Incubator Without Walls (IWW): A University-Business Partnership for Neighborhood RedevelopmentAbstractA business incubator was launched serving existing and potential businesses in the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC) target area. This incubator is unique through its use of faculty-student teams engaged in community service learning. Because the incubator does not have a central office, we have called it an incubator without walls. Under the direction of College of Business faculty, in the initial term, student teams approached 26 existing businesses and 67 potential businesses. The team projects were evaluated by outside faculty and several were referred to potential venture capital funders. Follow-up interviews by COPC faculty and staff for quality assessment demonstrate the high level of satisfaction the business owners felt towards the process. Due to the success of the incubator, the faculty is faced with the challenge of managing the project in a virtual environment sooner than they expected.Incubator Without Walls (IWW): A University-Business Partnership for Neighborhood Redevelopment (*.pdf)
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