MUJ


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IN Like Flint: How the 
Innovation Incubator 
at UM–Flint Fosters 

Social Entrepreneurship 
in a City Remaking Itself

Nic Custer 
with contributions by 

Kimon Criner, Sara McDonnell, and Sherry Hayden

Abstract
This paper focuses on how the University of Michigan–Flint’s Innovation Incubator

supports emerging for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations through

programming, business plan development, and ongoing mentorship. The Incubator is

especially interested in supporting start-ups that address key social issues in the

surrounding community, including economic vitality. This goal aligns with the

university’s mission, which emphasizes that engaged citizens can exercise some control

over the social, environmental, and economic factors in the larger community.

When people discuss Flint, Michigan, the first thing that comes up probably isn’t
innovation, social entrepreneurship, and a growing economic ecosystem, but perhaps it
should be. Although the city has been a poster child for rustbelt deindustrialization thanks
to films like Roger and Me and a consistent top spot as one of Forbes’ Most Miserable
Cities in America, Flint is making a slow recovery from a decades’ long recession.

As part of a growing group of economic service providers in the city, the University of
Michigan–Flint’s Innovation Incubator (IN) is a gateway to resources available to help
entrepreneurs develop, sustain, and grow their businesses and nonprofit organizations.

IN helps students and community members employ entrepreneurial principles to
address social issues, including economic vitality. Services include meeting spaces,
Wi-Fi, business planning resources, a reference business library, workshops and
conferences, mentoring, coaching, and referrals. Qualifying UM–Flint student-owned
start-ups are offered office space in the Incubator. The co-working space is open to the
public weekdays from 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. All services are offered at no charge.

Currently seven student-owned businesses are housed in the Incubator, while another
thirty student and community members take advantage of IN services. For-profit tenants
include a technology and software development company, a graphic design firm, a
music producer, and a technical writing company. Nonprofit tenants include a theatre



54

company, a homeless female veteran resource organization, and a micro-grant funder.
Together the tenants employ eight people full-time and forty-six people part-time.

Essential to the University of Michigan–Flint’s mission is the belief that engaged
citizens can exercise a measure of control over the social, environmental, and
economic factors in their community. The Office of University Outreach, which
oversees the incubator program, supports this mission by connecting campus and the
community to support learning, collaboration, and partnerships. 

All projects and programs of the Office of University Outreach are considered against
a series of values that exemplify the department’s own mission. These include being in
service, building healthy relationships, justice and fairness, community-building, and
economic vitality. In terms of the value of economic vitality, University Outreach
supports innovation and creativity and fosters a culture of entrepreneurship by working
collectively to develop and retain talent that will contribute to a more vibrant local
community. While other University Outreach programs focus on social or
environmental projects in the community, IN is concerned with this notion of
economic vitality and providing opportunities for individuals to rebuild the city’s
economic base.

IN remains the only business incubator in Flint focused on supporting social
entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity.

Breakdown of Employment by Tenant 
Nonprofit and For-profit Companies at the IN

Name Status Full-time Part-time

DV Technical Writing, LLC For-profit 3 5

Epic Technology Solutions, LLC For-profit 3 2

Euro Effex For-profit 0 2

Flint SOUP Nonprofit 1 7

Moses Music Productions For-profit 0 5

Our Home Transitional Nonprofit 0 15

Shop Floor Theatre Company Nonprofit 1 10



55

History of the Incubator
The Innovation Incubator is located downtown in a former office building owned by
the university. The suite that houses IN was originally the site of the Michigan Small
Business and Technology Development Center from 2000 to 2008, when it moved its
facilities across town to Kettering University. 

In 2008, the Office of University Outreach began the Incubator, which was originally
called Launch to help micro-businesses and give local start-ups a “hand up.” In 2009,
Launch was renamed the Innovation Incubator to reflect the change in focus to include
social entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity. The program satisfied the need for
a gateway on campus for students and the community to receive business resources. It
was also seen as a way for the students to better connect to the community and its
available entrepreneurial resources.

The nonprofit incubator is funded by annual grants, primarily from the C. S. Mott
Foundation. Financial support has also been provided by UM–Flint’s College of Arts
and Sciences, School of Management, and Office of the Provost. More than 55 percent
of indirect costs are covered by the university including use of the Northbank Center
office suites, utilities, phone lines, furniture, conference fees, mentoring costs, and
staff time. The provost’s office provides financial support for an outreach staff member
to serve as the faculty mentorship coordinator for the Innovation Incubator. The
academic units, School of Management, and the College of Arts and Sciences provide
financial incentives to their faculty members to serve as mentors to entrepreneurs
affiliated with the Innovation Incubator. As it investigates its own long term
sustainability, IN is seeking out additional financial support from local and national
foundations and philanthropists. 

