INCubatoredu expands into 60 more schools

BARRINGTON - High school entrepreneurship program INCubatoredu is doubling in size, an expansion that includes more than 60 schools and more than 2,000 students across eight states.

Michael Miles, who co-founded INCubatoredu as a not-for-profit in 2014 and launched the first program in Barrington, said INCubatoredu will be now be available as an entrepreneurship program in school systems in Illinois, Colorado, Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio.

INCubatoredu is a program that provides students with an authentic entrepreneurship experience aimed at developing new product and service innovations. Student teams compete to take a business idea from concept to successful funding in a learning incubator environment designed to replicate real entrepreneurship challenges.

The INCubatoredu curriculum is taught by a team of teachers, real-business mentors, and outside coaches drawn from local communities who help students learn the ins and outs of launching and managing a startup business.

"This expansion is a huge validation to just how different and powerfully unique our approach to teaching entrepreneurship is," said Miles. "Student teams compete in a high-octane incubator environment that teaches business and entrepreneurship skills - as well as critical life skills, including collaboration, teamwork, conflict resolution, problem solving, and tolerating ambiguity - among others.

"Our growth means we can now teach twice the number of students how to create something useful in the world," he added. "It's always an eye-opener to excite energetic young people about creating their own path to success."