Startup finds growth at business cluster

The LED screen, 10 feet high and 6? feet wide, rolls up into a scroll, a brilliant image of red roses playing across it. Then the screen unfurls, dropping down to its full length, the movement silent in the former high-tech assembly plant.

As the Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster enters its fifth year, its hopes rest on companies like the creator of the flexible LED screen, Pix2o.

It is the type of startup that the cluster's executive director, Michael Newell, is thinking of when he says: "One or two good success stories can be very transformational."

Pix2o says it just inked a deal to send its screens on a world tour with a pop production whose name the company cannot yet disclose.

That signals the type of promise that the incubator holds out of becoming a force in the North Bay economy, Newell said.

"Companies that come out and turn into $50 million companies — that's going to create a lot of jobs," he said. "They are a company that has the real potential to be a really exciting company for the region."

Pix2o, with 10 employees, started at the incubator three years ago with its two founders. It's expanded to two offices and some manufacturing space and its officials say the incubator helped them concentrate on developing their business rather than, say, finding copy machines.

"Having an eco-system helps," said Lynton Auld, the company's chief technical officer. "You walk in and you start working immediately."

The incubator's turnkey nature is one of its chief attractions. But the entrepreneurs who operate there say the people are key too.

"You get networking, you get mentoring, you get the ability to work with a community of like-minded people who are focused on the growth of their business," said Mike Gunion, CEO of AspenAir Inside.

The company, which is based in Martinez and makes air filter systems, staffs its incubator office with a single part-time salesperson, but Gunion says being associated with the project has paid off.

He has met with North Bay politicians, gained an investor in Codding Enterprises and recruited a prominent local tech entrepreneur to serve as chairman of his board: John Webley, who co-founded Advanced Fibre Communications and Turin Networks.

And AspenAir's products were certified by the county for use in its program to make low-interest loans for energy-efficient improvements.

Westcoast Solar Energy is another incubator success. The maker of solar energy systems graduated in July 2010 after 13 months in the project. Its growth over that time was startling.

Founder and president Nate Gulbransen was the sole employee when the company moved in. When it left there were 20 and Gulbransen said the mentoring support was essential.

"It saved our butts numerous times being able to go to these guys," he said. "It kept us on track."

For Escape, an indoor recreation center that moved from the business cluster in 2009 into a 45,000-square-foot building on Redwood Drive in Rohnert Park, the incubator literally shaped it.

The company's current business development officer and accountant were assigned as his mentors at the incubator.

"The business relationships we made through that cluster kind of made us who we are today," said Anthony Bergland, Escape's founder and CEO.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 521-5212 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com.