Since 2008, eighteen student-run tenant businesses have graduated out of the program.
While some of the entrepreneurs decided not to continue their businesses beyond this
point, several others outgrew the available space and continued their ventures
elsewhere in Flint and places like Detroit and New York City.

The Changing Face of Flint
Flint, Michigan’s population peaked in the 1960s at approximately 194,000 and has
been declining ever since. This decline, along with the associated loss of high-paying
manufacturing jobs, has led to many of the social problems facing Flint today. The 2010
census recorded the city’s population at 102,000, and it is assumed the city now has less
than 100,000 residents. The average income per household is $33,029, which is $35,000
less than the national average of $69,821 (Houseal Lavigne Associates 2013, 21). 

In 2011, the city’s unemployment rate was 25.6 percent and the city’s poverty rate
grew to 41.2 percent. Additionally, there were 2,337 violent crimes reported per
100,000 residents in 2012, and more than 1,600 separate structures have been damaged
or destroyed by arson fires since 2008.



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Despite these factors, the University of Michigan–Flint has seen consistent growth in
its student population in the past decade. For the eighth consecutive year, fall
enrollment has reached an all-time high. Enrollment for fall 2014 climbed to 8,574
students, an increase from 8,555 students attending in 2013 and 8,289 in 2012 (Schuch
2014). This means that there are now more University of Michigan–Flint students than
autoworkers in the city. 

Before the 1970s, many Flint residents were able to find high-paying jobs at GM
without any need for advanced education beyond a high school diploma. The decline
of the city’s automotive industry over the past four decades has precipitated a need for
a more educated and broadly skilled workforce. IN offers services to help build up the
entrepreneurial skill sets of students and community members so they can positively
contribute to local economic vitality.

Social Entrepreneurship
In their book, Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to Know, David
Bornstein and Susan Davis define social entrepreneurship as “a process by which
citizens build or transform institutions to advance solutions to social problems such as
poverty, illness, illiteracy, environmental destruction, human rights abuse, and
corruption, in order to make life better for many” (2010, 1).

This principle is commonly defined in practice by a focus on the “triple bottom line,”
which considers not only a company’s responsibility to make profits but also to the social
and environmental impact its business practices have. It is seen as a way to “maximize
some form of social impact, usually by addressing an urgent need that is being
mishandled, overlooked, or ignored by other institutions” (Bornstein and Davis 2010, 30).

The university’s outreach focus on a “sustainable communities” model means that it
supports learning, collaboration, and partnerships that emphasize either a social,
environmental, or economic connection between campus and community. This
departmental mission helps to inform the philosophy of the incubator program and, 
in particular, its focus on supporting social entrepreneurship and the triple bottom-
line concepts.

In the context of the Incubator, many of the businesses that receive coaching already
have a social entrepreneurship element in their business idea or are responding to a
community need they have identified. The nonprofits served by the Incubator also
work to advocate for a social mission. While not all of the business owners would
describe themselves as “social entrepreneurs,” many of them demonstrate some level
of social responsiveness or benefit in their business model.

How IN Supports Entrepreneurs
Many of the people who visit IN are at a conceptual or early stage in their business
and are in need of basic assistance and space to work. The Incubator provides space to



57

meet and do work, basic business coaching, programming to increase the community’s
knowledge base, and referrals to other service providers. Those who demonstrate the
need for more advanced mentoring can find that within the university’s School of
Management professors and through outside experts. 

These services provide a strong foundation for entrepreneurs to be successful by
asking them to be responsible for accessing available resources as well as providing
more direct free services such as coaching and mentorship to help them move their
organization in the right direction.

The Incubator program doesn’t provide grades to its tenant or associate businesses.
The amount of educational benefit the individual entrepreneur receives depends on
how much work he or she is willing to put into the business. This provides a low stress
environment for entrepreneurs to focus on their venture. While some of the businesses
end up failing, IN staff encourage clients to look at their failures as “productive
failures” and valuable learning experiences for future endeavors. This personal
reflection process can help potential serial entrepreneurs be more willing to start a new
business after one idea has failed.

