INTEC deal will give young companies a business boost

Spokane nonprofit INTEC has signed a $10,000, one-year contract with a San Diego group to develop a program to speed the formation of promising young companies in the Inland Northwest.

Tom Sowa
Staff writer Spokesman Review

The agreement, announced this week, is with the University of California San Diego CONNECT program.

CONNECT will work with area business leaders, educators and others in the formation of a business plan aimed at helping create successful and growing companies.

The CONNECT model uses networks of local and national financial resources, entrepreneurs and research facilities.

The CONNECT plan does what the word suggests, according to INTEC Chief Executive Lewis Rumpler. It connects the dots between investment, new technology and work force skills.

The reason it makes sense, Rumpler said, is that "CONNECT will accelerate the rate at which new businesses are formed in the life sciences and in the technology forum."

Two advisers from UCSD CONNECT will work with area leaders at analyzing the region’s assets and weaknesses.

After six months, the goal is to create an actual business plan that will be presented to Spokane-area community leaders. At that point, it will be open to discussion whether using the CONNECT plan makes sense and should be followed, Rumpler said.

A UCSD CONNECT representative, Mary Walshok, met with area community members last month to explain the program. Response to the meeting prompted the Inland Northwest Technology Education Center’s board to move ahead with the CONNECT contract.

Without CONNECT, stimulating entrepreneurial efforts in the area would happen, but likely take longer, Rumpler said.

"We don’t have everything we need in Spokane, we know that. The CONNECT model, in essence, creates the connectivity that’s necessary when you don’t have everything (to foster growth) in close proximity," said Rumpler.

The most unique part of the CONNECT model is that the people who actually work with entrepreneurs come directly from the region’s business community.

The end result, he added, will be a plan that is tailored to Spokane, not San Diego or other areas of the country.

There are not a lot of examples of other cities using CONNECT, Rumpler noted.

"This is a fairly new thing for them. They’ve done this a couple of times, but not something that’s been done with a high degree of frequency," he said.

But UCSD CONNECT leaders are sure their expertise and background, going back 20 years, offers communities like Spokane major advantages, Rumpler said.

Business writer Tom Sowa can be reached at (509) 459-5492 or at [email protected]

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=080603&ID=s1391346&cat=section.business