Tucson Tech: Sahuarita launches business incubator with UA
The University of Arizona Center for Innovation and the town of Sahuarita are teaming up to launch a business incubator program after a successful pilot last year.
The new BizLaunch program, sponsored by Freeport McMoRan, will enroll five or six entrepreneurs or teams for its spring cohort, with six weeks of free training from April 8 through May 13 and a community demo day scheduled for May 20.
Interested entrepreneurs can learn more about the program at an informational and networking session at 5:30 p.m. March 25 at Pub 1922, 15920 S. Rancho Sahuarita Blvd. The BizLaunch training sessions will take place at Sahuarita Town Hall.
Six early-stage entrepreneurs went through an eight-session pilot training program last year, said Eric Smith, executive director of UACI.
This year, the BizLaunch program is focused on scalable startup companies — technology-enabled ventures with high potential for growth, as opposed to, say, a retail-store concept, Smith said.
UACI and the Sahuarita Economic Development Office are also teaming with the Small Business Development Center and its BizEDGE entrepreneurship program.
The Freeport Foundation awarded the town of Sahuarita a Community Investment Fund grant last year to fund its BizLaunch program through 2021.
Freeport, which operates the Sierrita Mine just west of Sahuarita, also provided partial funding for the town’s first tech park, the Sahuarita Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Center, which is under construction near the southeast corner of West Sahuarita Road and South La Cañada Drive.
For more information or to RSVP for the March 25 info session, and for links to an application, go to the event page on Eventbrite at tucne.ws/1ekv.