There are three staff offices located within the IN co-working space suite. The co-
working space also includes a large classroom and lobby area available to the public
weekdays from 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. with free Wi-Fi access. This casual drop-in
environment allows individuals and teams to utilize a workspace downtown at no
charge, unlike other options such as coffee shops and bars that create a barrier to entry
for some community members by requiring the purchase of a refreshment or other
item in order to use the establishment’s Wi-Fi. The co-working space offers flexible
seating arrangements that can accommodate groups of up to thirty-two people. Co-
working resources available to the public include white boards, a projection screen, a
flat screen TV available for Skype, social enterprise periodicals, and a reference
library of business planning resource books. There are also mailboxes for tenant and
many associate businesses in this main area. Faculty and students meet in the co-
working space to plan projects, especially when they involve community stakeholders.
Tenants also take advantage of the co-working area and frequently meet clients,
funders, and board members in the space. 

This Incubator’s location in downtown Flint has successfully drawn community
members to the campus and allowed university students to link up with a larger
segment of non-student entrepreneurs. Faculty are invited to use the co-working space
for on-topic classes that involve community engagement, creativity, and innovation.
Faculty in education, visual arts, communications, and theatre routinely reserve the
space for their classroom use, and often meet clients in the space. University Outreach
staff who work with faculty in civic engagement and service-learning courses often
offer use of the Incubator for the faculty’s classes. Partners of University Outreach who
work collaboratively with the community are given preference on use of the space.



58

There are four shared office suites next door to the co-working space. These offices
are provided to student-owned tenant businesses that show a need for the space. The
businesses, which are at least half owned by a UM–Flint student, sign a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) which serves as a lease agreement for the office space.
Depending on the business’ needs, the office could be a desk or up to several
workstations. This is based on availability of office space overall. 

Currently, tenant businesses have realized a total net increase of fifteen full- and part-
time employees compared to the previous year. During early 2014, one for-profit
tenant business no longer needed the office space and changed status to an associate
business. This year, two new businesses were also granted tenant status, one for-profit,
and one nonprofit. The IN now boasts seven tenant organizations in total, and at least
forty associate businesses.

In addition to physical resources, the Incubator offers a variety of programming each
year to help foster a greater degree of entrepreneurship in the community. This includes
workshops, conferences, and competitions as well as coaching for business owners.

Students and community members are offered free workshops by the Incubator, which
are focused on important aspects of business such as organizational management,
creativity, and innovation, and linking profitability, sustainability, and social
entrepreneurship. The purpose of these workshops is to provide motivated clients with
opportunities to gain additional knowledge that can advance their business or allow
them to think about their company differently.

In the past year, IN has provided workshops in tax accounting, grant writing,
intellectual property, and social entrepreneurship. Many times these workshops are
geared toward the needs and desires of associate and tenant businesses in order to offer
them additional business education services. Examples of social entrepreneurship-
based workshops include one led by Tom Root, a managing partner in Zingerman’s
Mail Order and co-founder of Makerworks in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Root discussed
his company’s triple bottom-line business model. Other similarly purposed workshops
have included a showing and discussion of the film, Extreme by Design, which
documents how a Stanford design class applied design thinking to create products that
tackled daily issues and directly benefitted citizens in Bangladesh, Indonesia, and other
Third World countries. The Incubator also hosted a session last year with Dr. Robert
Buckingham, a visiting professor, who developed eighty-one hospices in seven
countries including the first hospice in the United States and a pediatric hospice for
children suffering from AIDS. The Incubator demonstrates the value of these business
models by allowing successful social entrepreneurs to talk about their work.

In addition to the workshops, IN has held four annual INspire Conferences on
Creativity, Innovation, and Social Entrepreneurship. This conference is a way to both
showcase local success stories and to also introduce larger ideas about the value of
social entrepreneurship, and innovative and creative problem solving to participants.
The most recent conference was held in October 2013. The INspire conference is



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offered at no cost to students and community members and includes panel discussions
and a keynote address. The keynote speaker in 2013 was Professor Michael Gordon
from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and author of Design Your
Life, Change the World: Your Path as a Social Entrepreneur. The conference also
showcased local entrepreneurs, crowdfunding projects, and a panel discussion with
representatives from St. Luke’s North End Women (N.E.W.) Life Center. The center
provides at-risk Flint women with training as seamstresses and offers jobs to women
who complete the training program. 

