As a vice president of e-commerce at a large Washington newspaper, Mary Moslander had every imaginable resource at her fingertips.
When she left the newspaper to forge her own social networking company, though, the resources essentially vanished and she was left scrambling for support.
Thankfully, she says, she joined Montgomery County’s Business Incubator Network and was able to get her business off the ground.
The six-year-old incubator network is designed to help budding entrepreneurs like Moslander have access to the necessary infrastructure and networking.
With nearly 40 companies graduating from the program into successful start-ups, the results are “what we hoped for,” county spokesman Joe Shapiro said Wednesday.
Success can be measured in other ways: This week the network was awarded a 2005 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties for innovation.
In the program, tenants pay a discounted rate to get office space complete with reception services, fax and copy machines and conference areas. Plus, membership allows them to attend educational seminars and conferences with legal experts.
Moslander isn’t surprised at the program’s effectiveness. Less than a year after the launch of her business, she says she has members from all over the globe. Her company, “Live Healthier” is akin to myspace.com, in that it links a large community of people, only this community is filled with individuals wanting to stay in peak physical shape. “It’s all Web-based. You pay $5 per week, and we give you unlimited access to personal trainers, nutritionists,” she said.
Where the county’s incubator network came into play was providing her physical space so she could just focus on the business itself. Equally important was the connections she made with the county’s economic development department.
“They’re the people who have been there, done that so they made me aware of county and state funding,” Moslander said. “It’s a resource I can’t imagine building my business without.”
