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A Boon for Montana Business – MonTEC Incubator nurtures homegrown companies

What do Montana and North Carolina have in common? Maybe just enough, hopes Montana Technology Enterprise Center http://www.montec.org/ administrator Dick King.

MonTEC, housed in a former food warehouse opposite the UM campus on the north side of the Clark Fork River, is a business incubator, the $4.5 million culmination of a joint nonprofit venture between The University of Montana and the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp. (MAEDC). It’s designed to transfer the University’s intellectual property to the private sector.

Fourteen small businesses, many of which began life as UM research projects across the river on the main campus, currently are spread throughout the facility’s 32,000 square feet, where basic amenities range from fume hoods to Internet hookups, and the perks include river views and barbecues — all part of the basic rent.

One MonTEC company’s “product” is a computer system that monitors automatic securities trading; another manufactures a resin for selectively removing heavy metals from mining wastewater. Academic ties and entrepreneurial buzz create an environment that encourages kibbitzing and the sharing of ideas, and even spurs the occasional new partnership. MonTEC businesses, King affirms, are constantly getting peanut butter on each other’s chocolate.

Full Story: http://www.umt.edu/urelations/rview/spring05/boon.htm

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