Guest Blog Post by Tim Strege, Executive Director, The William Factory

The William Factory Small Business Incubator has a vision to build and sustain an “Innovation & Employment Campus” that connects disadvantaged individuals with entrepreneurship and desirable jobs.

Located adjacent to Interstate 5 within the economically distressed East Tacoma community in Washington State, the Incubator has a 28-year track record of nurturing firms through their formative years by providing advisory and professional assistance in technology sophisticated facilities. 

The Incubator historically focused on the specialty trade construction cluster – a “good fit” for workers who no longer had gainful employment after Tacoma lost over 10,000 manufacturing jobs during the 1980s. Recently, with critical support from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Incubator completed a “Phase II” Scientific & Technical Services Incubator to grow information technology oriented companies. 

Among the recent graduates are Juli Norris & Tanya Stack, owners of Chi-Chack, which provides language translation services for federal agencies and private parties; disabled veteran Roger Lyons of Lyons Technology, which installs technology in the financial sector; and Greg Stewart of Orbiter, which combines radio frequency devices with software for military fitness programs, research projects and inventory control.  These firms continue to grow commercial revenues and support the productivity of others that use their products and services.