Local News
Gwinnett city to assist tech startups with new incubator
Peachtree Corners Mayor Mike Mason (left) and Prototype Prime executive director Sanjay Parekh. SANDRA PARRISH / SANDRA.PARRISH@COXINC.COM
By Sandra Parrish
May 19, 2016The city of Peachtree Corners is looking help start-up technology companies and entrepreneurs launch their businesses in a new innovative way.
Prototype Prime, the name of the tech incubator, will be located beneath city hall in Technology Park, in what is currently empty office space.
The idea, according to Executive Director Sanjay Parekh, is to help grow fledgling companies and then send them on their way.
“It’s a place where we incubate companies,” he says. “We go from the one person (or) two people with an idea and maybe some kind of product, and incubate them and help them figure how to grow that and really hatch it and then leave the nest and go on from here.”
Besides providing work space, tenants will have access to technology such as a 3-D printer and podcasting equipment as well as resources from Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center.
Parekh anticipates some entrepreneurs will stay from weeks to months to even a few years until they are ready to move on with their growing companies.
“Our hope is that we don’t have companies that stay here for a long time,” he says. “We want them to succeed and then move on out from here.”
Mayor Mike Mason says other businesses within Technology Park have been concerned by the growing number of vacant offices there and this is another way to revitalize the area and attract more millennials.
“It was the best way we could think of to start the innovation hub here in Tech Park and in Peachtree Corners. But is a regional incubator. It will be as wide a vision as it can possibly be--certainly not limited to people in Peachtree Corners,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.
The city will be talking with potential tenants during a preview event May 25 with hopes that the space will be ready for use by mid-summer.
