Our History
Venture Incubator, LLC, a 501c(3) non-profit corporation was formed and in April, 2011 as a result of a three year study funded by the Downtown Jackson Partners. The objective of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of opening a business incubator in the business district of Downtown Jackson, MS. Spearheading the effort were Nick Walters and Wes Holsapple, II who were instrumental in putting together a physical location and filling it with a sufficient number of clients and financial supporters to actually open later that year.
During the process, however, it was determined that the greatest need for business incubation in Mississippi exists in the rural areas where a physical location may not be feasible. With support from Jeffrey Rupp, Director of the Technology Resource Institute at Mississippi State University, a joint venture between his organization and Venture Incubator was formed. The goal was to leverage existing economic development resources to deliver quality entrepreneur training and assistance directly to the entrepreneurs and emerging businesses around the State of Mississippi.
Our Mission
The Venture Incubator’s mission is to help Mississippi entrepreneurs get in business and stay in business.
Our Vision
With the new trend of “necessity entrepreneurs” and the increase in micro-business start-ups, Venture Incubator provides small business owners with valuable resources already available but largely untapped in rural Mississippi. Our challenge is to train local entrepreneurs with little or no experience in business in the skills necessary for success. The ultimate goal is to help create a culture of entrepreneurship in Mississippi’s rural communities by unleashing the power of micro-entrepreneurs who provide the majority of jobs in our state.
Our Value Proposition
The Venture Incubator promotes a culture of entrepreneurship by working through existing local economic development organizations to deliver quality training, coaching, mentoring and consulting to those interested in starting a new business or those who need help in growing their business. We recruit and train local business counselors who have already been successful and want to give back to their communities. We also act as a catalyst to leverage the wealth of resources already available from both the public sector and the private sector in a effort to help business owners tailor an affordable plan of action that builds wealth for them and for their local communities.
Our Method
Since we operate as a virtual incubator, a Venture Incubator staff member can come to your location, work with you from the offices of participating economic development professionals or you can participate in individual and group coaching sessions from your home or office. Our first contact with a community may be a talk about entrepreneurship to your civic club, your church, economic development group or other local organization. Once we have established a partnership with a local economic development organization, we will go to work establishing a local network of business counselors and identifying those interested in building a culture of entrepreneurship. We will facilitate classes on “How to Start and Manage Your Own Business” workshops to train future business owners how to get into business. We then establish continuing relationships with those new business owners as well as existing business owners so that we will be available to help them stay in business should difficulties arise.