As a way to expand opportunities available to its clients, IN has helped promote business
competitions locally. The Incubator partnered with Michigan Corps in March 2014 to
announce two business plan competitions through the 2014 Social Entrepreneurship
Challenge. In addition to the statewide Social Entrepreneurship Challenge, Flint area
entrepreneurs had a chance to win more than $60,000 in prizes and business training.
The Drive Flint Prize, Flint’s first entrepreneurship prize for social innovation, awarded
$2,500 to one local social entrepreneur as well as an Impact Investment Fellowship, a
four-month business training to further develop the entrepreneur’s ideas for investment.
Several of the Incubator’s affiliated businesses who were already pursuing a social
entrepreneurship idea were encouraged to enter the competitions.

In 2014, the University of Michigan–Flint School of Management also launched its
first annual Business Plan Competition. This competition is open to students who own
for-profit businesses. The Innovation Incubator is partnering with event organizers to
implement business pitch clinic workshops for competition participants. This will
provide individuals with an understanding of the fundamentals of a good pitch as well
as act as a sounding board for participants to get feedback on their ideas. 

In 2015, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation funded the Green Light
Business Model competition, hosted by Spartan Innovations. Finalists pitched their
business idea at a local event in Flint in January to win up to $5,000. The top winner in
Flint received automatic entry to a final competition in East Lansing. This final
competition provided $25,000 to the winner. An additional $50,000 worth of prizes was
awarded to other top competitors. The majority of the Innovation Incubator’s tenant and
associate businesses were unable to qualify for this competition because they needed to
be a for-profit business that was incorporated on or after March 31, 2014. 

Before IN staff begin to work with a prospective client, the business owner is required
to fill out a “Tell Us About Your Bright Idea” pre-interview questionnaire online
(which is less than twenty questions long) describing their business and its needs. Staff
then review the business idea and schedule an in-person interview with the
entrepreneur. Many start-ups need assistance with developing their business plans; the
Innovation Incubator generally uses the business model canvas as a way to help them
start that process. The canvas allows clients to put down on paper the elements of their
business, such as value proposition, market segment, and revenue streams, and
visually identify where the holes in their business might be. This technique is
particularly useful when working with creativity-based businesses and other non-



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business students. During these initial interviews, staff provide recommendations about
aspects of the business’ strategy that could be improved and refer the entrepreneur to
available resources in the community. These resources include business or nonprofit
development courses through the Michigan Small Business Development Center and
B.E.S.T. (Building Excellence Sustainability Trust) Project. The B.E.S.T. Project is an
organization that provides workshops and development courses for nonprofit board
members, employees, consultants, and funders. These include fundraising, leadership
development, financial management, and technology-related topics.

Some business owners have a social entrepreneurship focus for their start-up idea but
don’t recognize the potential value in it. As part of the business coaching process, staff
members offer insights about how to better market or direct the business towards its
social aspect. One example of this is the Gamerz Den, a gaming and social space being
developed by a UM–Flint student. The business offers an arcade-style space that also
serves as a safe space for less socially adept young people. The business was inspired
by the owner’s autistic brother who has trouble connecting with other people outside
of video games. 

Business owners who show a need for ongoing mentorship on specific aspects of the
business such as marketing or financial plans can be paired with UM–Flint School of
Management faculty. Several of the associate and tenant businesses are receiving more
advanced mentoring with faculty about their business to prepare them for the next
stage of development.

There are many student groups also involved in learning about entrepreneurial skills
and thinking in their extracurricular activities. These student groups include
organizations like the Entrepreneurs Society and the Engineering Club. They provide
students opportunities to test and create prototypes for student products, services, or
business plans. The Innovation Incubator coordinates with the faculty advisors for
these student groups and provides support when appropriate.

As part of its outreach and marketing efforts, the Incubator has held Pop IN open
houses, which allow students and community members to tour the offices and co-
working space while staff members explain the potential services they can offer. These
events have helped to attract more associate business clients to the Incubator for
assistance on developing their for-profit and nonprofit organizations. 

Strengthening the Ecosystem
The Innovation Incubator is also part of an informal countywide network of about
seventeen entrepreneurial service providers known as the “ eTEAM.” The eTEAM,
which stands for Entrepreneurship Team, allows nonprofit organizations that provide
entrepreneurial support services to share information, referrals, and resources.

The eTEAM is chaired by staff from the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce
and the local Michigan Small Business Development Center. Member organizations



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include the Flint Area Reinvestment Office, Goodwill Industries, VetBiz Central,
Metro Community Development, Mott Community College FabLab, Red Ink Studios,
the Local Initiative Support Corporation, Flint Farmers’ Market, Kettering University,
Baker College, and others.

