Business Incubator grows businesses and helps ailing ones

Carolyn LaValey
Staff Writer

The Business Incubator can help aspiring entrepreneurs start, reform, and structure the businesses of their dreams.

Located in the Entrepreneurship Innovations Center, the Business Incubator is a team of people that can help to conceptualize a new business. These people help to reform an idea, make marketing plans, create funding ideas and predict how long it will take to see revenues. Pre-existing, but struggling businesses, may also get help. The main purpose is to create more jobs through out Lorain County and all of North Eastern Ohio.

This program can help any type of business to get started, but the EIC can only house technology based companies such as web developers, or technological inventors. It currently houses 15 businesses, some with a single worker, and others with up to five.

“We have seen some businesses reach up to $1 million in revenue, but some earn nothing,” said Dennis Cocco, associate director of The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise (GLIDE).

The Business Incubator was created by a partnership of the Lorain County Commissioners, Lorain County Community College, and the Ohio Department of Development.

“Students could also get to work alongside, or maybe shadow a new business owner and experience what owning a business would be like,” said Cocco. This program is a great way for students to find jobs with new businesses always looking for new workers.


Intern Dimitri Savelieff, Simon Melikian of Recognition Robotics, and Bill Kolosi of
Endotronix work together on a project in the Recognition Robotics conference room
in the EIC building.
Photo by Kurt Nelson.

The program has been in place since 2001, and because it is publicly funded, assistance is given at no cost to the businesses. Since it’s opening, GLIDE has worked with over 700 enterprises. The advisors, Dennis Cocco and Mike Reynolds have about 70 years of combined expert experience between them, including quality control, distribution, marketing strategies, and development.

The EIC also offers an Advanced Growth Service. Businesses can take advantage of this by becoming a GLIDE client company. These are growing companies that choose to form an alliance with GLIDE to increase their job growth, and continue to advance Northeastern Ohio’s economy. This service-for-service agreement allows the new business access to a lot of options that will help their own company grow.

GLIDE has been successful because of its ability to adapt to most any business’ needs, concerns or questions, regardless of the product it is selling.