Winery Incubators and the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem - a Model for Biotech?

As a Seattle resident, this field in Walla Walla, Washington, an area famous for growing sweet onions, looked the way I expected.

Downtown Walla Walla was a different story.  We visited Walla Walla last September and found the streets lined with winery tasting rooms.  Walla Walla's wine industry grew from 20 wineries in 2000 to 140 in 2014 (1) and several have tasting rooms in downtown Walla Walla.  

This amazing proliferation of wineries and their tasting rooms results from a unique collaboration between entrepreneurs, investors, the state government, and Walla Walla Community College.   All these groups worked together to create an ecosystem that would support these small businesses and attract people to the Walla Walla area. 

A plowed field outside Walla Walla
Photo credit:  Sandra Porter, PhD, Digital World Biology, InnovATEBIO

In 2000, a $5 million donation to Walla Walla Community College from the wine industry and private sources launched the viticulture incubators. Today, there are five incubators, each housing a different start-up winery (2).  Tenants begin with a cheap monthly rent that increases over the six years their allowed to stay. At least one winery owner is a graduate from the viticulture program at Walla Walla Community College.  Now, the Walla Walla wine industry generates some $430 million in business and supports 10% of the wine and tourism jobs in the county (3).

Will colleges be able to support their local biotech economies in a similar way?  

Pasadena City College, Austin Community College, Santa Fe Community College, Forsyth Technical Community College, and others are working to find out.  Pasadena City College started the Pasadena Bio Collaborative Incubator in 2004 in partnership with the city of Pasadena (4).  Like its winery equivalents in Walla Walla, Pasadena Bio provides space for startups, assists companies in developing their business plans, and provides opportunities for students to develop the skills needed by industry.  According to the article in Pasadena Now, these efforts are beginning to pay off.

See the Program Funding, CSO database report for a more complete list of Bio-Link programs with incubators.

References:

1.  Dan Smith, Jan 6, 2020  An Ecosystem for Job Creation in The Roanoker.

2.  John Vitale, July 6, 2015, Incubator Wineries:  Hatched in Walla Walla in Washington Tasting Room Magazine

3.  Ashley Mahan, Ron Williams, and Zach Hall June 4, 2019, Walla Walla Valley Wine Industry Generates Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for Region's Economy in Walla Walla Wine

4.  Donna Balancia, July 30, 2019, Amazing Science Grows On at Los Angeles's First Bioscience Incubator in Pasadena Pasadena Now