The network meets monthly and communicates virtually online on a weekly basis to
share program information and updates. The greatest value for the Innovation
Incubator of belonging to this group is the large referral network it facilitates and
coordinates. All eTEAM members are aware of each other’s programs and services
and regularly refer local entrepreneurs to the appropriate service providers. 

This referral network is transitioning from an informal group to a more coordinated
network, which includes joint marketing and branding. The first eTEAM marketing
document is called the “Flint City Start-Up Guide.” This document provides a quick
breakdown of where eTEAM members are located and what services they provide to
the differing stages and types of businesses. This free and easy to use start-up guide is
a way to break down barriers to discovering and accessing services in the Flint
entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Two members of the eTEAM, including Flint SOUP, a nonprofit Incubator tenant,
have expanded networking opportunities for local entrepreneurs. They have begun
offering a pop-up co-working space, which is a temporary makerspace and co-working
space at the Flint Farmers’ Market that draws entrepreneurs from Ann Arbor, Detroit,
and Lansing. Flint SOUP has begun offering bi-weekly innovation and
entrepreneurship meet-ups hosted by various eTEAM member organizations.

In addition, the eTEAM organizes an annual event in February called the Jumpstart
Conference for local entrepreneurs and start-ups. This event draws business owners,
inventors, and aspiring entrepreneurs to learn about the fundamentals of starting and
running a business. It also allows for the various service providers to share the benefits
of their programs with potential clients. The Innovation Incubator pays conference fees
for associate and tenant businesses and UM–Flint students to attend this day long
conference each year. 

The Incubator held INSPIRED Michigan, a symposium of Michigan business
incubators in October 2014. This event allowed participating groups to re-establish a
network of entrepreneurial service providers around the state and strengthen
relationships. It also gave service providers the opportunity to share working
knowledge and best practices including around issues of metrics and benchmarks.

Highlighted Business Case Studies
Between November 2013 and August 2014, the Incubator worked with more than
thirty new community and student-owned associate businesses. These ranged from a
prospective Jamaican food restaurant and educational video production company to an
online mail order clothier and festival organizer. Several of the businesses and



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nonprofits affiliated with the Incubator have a socially-conscious element to their
business model. 

For-Profit Examples
There are a few key for-profit businesses the Incubator has worked with in the past
year that deserve to be highlighted for their innovative approaches and social focus. 

Charma’s Organic Kitchen is an associate business owned by Charma Dompreh, a
community member. Her business produces Sassy Green Chips, a healthy snack made
from locally grown dehydrated kale and collard greens. She is a retired teacher who
wanted to take on the issue of access to healthy food in “food deserts” or places where
access to healthy, fresh food is extremely limited. She has been very successful in
marketing her products through presentations and offering samples. She has
consistently sold out of the Sassy Green Chips, which she sells in $3 and $5 snack
sizes as an outdoor vendor at the Flint Farmers’ Market every Saturday. 

She would like to be able to sell her products in local stores around Flint to better
address the problem of food deserts and increase the availability of low-cost healthy
snacks. She has hired one part-time employee to help with sales. Charma, who is also
a certified raw food chef, recently received her retail food license and won the January
2014 Flint SOUP micro-grant competition for her Sassy Green Chips. She has made
contacts with urban hoop house farmers in the area to have a year-round supply of kale
and collard greens for her business. A hoop house is an unheated greenhouse that
allows food to be grown throughout the winter months.

UM–Flint student Stephan McBride’s business, Gamerz Den, is a video gaming and
social space, which he would like to also cater toward creating a safe space for less
social and autistic gamers. Although the associate business was inspired by the student’s
autistic brother, who only felt comfortable socializing with other people around video
games, this idea was not evident in the business concept. IN staff were able to show
McBride the added benefit of marketing the safe space element of the business during
his initial intake interview. As part of the services offered to him, the Innovation
Incubator arranged for McBride to be mentored by a School of Management professor
as he develops his financial plan. McBride plans to hire several local employees as the
business expands. He entered the Drive Flint portion of the 2014 Social
Entrepreneurship Challenge, a business plan competition for Michigan start-ups.

Linda Kachelski, BFA Communication, LLC, is developing a mobile application that
translates English to American Sign Language and vice versa through video relay. The
main use of this associate business’ application is for general communication as well as
911 emergency services. As she develops her software, she will work with partners at the
National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf and American Sign Language video relay
services. Kachelski believes there is a large market for this software. There are
approximately 837,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing residents in Michigan alone. She would 



63

like to charge at least a quarter of her users $15 to download and use the application.
This would allow her to cover her costs and help subsidize lower rates for other users.

