Marshall University unveils incubator

Marshall University announced the launch of a new incubator program on Tuesday called Brad D Smith Business Incubator that is expected to be operational from August 2019.
The program is a partnership between university’s Brad D Smith Schools of Business and Robert C Byrd Institute. It will mentor startups and provide access to the university’s innovation ecosystems, including experts and student interns.
The incubator is also expected to leverage the Byrd Institute’s accelerator and prototyping and manufacturing services.
The incubator is named after Brad Smith, a university alumnus who now serves as chairman of retailer Nordstrom and executive chairman of financial software producer Intuit.
Smith said: “My passion for West Virginia and the potential I see in its people has only grown over the years.
“I want to inspire West Virginia’s entrepreneurs to reinvent themselves and to do so in a space like the business incubator, which will encourage game-changing ideas in what I call the ‘overlooked zip codes’ of my state.
“West Virginia needs its people to remain committed to its progress, and I believe Marshall’s business incubator will motivate folks to do just that.”
A team of students who won first place in a recent statewide West Virginia Innovation & Business Model Competition will be given free space in the incubator, while the second place team, also hailing from Marshall, will be given free prototyping assistance from the Byrd Institute.
Jerome Gilbert, president of Marshall University, said: “We are tremendously excited about the possibilities we see for creating synergies among our region’s entrepreneurs, the extensive resources we have at Marshall University and our Huntington business community.
“Our students will be some of the principal beneficiaries of the incubator project and will be working closely with the businesses in the incubator.”