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Spring 2012
Letter From the President
 NJBIN is built upon the belief that by collaborating with the statewide economic development community we can support business growth in our state. Together we can help early stage and expansion stage companies receive critical support services they need in order to thrive.
In the past few months, NJBIN has been honored with sponsorships from several companies whose support will help us to continue and to increase our service to our incubator-affiliated companies. (more...)
From School Project, to Incubation, to Global Upcycler
 If you heard about a company that had 110 employees, operated in 20 countries, and did $20 million a year in business, you would be unlikely to guess that the company’s first product was based on organic waste — specifically, worm excrement — and created by a Princeton University undergraduate for a business plan contest. Nor would you think that a company with such humble beginnings could ever work with 80,000 organizations worldwide representing more than 20 million consumers or could ever have donated $3.5 million to schools and nonprofits. And yet, this is the story of TerraCycle.
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An Investor and Coach for the Startup Company Community: Interview with Mel Baiada, President and Founder of Basecamp Ventures
 Mel Baiada founded Bluestone Software, Inc., a company that provided technology expertise to Fortune 1000 companies and government organizations, in 1989. He sold the company to Hewlett-Packard in 2000.
Upon his successful exit from Bluestone, Baiada started Basecamp Ventures, initially investing in about 10 companies. Since 2006, he has been slowly reinvesting in one or two companies per year. (more...)
Incubator News
Ciel Power to Provide Services Under “Climate Showcase Communities” Grant
 Ciel Power was selected by Highland Park, NJ, through an RFP process as the provider of energy efficiency services for the borough which was one of 50 cities across the U.S. to win a Federal grant, EDA’s “Climate Showcase Communities.” Ciel Power is an energy efficiency product and service company providing a “one-Source-Solution to commercial and residential customers helping them reduce their energy consumption and costs as well as improve efficiencies. They joined the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Business Accelerator in December 2011 with three employees and now have 14 full-time staff. (more...)
 NBIA Conference is Rousing Success
 It was a time for information-sharing, education and, perhaps most important, networking as 580 people gathered in Atlanta, May 6-9, for NBIA’s 26th International Conference on Business Incubation.
Held in the posh Sheraton Atlanta Hotel, the conference featured more than 60 educational sessions, multiple plenary sessions and much time for attendees to interact with one another and the nearly two-dozen exhibitors who offered goods and services tailored to the needs of business incubation. “We had a really diverse range of exhibitors and sponsors this year,” says Sheila Buckley, NBIA’s director of development. “It was gratifying to see the level of interaction in the exhibit space, between attendees and exhibitors and between attendees at exhibitor booths – people almost didn’t want to leave for the sessions.” (more...)
Panel of NBIA Members Makes Strong Case for Business Incubation
New businesses are well-advised to take advantage of the business incubation opportunities before them, a panel of three NBIA members told an audience in Santa Clarita, Calif., recently.
Incubators provide business advice and access to capital more easily than entrepreneurs are likely to find on their own, the panel told the group assembled at the Small Business Development Center at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, Calif. But they provide more than those things, the trio said. Incubation programs can lead to new ideas and innovative collaborations, sometimes arrived at over lunch or a chance meeting in an incubator’s common space. (more...)
U.S. Patent Office Offers Online IP Assessment Tool
The U.S. Department of Commerce Patent and Trademark Office has unveiled a free online tool to help companies assess their intellectual property, figure out how best to protect it and make sure they’re not infringing on the IP rights of others.
Called the ipAwarenessAssessment, the tool comprises 90 questions (plus a preassessment tool of five questions to determine whether the full assessment would apply). These questions inquire as to the nature of the business, what kinds of intellectual property may have been generated and what if any protections the company has applied. It then generates a report suggesting where improvements can be made.
Though currently in beta, the questionnaire and reporting functions appear to work properly, and businesses are invited to give it a try here.
World Bank Makes its Research Products Available for Free
The World Bank has announced that beginning July 1, all its “research outputs and knowledge products” will be available, free of charge, to anyone who cares to download them. “Now anybody is free to use, reuse and redistribute most of the Bank's knowledge products and research outputs for commercial or noncommercial purposes,” said the bank in a press statement. The available material includes items from the bank’s World Bank Research Observer and World Bank Economic Review, published by Oxford University Press.
While all World Bank publications are to become available mid-year, many are already at the new Web site established for the purpose, the Open Knowledge Repository.
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Local and national media outlets regularly publish stories highlighting the benefits of business incubation. In just the past few months, NBIA has identified numerous articles featuring members, including the 
