Incubator helps grow startups with conscience
A medical-device company that helps people wear their infusion pump transport and holding systems discreetly beneath clothing.
A company that creates eyewear to help with migraines, headaches, eye strain and glare.
A microfinance provider that offers online group lending and saving pools or “money pools.”
These Arizona-based companies are just a few of the many that broadened their horizons after graduating from a four-month program at Seed Spot, a Phoenix-based incubator that is designed for earlystage social entrepreneurs.
The incubator, which admitted 56 ventures in 2012, is accepting applications for the second year of its program, but time is running out.
Applications for the fiveday-a-week full-time program are due by 5 p.m. today and by 5 p.m. Aug. 30 for the evening program, which is held Mon-
day nights. Applicants for both programs will be notified by September.
“We look for applicants that have coach-ability — entrepreneurs that are willing to learn and grow. And we look for people with passion — they have something that they are committed to and believe in” said Seed Spot co-founder Courtney Klein Johnson, 30, of Phoenix.
Co-founder Chris Petroff, 32, of Phoenix, said in its second year Seed Spot also hopes to draw in applicants “that have really looked at the validation of their business model.”
Petroff and Klein Johnson, who created the incubator last summer after leaving their jobs at the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, envisioned a place to help entrepreneurs and drive job growth.
While at GPEC, the two traveled across the U.S. recruiting businesses to relocate to Arizona.
“It’s a great model, but it’s not the only model for economic development,” Klein Johnson said.
Petroff shared similar sentiments.
“All these entrepreneurs have great ideas, but they are leaving to find resources elsewhere,” he said. “(Courtney and I thought) why don’t we create a place here, in Phoenix, where they can have the opportunity to grow and scale their business?”
Seed Spot isn’t like other incubators — it accepts only organizations that demonstrate that their product or technology improves individuallives or communities, Petroff and Klein Johnson noted.
“The particular focus is startups that are doing something good for the world,” Klein Johnson said.
Located on the seventh floor of a building on Central Avenue in downtown Phoenix, the incubator has an open floor plan with desks, tables and a room in a classroomlike setup with chairs lined up facing a large projector.
“(The program) teaches compa-