Another great social venture associated with the Incubator is a company being
developed by UM–Flint student Nick Looney. The company will work with Habitat
for Humanity to build and sell tiny houses, which are roughly defined as less than 200
square-feet. His company plans to hire homeless and at-risk individuals to build the
houses and will contribute 10 percent equity in the company to the local Habitat for
Humanity for use of their warehouse space and tools. He has completed his first test
project, which is a shed built at the Habitat for Humanity warehouse. Looney is in
talks with a local architect and construction manager about gaining their involvement
in the project.

Moses Music Productions is a tenant business of the Innovation Incubator owned by
UM–Flint Business Administration student Aleah Moses. Moses Music provides
songwriting and music production services to artists, and commercial jingles to
companies for use in advertising. The business was started in May 2012 after Moses
attended the Incubator’s workshop series the previous semester. Her clients primarily
request pop songs, but the company can create hip hop, rap, R&B, alternative pop, and
other types of music. Moses charges a standard overall product cost for the music and
a percentage of the ownership rights. 

A social aspect of her company’s mission is to specifically inspire girls, who are
underrepresented in the music industry, to realize that they can make it as producers
and songwriters. She has produced more than fifty songs (full songs and instrumentals)
mostly for out-of-state clients, many of whom she connects with online through her
self-made website, www.lovemosesmusic.com. She recently launched Beatphoria.com,
which provides original music available for online leasing and licensing. Her
Northbank Center studio inside the Incubator’s Creative Suite has served as her
primary recording studio since it was renovated to provide soundproofing panels to
improve recording quality. Although she originally wanted her company to be picked
up by a major record label, she is now leaning toward starting her own independent
recording label, MMP Records, in order to maintain more creative control. She also
works as a contracted instructor for BangTown Productions, which provides after
school music classes for grade school students throughout Flint and Kalamazoo. In
addition, she teaches at Hamady High School, Twenty-First Century, and Flint
Community Schools. After the Incubator was able to send her to a music industry
conference in Los Angeles, Moses began working with a major recording artist and is
producing for Flint’s own Jon Connor, who is signed to Aftermath Records, alongside
Dr. Dre (CEO of Aftermath records & Beats by Dre audio technology).

Epic Technology Solutions, LLC, began in 2008 by providing application hosting
and Internet services for clients. This tenant business was started by brothers Paul and
Eric Knific, and Paul’s wife, Ashley, who are all UM–Flint students or alumni. They
occupy an office suite at the Incubator and receive mentoring through the program. 



64

One of Epic’s more socially minded projects was to develop software and a card
system for the Flint Farmers’ Market Double-Up Food Bucks program. This program
provides an incentive for low-income people to eat more local produce. The software
allows vendors to offer up to an additional $20 per day worth of free Michigan-grown
produce for customers using Electronic Benefit Transfer cards (EBT). The Double-Up
Food Bucks program has been subsidized by state and federal funds. Today, Epic has
expanded operations and is increasing the efficiency of its computers by moving
systems from individual dedicated servers to virtualization, which allows for more
information to be hosted with less physical space. The company has five employees,
and the owners have hired two interns. 

NonProfit Examples
In addition to these for-profit companies, there are a number of nonprofit organizations
affiliated with the Incubator that seek to solve social and environmental issues in the
Flint community. 

Shop Floor Theatre Company is a nonprofit organization that creates place-based
arts and education programming “with and for people of all ages, experiences and
backgrounds.” The group is run by Kendrick Jones, a UM–Flint graduate student and
lecturer. This organization’s focus includes underserved and underrepresented
communities in the Flint area. Shop Floor was formed, after the success of the 2011
play, Embers: The Flint Fires Verbatim Theatre Project. This play was constructed in a
verbatim style from interviews with community members, firefighters, and
government officials about Flint’s rash of several hundred arsons in 2010. Shortly after
this project, the group was awarded a $46,000 grant by the Ruth Mott Foundation. The
company joined the Incubator as a tenant business in August 2012 and is
headquartered in an Incubator office suite. Their next project was State of Emergency,
which was a similarly constructed and performed verbatim play about Flint’s fiscal
emergency and takeover by the state of Michigan. 

