Click here for Part I & Part II

Developing today’s science- and technology-focused startups into tomorrow’s industry-leading companies

William Provine is CEO of the Delaware Innovation Space, a not-for-profit business incubator based in Wilmington. Developed in partnership with DuPont, the State of Delaware, and the University of Delaware, the Delaware Innovation Space seeks to fuel science and technology startups’ growth into industry leaders. The facility is located on the DuPont Experimental Station campus, where its multi-use lab space occupies an area of more than 100,000 square feet. Prior to his work with the Delaware Innovation Space, Bill spent 20 years at DuPont, where he eventually served as Director of Science & Engineering.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Tell us about your current work with startups. Do you think current economic conditions have created more entrepreneurs?

BILL PROVINE: The general place the Delaware Innovation Space plays is the incubator/coworking/accelerator landscape, and we play across the gamut there. In terms of the models of operation, if you look at the gig economy and more people wanting to become more independent actors—whether that be consultants, independent contractors, or people wanting to form their own companies—we’re helping to create an environment that makes it easier for people to start up their own businesses and with that, access talent in a variety of ways. I do think the gig economy is a market signal for us, in that coworking/incubator/accelerator landscape. It’s an important dynamic, because it says what we’re doing is important but also that what we’re doing feeds into an effective business model. Even if you are nonprofit you still need to be, of course, cash-positive and run an effective business model that reinvests in what you do so you can add and intensify your offering over time. So I think we’re at the right place at the right time in the right way.

Q. What kind of amenities are available to startups?

A. We have we own one building and we access another floor in another building from DuPont for our innovation community, so we have about 130,000 square feet out of the 2,200,000 square feet of space at the Experimental Station, DuPont's main research campus in Delaware, so we have about 5%—it’s a really a small fraction—but still a 130,000 square foot incubator is huge globally, and even regionally, so a really great asset for science entrepreneurs. They salivate every time that they hear about it and come by, which is awesome. It’s great to see that excitement.

Q. Is there a lot of turnover?

A. Right now, we’re overall about 90% subscribed. I’d say it is like a venture capital fund we’re looking for the best companies to allocate out our footprint. Everybody who comes in pays as they go, they pay for their right to be there, they pay for their access fees—again in a nonprofit basis so we are trying to do it in terms of supporting them but not making money, per se. We’re not driven by profit; we’re driven by our mission. But with that, right now, we have more intensification with anchor tenants and smaller tenants, and over time we’re going to basically be intensifying that component towards entrepreneurs. Our anchor tenants will not all be with us long-term, so we’re going to be managing through some of those transitions, but it’s been building quite rapidly down the street, and I imagine they will keep building rapidly down the street from us, but they’re an important part of our innovation community today. I think we’re going to have turnover in our anchor tenants just like we have turnover in our small and earlier stage companies.

Q. What’s your favorite part about running an incubator?

A. What's really exciting me is always learning something new. You always have somebody at the Delaware Innovation Space coming to you—and our employees love as well, as well as our community members—somebody's always coming in with some idea, sometimes wacky, sometimes like, wow, you’ve just had your socks blown off about how they’re taking elements of science and changing people's lives. And to help people get over that hurdle from concept to reality. To me, it’s the diversity. I am a PhD chemical engineer by training so I also love learning, I love learning about different technologies and different sciences and how they’re brought to bear to get great work done. And every day is a different day, and it has its challenges and some days are better than other days, but it's really just seeing right the potential that's out there and giving a portal for that potential to turn from potential to reality.

Connect with William on LinkedIn

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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