AlphaLab: Helping Early-Stage Software Companies Move beyond “Beta”
It’s not for lack of brilliant ideas that software entrepreneurs struggle-it’s for lack of the money and the business knowledge to put those ideas into practice. But with the opening of AlphaLab, a Pittsburgh-area business accelerator, entrepreneurs with dreams of owning their own software, gaming or Internet-related companies can seek the support they need to take their ideas from whiteboard to “alpha,” or early commercial release.
Founded by Innovation Works, the southwestern PA office of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, AlphaLab will provide up to 12 companies per year (in two six-month cycles) with free office space, $25,000 in funding and intense business mentoring. Other support includes:
- Access to advisors, mentors and industry experts
- User feedback on product designs and concepts
- Access to the AlphaLab education program, including practical advice on securing additional risk capital, product development, operations and market entry strategies
- Participation in AlphaLab networking events to introduce entrepreneurs to other technology startups in southwestern PA.
In addition to directly helping budding software companies, AlphaLab is also expected to have a positive economic impact on the Pittsburgh area as a whole. “Having the AlphaLab accelerator will be great for Pittsburgh. It fits in perfectly with our goal of creating possibilities for talent to stay and grow in the region,” says Lenore Blum, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), one of Innovation Works’ multiple partners on AlphaLab. “What we’re doing is trying to create a flow from the university to the community here in Pittsburgh,” she adds.
Providing Incentives to Retain Top Talent
Blum notes that Pittsburgh, like many regions, needs to retain more of the talented students who come to the city to study. “When I last calculated, less than five percent of the computer science graduates from CMU stay in town,” she says. Blum’s concern over CMU graduates exporting their knowledge to other regions led her to start Project Olympus, an organization focused on developing an entrepreneurial culture in CMU’s computer science department to encourage students to stay in the region after graduation.
AlphaLab is another compelling reason for these talented researchers and students to develop their ideas in Pittsburgh before they get snapped up by Google, Intel, Apple, Microsoft and other companies that frequently hire CMU grads. “AlphaLab will be an important step for a number of our projects and for other groups that want to start up in Pittsburgh,” Blum says. “And it will become catalytic for other things to happen. We feel fortunate to be partners with Innovation Works on this project.”
The idea for AlphaLab was itself the result of catalytic activity. A student in Project Olympus was selected to spend the summer in a business accelerator in Boston. “The student came back to CMU and gave a presentation on his experience that Innovation Works and other groups attended, and it got people excited about doing something like that here in Pittsburgh,” Blum says. Subsequently, Innovation Works worked with CMU and nearly 50 advisors in academia and industry to mold the AlphaLab program.
Tapping an Established Software Network
Innovation Works is an ideal supporter for AlphaLab because it has extensive experience working with software development startups and is one of the most active seed-stage investors in the country. BFTP has engaged a nationwide network of entrepreneurs, investors, students, gamers, software developers and academics to help refine their model specifically to AlphaLab’s software-related companies.
The Innovation Works AlphaLab team, together with a committee of business advisors and software developers, will review AlphaLab applicants, selecting based on the uniqueness of the concept, market potential of the technologies and the entrepreneurs’ ability to develop a business model with AlphaLab’s assistance. Entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply whether they have already formed a company or are just beginning to develop a concept. The first group of six companies will begin the program in May 2008 at the AlphaLab’s 5,000-square-foot space on Pittsburgh’s historic Southside.
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