In addition, Shop Floor began working directly with underserved communities in the
Flint area and training college-aged artists through an apprenticeship program. Shop
Floor’s yearlong Apprentice Artist program included an in-school residency teaching
ninety students at Beecher Ninth Grade Academy. The Beecher school district is located
in a low-income community, north of Flint city limits. The struggling district had its
arts programming cut in an attempt to reduce costs and stay out of state receivership.
The apprentice artists brought poetry, theatre, and dance workshops to the freshman
classrooms, which culminated in a student performance of their original work at the end
of the school year in a neighboring school district. The company was awarded a
$58,000 grant from the Ruth Mott Foundation as well as funding from the Community
Foundation of Greater Flint for its current 2014–2015 season. Shop Floor subsequently
hired more college-aged artists and partnered with New York City-based the Groovy
Projects to provide anti-bullying assemblies to Beecher’s elementary and middle school
students and work with high school students to create their own music video. There is
one full-time employee and ten part-time contractors currently including writers, actors,



65

musicians, and a choreographer. Shop Floor also raises funds outside of grants through
speaking engagements, university performances, and other services.

Another tenant business of the Incubator, Flint SOUP is run by recent UM–Flint
graduate, Adrian Montague. This group holds monthly micro-funding competitions to
support various community projects. The organization, which is modeled after Detroit
SOUP, charges audience members a $5 fee to attend the event. Participants receive a
light meal of soup and bread and then hear three or four pitches for community projects
or small businesses. The audience votes on which idea they want to support the most.
The winning idea receives all of the door money collected throughout the evening. 

By the time Flint SOUP joined the Incubator in May 2014, it had already hosted about
eighteen months of competitions in the Flint area. Flint SOUP has generated $2,000 in
individual donations, $30,000 from corporations, and 300 volunteer hours from
members of the public since entering the Incubator. Flint SOUP fulfills a social role by
supporting projects that benefit the city of Flint but might not be formally structured or
large enough to seek out grant or private funding. It also allows local people to have a
choice of what their money supports. In addition to these values, the soup event brings
together a wide segment of the community who might not otherwise be in the same
room together or aware of each other’s work.

Our Home Transitional was founded by Carrie Miller, a UM–Flint student. Her
nonprofit organization provides female veterans with housing assistance and connects
them with social services including job training. Our Home is a tenant business at the
Incubator and has received mentoring support from School of Management professors.
Miller has enlisted a board of directors that includes several veterans and influential
community members, including a team of grant writer volunteers. 

Our Home Transitional is in the process of purchasing a three-story, ten-bedroom
house north of campus. Miller and her board are working to raise $50,000 to purchase
the home. Our Home is working directly with the Detroit Veterans Administration on
the project. The group received a one-story, two-bedroom house as an initial project
and made plans for occupancy in November 2014. Miller said once one home is fully
operational, large funders will be more apt to donate to the nonprofit. Our Home
Transitional recently has partnered with Single Veteran Mothers Assistance Program
and Of Impact, LLC, two other Veteran Service Organizations. The three groups have
opened an extension office to provide more outreach services as well as financial
management workshops at no cost to veterans. Our Home Transitional also entered the
Michigan Corps Flint Social Entrepreneurship Challenge for 2014.

Collecting Metrics/Evaluation of Program
In 2013, staff researched best practices of other incubators across the country to
identify the most effective categories and methods of gathering data on the program.
New methods were identified to better gauge the success of IN’s clients. 



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Four primary areas of data are currently the sources for information gathered about
Incubator clients: workshop and conference registrations, “Tell Us About Your Bright
Idea” pre-interview questionnaires, walk-in questionnaires, and routine updates of
student-owned tenant businesses. The purpose of each questionnaire varies slightly, not
all registrants have or need business assistance, and tenants are held to a higher level
of reporting than others. A core group of questions was determined necessary across
the various programming, and the means of collection has been reviewed for
standardization. The “Tell Us About Your Bright Idea” pre-interview questionnaire has
been updated to ask that entrepreneurs better define their target customers as well as
how their business will directly serve the community.

The MOU form for tenant businesses to lease office space has undergone changes
during the last year. As part of the requirements for retaining the office space, business
owners must participate in biannual meetings with IN staff to discuss their business’
progress as well as attend specific workshops and training sessions. 

Each tenant business owner is expected to attend at least half of the workshops offered
by the Innovation Incubator each year and must participate in at least two of the
following development opportunities: business training through the Michigan Small
Business Development Center, networking events at the Flint and Genesee Chamber of
Commerce, industry conferences, B.E.S.T. project training, or business mentoring
through School of Management faculty. Also each tenant business has to submit a
written self-evaluation report about operations and updated financial information. This
includes what projects they are working on, if they have hired new staff, needs to
maintain business operations, whether revenue has changed in the previous year,
financial needs and financial statements including a balance sheet, statement of
income, and expenses and budget projections. 

