become a physical representation of the culture of entrepreneurship they’re trying to foster.
“Without a doubt innovation is the future of the University of Michigan, of the city of Ann Arbor, and of the state of Michigan,” Ora Pescovitz, U-M’s executive vice resident for medical affairs, told the crowd on Tuesday.
Ken Nisbet, the executive director of Tech Transfer, echoed Pescovitz’s sentiments, saying, “I think this is a great symbol of what we want to say to Michigan: full speed ahead.”
According to O’Connell, the accelerator will also serve as a feeder to the outside world for technologies developed at U-M. “The hope is that by using the accelerator to add a little runway we’re going to be able to house our companies for a little bit longer—for 12, 18, maybe 36 months—and give them a better chance to accelerate so that they have more speed when they get out to market,” O’Connell said.
And the companies are also hoping that being in the accelerator will give them a leg up. According to Nesbit and other officials, rent for the space is at the higher end of the market value spectrum, but of course the aim of the accelerator is to provide more than just a place for companies to locate.
U-M engineering professor Nilton Renno is co-founder and CEO of EngXT, one of the four companies planning to move into the NCRC in the next few weeks. He said it was more than cost—which he called “reasonable”—that convinced him to move his startup, which makes an electric field monitoring system, to the accelerator. In addition to the “atmosphere that’s generated by all of the high tech companies in the building,” Renno said that working in the accelerator provides more opportunities for exposure to venture capitalists and others by dint of being near the Tech Transfer office.
McNaughton agreed, adding that being a less than five-minute indoor walk to U-M’s Center for Business Engagement and the Tech Transfer office makes it easier to take advantage of their resources.
“We’re pretty far along, but there are still more pitfalls, and having something like the accelerator serves as one more support,” he said. “We looked at a lot of spaces and we didn’t see anything like this, and to be able to have that at a competitive rate and to move in and to get to work is important.”
McNaughton added that with his company set up in the accelerator—Life Magnetics’ new lab became fully functional Tuesday—and funding secured from Ann Arbor-based venture firm Arboretum Ventures, he doesn’t have any plans to return to California.
“I’m not convinced that this would have happened anywhere else but here,” he said. “In grad school I was always thinking, ‘Oh, I’m going to go back.’ But the whole time it just felt right, it just felt like a good fit.”