In The News

Below are selected excerpts from media coverage about Gwinnett Innovation Park.

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Incubators and Their Success Stories

"Norcross (Ga.)-based Intelligent Systems is a public company that invests in early-stage technology ventures, including about 25% of the companies in its incubator. The incubator, which opened in 1990, houses about 16 to 20 companies, with space for offices and light manufacturing. Tenants get below-market rates on 300 to 5,000 square feet of space, and most graduate in three or four years. The incubator's four-member senior management team has served on the boards of 15 public and private companies, and worked as CEOs at four companies. They now offer plenty of free advice to tenants. "We consider it part of our investment," says Director Bonnie Herron. It's paying off: Some 75% of the graduates are still in business or have been acquired."

Business Week
Birds of a Different Feather
Winter 2005

"For-profit incubators in Atlanta can best be likened to designer blue jeans. For the sake of this little analogy, let's assume that the Intelligent Systems Incubator is a pair of good ol' Levi 501s. It's basic, not very sexy, just gets the job done."

Catalyst Magazine

"On paper, the office is about 145,000 square feet.  In person, it seems more like a city unto itself.  The vast majority of the area is dedicated to the incubator that ISC runs, the Intelligent Systems Incubator.  A tiny fraction is set aside for ISC, which has spent many years operating the incubator.  It has spent even more investing in and partnering with a wide variety of other young technology firms.  Many of them, such as Peachtree Software, have become huge successes."

Gwinnett Magazine

"…high tech startups are coddled by a team of industry veterans that include the center’s founder, Leland Strange, a Technology Hall of Famer who founded Quadram Corp., a PC hardware pioneer; director Bonnie Herron, who used to run business development for Quadram; and Frank Marks, an ex-product developer for IBM. Entrepreneurs clamor to become residents at the 150,000-square-foot industrial park in order to tap the management aegis of these directors, who remain on tap to give advice".

Fortune Magazine

"Already acknowledged as one of the foremost private incubators in the United States, Intelligent System’s Shared Resource Technology Center can add another feather to its cap. One of its companies, ChemFree Corp., has been named the Incubator Company of the Year in the manufacturing industry by the National Business Incubation Association".

Atlanta Business Chronicle