The Batavia Industrial Center in Batavia New York is considered to be the first business incubator in the world. I recently had an opportunity to visit the massive one million square foot facility and chat with the founder’s son and current CEO Tom Mancuso. It was a great experience after so many years of working in incubation and visiting dozens of incubators, to see this pioneer program. Above all my visit was a learning experience about how incubation was born and why business incubation is important. Over the next few posts I will share some of these lessons.
The term business incubator is so appropriate for what we do. Young companies, sometimes not much more than idea, enter a business incubator that provides an ideal growing environment. The incubator nourishes the start-up and its founder with advice and support until it matures and ultimately become self-sustainable and leaves.
What I have always wondered is, how did the term “business incubator” come about? During my visit to the Batavia Industrial Center I asked Tom. As he tells it, when his father and uncle purchased the old Massey Ferguson building that now houses the Batavia Industrial Center, one of the first businesses they supported was a local chicken hatchery. The business bred chickens on the third floor of the building. Soon enough, Tom’s father Joe Mancuso started giving tours to visitors and potential tenants. During these tours, Joe explained what they were doing using the hatchery as an analogy, “The hatchery incubates chickens and we incubate businesses.” The name stuck, and from there an entire industry was born.
In my next post I will recount why the Mancusos purchased this facility and how it went from being a manufacturing entity to the world’s first business incubator.