High-tech firms launch from incubators

BY JEFF SONDERMAN - jsonderman@timesshamrock.com

Internet marketing firms in both cities recently took flight after getting help and protection from business incubators.

Those incubators — funded mostly by local chambers of commerce — give counsel and office space to local entrepreneurs.

The incubator at the Scranton Enterprise Center opened in March 2003.

It has several start-ups about to end their three-year leases and launch into the community, Manager Kristine French Augustine said.

In December, it sent Integrated Marketing Solutions — a strategic Internet marketing firm specializing in the travel and tourism sector — to a new home at 1328 Capouse Ave.

The business entered the incubator in February 2004 with 24 employees, and left with 87 employees.

“They have grown to the point where they needed to find their own space,” Ms. French Augustine said.

“They were really crammed in there like sardines.”

In Luzerne County, Internet marketing company Pepperjam Search has moved into expanded office space in the Innovation Center @ Wilkes-Barre.

“When we first came into the Innovation Center in June 2004, we had one employee — that was me,” Pepperjam founder Kristopher Jones said. Now the company has [23] employees and a national client base."

“The Innovation Center provided Pepperjam with a support system in the early days, and still does today,” Mr. Jones said.

“It is tapping into Northeastern Pennsylvania’s burgeoning growth in technology firms.”

John Augustine III, director of the Innovation Center, is preparing a new marketing plan to attract more entrepreneurs.

“The incubators are open, they are working, and there is room for people to come in,” Mr. Augustine said.

©The Times-Tribune 2006

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