High-tech pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard started their iconic company inside a cramped Palo Alto garage.
Today's tech entrepreneurs are just as likely to begin in a business incubator, a place designed to nurture their bright ideas.
For Eric Burns, an IT engineer building a next-generation security system for online banking, the incubator at Rohnert Park's Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster has made a difference.
"It's a real helpful piece of this project," he said.
At the business cluster, he rubs elbows with other entrepreneurs and gets advice from a team of technology veterans. "I can't tell you how important it is to get their feedback," he said.
The three-year-old startup center at Agilent Technologies' former Rohnert Park campus is now getting statewide recognition. With room for about 30 companies, it has been named a California "Innovation Hub" by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The designation brings $200,000 in state funding and a higher profile for the nonprofit program, said business cluster director Michael Newell.
"It augments what we're doing in a large way," he said. "It's a very big deal for us."
There are about 1,500 business incubators in North America, up from just 12 in 1980, according to the National Business Incubator Association. Such programs have created about half a million jobs over the past 30 years.
Under the state's program, Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster and five other California "iHubs" — in San Francisco, Sacramento, Livermore, Orange County and Coachella Valley — will collaborate with universities, venture funds and federal laboratories on research and development projects.
It could boost plans for a $11.5 million laser innovation center at the Rohnert Park cluster, in partnership with NASA, Sonoma State University and Raydiance Corp., a Petaluma company developing short-pulse laser technology.
Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, are seeking federal funds for the project.
The Rohnert Park tech cluster is part of Sonoma Mountain Village, a $1 billion, 200-acre planned community on the former Agilent campus. Codding Enterprises bought the property in 2005 after Agilent moved out and is planning a mix of homes, shops and light industry.
The tech cluster, funded largely by Codding and the city of Rohnert Park, now hosts 17 startup businesses with 60 to 70 employees in about 30,000 square feet of former manufacturing space. It offers standard office amenities
and a full menu of "entrepreneurial services," including free business coaching, networking events and access to investors.
Rent ranges from $350 a month for a cubicle to $1,250 for an office suite.
Burns said he's getting advice from ex-CEOs and other top executives. "It forces you to come up with a business plan," he said.
His one-man startup, Secured for Banking, has a secure online banking system aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses. With his technology, "there's never an opportunity for the bad guys to insert spyware," Burns said.
In his spare time, Burns runs a second business at the incubator, GarageCity.com, a website for car buffs.
A few doors away, video display startup Pix2o is making portable LED screens for concerts, sports and advertising. Pix2o, founded by a pair of telecom engineers, offers a modular system that's inexpensive, waterproof, flexible and reconfigurable, said Jerry Gladstone, a retired Agilent vice president who serves as a director at the new business.
The screens range in size up to 100 square meters. "We sold our first two units last week," said Gladstone.
Pix2o has 14 employees.
Another startup, Azonde Corp., makes a solar-powered wireless system for reporting real-time water temperature and depth data. It's designed for water management, environmental monitoring and scientific research.
The business incubator has helped Azonde get off the ground, said founder Neil Hancock. Company executives consult regularly with a business coach, he said.
"Growing into a new market is always difficult," he said. "It means you're not just on your own."
Azonde has fewer than a dozen employees.
Other businesses in the incubator focus on solar power systems, green construction, educational software, social networking and air cleaning.
The incubator program is designed to help startups grow and then relocate to larger facilities. Studies show businesses that begin in an incubator have an 80 percent chance of surviving five years, Newell said.
"If you're in your garage, you can't have a meeting with investors," he said.
Startups have the most potential to create new jobs, he said. "We're looking at accelerating 100 startups and creating 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years," said Newell, an optical engineer with experience at early-stage companies.
"It will create a more vibrant business community."
You can reach Staff Writer Steve Hart at 521-5205 or steve.hart@pressdemocrat.com.
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