Today's Entrepreneur is Steve Boerner, Founder and President at Hatch House. Hatch House Ventures is a live-work start-up incubator for seed entrepreneurs. Virtual Incubator Network is a spin-off company of Hatch House Ventures, is a software platform designed to enable community managers to more effectively engage and grow their communities. The Virtual Incubator Network enables managers to build effective mentorship programs, engage pre-members for higher conversion to membership, and engage the outside community. Utilizing this tool, community managers can reduce administrative costs and allow a broad ecosystem to grow organically with minimal staff time investment.
Boerner graduated in 2009 from the University of Delaware with a Organizational Leadership Degree and from Lehigh University in 2009 with a Master's of Engineering in Technical Entrepreneurship.
The Virtual Incubator Network self-categorizes in these areas: Education, Enterprise software, Software as a service.
Here's a little about Boerner:
If you are an entrepreneur, why? I want to change the world.
The most frustrating part of entrepreneurship is having a big vision, but not being able to build it all today. We have a big comprehensive dream for Hatch House on how we can help millions of entrepreneurs through our physical and virtual programs. The most rewarding part is knowing that we will eventually build the entire vision. And when I meet people who enable us to reach our goals faster, that is incredibly rewarding.
Letting their fears hold them back.
At Hatch House we get to work with many young entrepreneurs who come to their business with preconceived notions about how business is supposed to work. Many of these ideas are based on fear. If entrepreneurs could embrace their strengths and work with mentors to help them conquer their fears, we would have more high flying entrepreneurs.
1) You have to be a Rebel - see more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3cZt4-AqE8
2) Listen to the market intently
3) Go back to the basics - don't forget time tested business principals like strive for excellent, build great character, and cashflow is King. These are principals you can find in business books of every generation (even 100 years ago).
Steve Boerner is the President of Hatch House Ventures, a network of live-work startup incubators for young entrepreneurs providing a wealth of resources to tomorrow's generation of job creators. Steve is a motivational speaker; passionate about sharing his story and learned lessons with the world.
His entrepreneurial spirit has also carried over to a fashion e-commerce company called Stylin' where he served as vice president of operations. Steve is a 2009 UD graduate with a masters in engineering in technical entrepreneurship from Lehigh University.
Virtual Incubator Network is competing in the Splash Spring. The top eight of the competition will compete live on stage at Splash Spring on May 12 at Scottish Rite Center, Oakland. Register here.
*Want to be included in our Today's Entrepreneur series? Email me: mitos@vator.tv
I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!
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The Virtual Incubator Network, a spin-off company of Hatch House Ventures, is a software platform designed to enable community managers to more effectively engage and grow their communities.
The Virtual Incubator Network enables managers to build effective mentorship programs, engage pre-members for higher conversion to membership, and engage the outside community. Utilizing this tool, community managers can reduce administrative costs and allow a broad ecosystem to grow organically with minimal staff time investment.
The initial target markets for the software are college entrepreneurship programs, incubators and accelerators. Each of these institutions suffers from over-worked staff and is under constant pressure to grow and engage their communities, often with high stakes for failure. Future market opportunities represent over $1.1B in market potential and include government, professional associations, and community banks.
To date, there are four beta-customers who are funding the initial software build, serving the immediate need for pre-seed funding. Early-adopters include Penn State Lehigh Valley, University of Delaware, Rowan University, and Bucks County Community College.
The primary revenue source is sale of software licenses that range from $10k to $150k annually (based on the number of users). The software is projected to run at a high eighty percent gross margin that will enable the company to reinvest in growth via strategic hires, product development, and establishment of a world-class sales team.
As customers utilize the Virtual Incubator Network, the closed platform begins to grow organically and the software becomes a substantial source of recurring revenue, increasing with the number of users per network.
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