Questions involving short- and long-term organizational goals have been added to the
self-evaluation in order to determine how the Incubator can best assist businesses and
nonprofits as they move forward. Also businesses are specifically asked how many
full- and part-time employees each business claims instead of generally how many
people does it employ (with no distinction between full- and part-time employment.) 

Staff have included a question that requires tenants to consider potential criteria for
their business’ graduation from the IN. Tenant businesses are eligible to graduate out
of the program if they have experienced sufficient growth to require more floor space
than is available at the Incubator, if the business has shown a quarterly profit greater
than the quarterly value of the office space, if the principal owner has graduated from
University of Michigan–Flint more than one year earlier, or if they no longer need the
services offered by the Incubator. Tenants may also graduate earlier than this if the
company is acquired by another firm or legal entity. 

This collected data is used in monthly reporting to the campus including the University
Outreach faculty advisory board and in the yearly University Outreach annual report,
as well as the yearly grant report to funders. The data is used in narratives about the



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program through the University Outreach blog and website and in other marketing
methods. Results are used to refine the services offered by the Incubator.

At each workshop and
conference session,
participants submit
evaluations of the event.
These evaluate course
content, instructional
materials and methods,
administration, the course
leader’s presentation, the
venue’s appropriateness,
whether a participant
would recommend the
course to peers,
weaknesses of the course,
suggestions for
improvement, other
courses the individual
would like to suggest for
future sessions, what the
participant plans to do
with gained knowledge
and skills, whether it will
make a difference in her
work, how she learned
about the event, and any additional comments. The data and comments are used in
reports to funders, in reports to campus, and to shape and refine the services offered by
the Incubator to best fit its clients’ needs.

Strategic Planning
The Innovation Incubator has been performing ongoing strategic planning this year to
better identify how it can positively contribute to the growing entrepreneurial
ecosystem in Flint and how it can best serve its clients’ changing needs. Staff have
engaged in a series of discussions about the future direction of the Incubator and have
decided to offer more resources to local entrepreneurs on its website so that the
potential client can begin researching next steps before the first meeting with
Innovation Incubator staff. The Incubator is also investigating offering intake
interviews online over Skype with potential clients that cannot make it downtown to
discuss their business. This would expand the reach of the Incubator to a wider swath
of Flint and Genesee County.

In addition, the Incubator is planning to pilot a start-up business boot camp in 2015 as
a way to build up a cohort of local entrepreneurs. This multiple-week program would



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meet once a week to discuss business concepts including the triple bottom line,
working with the business model canvas, banking and financing, legal structures for
corporations, and a pitch clinic. 

Conclusion
Over the past year, IN has increased its efforts to better serve entrepreneurs on campus
and in the community. Increased data gathering and establishment of new metrics have
allowed staff members to take a critical look at how they are supporting businesses’
growth and how they can improve services.

The Incubator has maintained a strong programming focus around social
entrepreneurship and related concepts and has seen an increase in the number of social
entrepreneurship and community-driven ventures applying to receive services in the
past year. 

The Incubator is attempting to further reduce barriers to entry through working with
community partners like the eTEAM to create new marketing materials and by hosting
open houses and other events to increase awareness and use of the co-working space. 

Staff expect that continued efforts to promote social entrepreneurship through
workshops and conferences and encouraging socially-conscious elements in individual
business models will assist clients in exercising some influence over the social,
environmental, and economic factors in the larger community.

References
Bornstein, David, and Susan Davis. 2010. Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone
Needs to Know. New York: Oxford.

Houseal Lavigne Associates. 2013. Imagine Flint Master Plan for a Sustainable Flint.
Flint: Houseal Lavigne Associates.

Schuch, Sarah. 2014. “University of Michigan–Flint Hits Record-Breaking Enrollment
for Eighth Consecutive Year.” MLive/The Flint Journal, September 18.
http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/09/university_of_michigan–
Flint_h_18.html.



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Author Information
Nic Custer is a program assistant for University of Michigan–Flint’s Innovation
Incubator. A Flint native, he has worked as a journalist, editor, and business coach, and
creates marketing and communications materials for the Office of University Outreach.

Nic Custer
Innovation Incubator
Office of University Outreach
University of Michigan- Flint
432 N. Saginaw St., Suite 207
Flint, MI 48503
E-mail: ncuster@umflint.edu
Telephone: 810-424-5454



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