As you may have heard, we’ve moved. CrowdIt is settling into a new home at Missouri State University’s eFactory Business Incubator. We couldn’t be happier to have the space and resources to continue growing.
So, what exactly is a Business Incubator?
When you hear the word “incubator,” you may think of newborns in the hospital lined up in incubators with bright lights overhead. Or you might picture a science lab where bacterial life forms are kept at just the right temperature. You may even be taken back to your 3rd grade class, all huddled around a chicken egg, waiting for it to hatch.
Whatever comes to mind, you’re on the right track, because incubation is all about nurturing a beginning. It’s about providing an ideal atmosphere for growth. That is what the eFactory has provided for us, and consequently, that is what CrowdIt offers to business startups and entrepreneurs.
CrowdIt is an incubator.
Business Development Centers and Business Incubators are springing up all over the country. People are recognizing the importance of new business because according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses have generated 67 percent of new jobs created in the past 17 years (2011 http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/sbfaq.pdf). Startups create jobs.
At the same time, however, only 50 percent of small businesses make it beyond the first five years (http://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/sbfaq.pdf). This is primarily due to lack of experience and that is where incubators come in. Entrepreneurs need more than money to get started.
CrowdIt recognizes this problem and part of our mission is, not only to help small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs receive funding to get their feet off the ground, but we want to equip them to succeed. CrowdIt is committed to nurturing entrepreneurs and our new site offers much-needed business networking and expert advice to help “Dreamers” beat the statistics and truly be successful.
Ultimately, the projects submitted on CrowdIt and the Dreamers nurtured here, will create jobs. CrowdIt Dreamers can sway economic trends.
So, now that we have moved to the eFactory, I suppose you could say we are an incubator within an incubator.
We are dreaming big. We are going beyond crowdfunding and taking a stab at the economy as a whole.
Will you dream with us?
CrowdIt 
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but other than that, this is excellent blog. A great read. I will definitely be back.