Incubators and accelerators are popping up across the country to help startups bloom. And in the year since the Dallas Entrepreneur Center put down roots, the nonprofit has moved into new downtown space and teamed up on an incubator in Addison.
Trey Bowles is CEO of the operation known as The DEC, and he joins 四虎影院鈥檚 vice president of news, Rick Holter, for this week鈥檚 Friday Conversation.
Interview Highlights: Trey Bowles...
...on what The DEC is all about: 鈥淚t鈥檚 made up of a couple different pieces. We have mentors that come in and offer free time with start-ups, we have investors who come in and listen to different pitches and try to figure out if it鈥檚 a place they want to put some money. We have collaborative space so people can actually come in and set up an office there, either at a desk or an office space. And then finally we really focus on the idea of promotion behind them, it鈥檚 really a resource center and central hub for these startups to come together and get the resources they need to be successful.鈥�
鈥n why Dallas is a good home for entrepreneurs: 鈥淪o the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a couple weeks ago announced that Dallas is one of the best places in the country to start a business. Kiplinger鈥檚 put out a report last year that said Dallas was the number one place in the country to start a business. We have 19,000 new businesses started every year just in the city limits of Dallas.鈥�
鈥n failure: 鈥�Failure is important to us, we encourage it. And people always say 鈥榶ou should definitely fail, but fail fast.鈥� It鈥檚 important to note that, it鈥檚 important to get some scars and learn from that. I also think that we encourage a calculated approach to entrepreneurship. So we spend a lot of time with people having them go through feasibility analyses, looking at is this an opportunity, is there really a need. And most importantly, are there customers out there who would pay for this? And if there aren鈥檛 then don鈥檛 go down this road. We talk about the idea of jumping into entrepreneurship as opposed to diving in because if you jump in you may bruise your tailbone but if you dive in you can break your neck.鈥�
