT community.

"These training programs build a foundation of skills and knowledge for people interested in building companies, but it also provides a network and community of entrepreneurs to lean on and take risks alongside," she continued. "That is the lifeblood of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem and a huge component of what is missing in historically underrepresented entrepreneurial communities."

Entrepreneur-in-Residence is the most unique program of the trio. NJIT controls nearly 300 patents received or pending, many of which could be the foundation of a business. Two people of color, or of indigenous backgrounds, will be selected and provided with work space, coaching, plus $13,000 stipends for six months. VentureLink will also provide access to experts in business development and the patent subject matter.

"We want them to come in and work in the coworking space. Our objective is to build some companies, but we realize six months is not a very long time. There's going to be some decision point at the end, where someone can choose to continue to build this company, or they can hand off the technology back to us," Samuelson noted. The new companies, if successful, would be encouraged to stay in Newark and hire locally. "We hope there will be significant, positive ripple effects in the Newark area," she said.

"There is a clear discrepancy in the proportion of underrepresented founders involved in high-growth startups everywhere, but even more so in Newark. The program intends to provide training, space and time for individuals with entrepreneurial characteristics to try to build high-growth, technology-first companies. We realize that the stipend of $13,000 is very little, and the intention is not to supplant the salary you’d be making, but more to offset some of the expense and risks associated with those early steps of startup formation," Samuelson noted.

"The second challenge we’re addressing is getting innovation out of universities and into the real world to make real change on real people’s lives. Researchers, the government and corporations put a lot of time and money into university research, which generates amazing breakthroughs and, at times, patents for new ideas. The majority of this innovation never makes it to the real world. … This program seeks to test a new channel of commercialization, working in a more focused way with external entrepreneurs to find technology with potential and then do something with it."

Applications for Brick City Entrepreneurship Training are open now. Applications for Entrepreneur-in-Residence will open in December. All applicants must be 18 or older. There is no requirement for business experience or college degrees — just ambition, determination and open-mindedness.

NJIT's business mentors in the classroom are as enthusiastic about the new programs as the hands-on mentors at VentureLink. "We've learned that there are many promising entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups who don't get the support they need to launch new ventures. When this happens, we all lose out on the great things these new ventures might have done to benefit all of society," said entrepreneurship expert Michael Ehrlich, associate professor of finance in Martin Tuchman School of Management.

"This is a great initiative and complements our ongoing National Science Foundation I-Corps, New Business Model Competition, Lean Startup Jumpstart and NJIT Lean Startup Accelerator activities from the Martin Tuchman School of Management, Leir Research Institute and NJ Innovation Acceleration Center," Ehrlich observed.

"My advice to potential participants is to jump in and take advantage of these resources with both hands," he added. "They will get benefits out of these programs in direct proportion to what they put in."