Watching high-tech ventures grow

More than 20 years ago, DC Comics asked what became of the “Man of Tomorrow,” questioning whether its hero Superman lived up to the promise of heralding a brighter future. The bleak economy has left New Jersey facing the same question about programs it has created to foster homegrown high-technology companies.

The state has launched business incubators and offered grants to technology companies to make the state more attractive for growing tech companies and, by extension, create jobs. And while funding and incentive programs overseen by the Economic Development Authority and the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology have won praise from the business community, the effort to establish the state as a technology hub is far from over.

“Any of the programs administered by the EDA work and have been a benefit on any kind of cost analysis you want to do,” said Jay Trien, president of the Venture Association New Jersey, which introduces entrepreneurs to potential venture backers. Trien also is a partner with accounting firm Trien Rosenberg in Morristown.

The Edison Innovation Fund, for example, taps the combined resources of the EDA and the Commission on Science and Technology to establish a pool of investments and create an ecosystem to help high-tech businesses grow.

Kathleen Coviello, director of technology and life sciences with the EDA, said the fund doled out investments to more than a dozen companies in the state last year. Since the Edison Innovation Fund’s inception in 2006, “we have funded over $300 million to help companies,” she said.

EDA also helps technology companies better connect with local peers and veterans in the arena to share knowledge, Coviello said. “We make sure people are working with Bio NJ and the New Jersey Technology Council,” she said.

The retention of up-and-coming technology companies is one measure of the state’s success, according to Peter R. Reczek, executive director of the Commission on Science and Technology. The commission supports 14 incubators throughout the state, as well as procuring research and development funds.

Reczek said the number of growing technology companies that graduated from state incubators has nearly doubled, from 30 in 2007 to 55 in 2008. Further, Reczek said 90 percent of incubator graduates stay in the state.

“People choose to stay here,” he said. “That’s a good indication we are doing a

good job.”

Seth A. Tropper, president of Switch2Health, said his company benefited directly from funding it received from the state last year. Last July, the three-year-old company — which developed a personal digital motion sensor used to encourage physical activity — won a $200,000 Edison Innovation Fund grant. “Those funds supported trials with potential customers,” Tropper said.

Switch2Health is a tenant of the Commercialization Center for Innovative Technologies, a business incubator within the Technology Centre of New Jersey along Route 1 in North Brunswick. Tropper said he and partner Amado Batour, Swtch2Health’s creative director, hired a third staffer in January.

The company thus far has marketed its wristwatch-style motion sensor to other businesses to use as part of its own product incentive programs. Tropper said engaging the consumer market directly is in the works, but getting there will require continued funding.

“We need to bring in some investments,” he said. “We are still moving along by trying to get sales. I hope to have a few larger business customers later this year.”

Switch2Health is not alone in its need for more financial backing. Trien said New Jersey must keep offering incentives to prevent states such as Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland from luring away local innovators.

“We may all be Americans, but we are 50 states that are competing economically with each other,” he said.