Santa Barbara Technology Incubator: What's New

Title	Santa Barbara Technology Group
Date:	7/1/2002
Author:	Sheila Murphy

Source:	Santa Barbara News Press

There's a unique opportunity for businesses here in Santa Barbara, particularly those that are small-to-medium sized who don't want to rent pricey downtown offices. Santa Barbara Technology Group and their management consulting services are available to the general business community in the tri-counties area. The Group consists of a core management team, an advisory board of thirty seasoned executives and scientists from a variety of industries, and an additional forty high-net worth advisors.

Initially Santa Barbara Technology Group was formed as Santa Barbara Technology Incubator and acted as an early stage venture investor providing start-ups with seed capital, management consulting support and office space in their incubator facility..

At the helm of the Santa Barbara Technology 'Incubator' is Dennis Cagan, Chairman and CEO. An entrepreneur and venture investor, Cagan notes proudly that, "We have been asked to provide board members and to advise local companies on everything from strategy to technology, to marketing and fundraising."

The facility where Santa Barbara Technology Group operates, 402 E. Gutierrez Street, is an impressive one. Housed in approximately 26,000 square feet, businesses can set up and operate with minimal financial investment and start their businesses with minimal effort, made seamless by Santa Barbara Technology Group.

"What we have here," says Cagan, "is a facility where anybody can rent space, for any kind of business. We've got about 35 companies here now, about four of which we hold equity in, and I work with to varying degrees."

Dennis Cagan, Chairman and CEO of Santa Barbara Technology Institute

For the bulk of the businesses that call the Santa Barbara Technology Group home, most bring their own support staff, yet amenities like conference rooms, printers, copiers, faxes and a fully-equipped kitchen (complete with ping pong table) are available to all who rent space. Companies can bring in their own servers, which are housed in a special section on the property.

Everything from start-ups to companies who are "re-organizing" and everything in between, find the services offered at SBTG to be the answer in a commercial real estate market that is as tight as the local housing market.

Some of the unique situations at SBTG are the Santa Barbara sales staff for Canon, a plastic surgery company that recently declared bankruptcy houses executives who are attempting to restart the company, as well as one man/woman operations who rent cubicles. Peter Noone from Herman's Hermits has an office here, as well as Michael Towbes, real estate developer.

"Other companies have set up house for a year or two, which can be considered long term," shares Cagan. "The non-profit organization, CASA, houses their entire staff and operations here. There are a lot of different things going on here so it makes it a very interesting place to be."

While the SBTG started out, appropriately enough, with all technology companies, that has since changed. "We didn't fill it up fast enough," explains Cagan, "and also during the early part of 2000 when the market crashed, the technology market has really been going down over the last two years, keeping it strictly to technology companies didn't make sense since we didn't have enough tenants to support it."

The facility makes lots of sense for independent consultants, and has a number of them in house. "It's very attractive to consultants who need a space to work from and don't want to do it from home."

Rent is extremely affordable and since tenants are on a month-to-month basis there is no credit check. Tenants simply put first, last and a deposit down and pay each month for their particular space. "Rents are as inexpensive as $350 for an individual space, and an office might be $600-$700, some offices are $1000." The remaining costs to rent are offered a la carte. Parking spaces, phone service and the like are all individualized depending on what the consumer needs and wants.

Today the operation of the facility is a separate company in itself and it's one of the many companies that SBTG owns equity in. "We've spun it off so it's not Santa Barbara Technology Group anymore," says Cagan, "even though our name is on the building and I put it together, it's now a separate company called Santa Barbara Tech Ventures.

The entrepreneurial Cagan is highly regarded as a technology and computer industry pioneer. Having been in business for 35 years he has founded twelve companies and has been on over 30 boards of directors. For almost two decades prior to founding SBTG, Cagan's activities primarily comprised a series of interim senior management positions at a wide variety of technology companies, usually where he was also a member of the Board of Directors. Companies he has been directly involved with have been some of Santa Barbara's most successful technology enterprises including Wavefront Technologies (now Alias/Wavefront), Software.com, Commission Junction, and Supply Solution.