INCubator

Where does an entrepreneur go to turn an early-stage startup into a growing, profitable business?
Right here at the INCubator.
Whether you need the support of our three-year incubation program or just need a space to work alongside other startups for a few days, we’re here for you. So let’s get started.
Complete the program application form and mail it in or drop it off at 100 Cherokee Blvd. Chattanooga, TN 37405, and we will contact you to set an initial meeting to discuss your business plan.
Don’t have a business plan, yet? Don’t worry. Request a meeting with us to talk through your idea. We’ll get you where you need to be.

We Are the largest business incubator in the state of Tennessee, and the third largest in the United States.

A program of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the INCubator is 127,000 square feet of startup support on Chattanooga’s NorthShore — located in the Hamilton County Business Development Center (BDC) in downtown Chattanooga, the urban core of Hamilton County, Tennessee.

We help entrepreneurs achieve success through a three-year, progressive development program that capitalizes on the synergy of the BDC’s unique entrepreneurial ecosystem, made up of about 50 startup businesses. We provide clients with shared administrative services, manufacturing and office space, training workshops, use of our state-of-the-art Technology Conference Center and access to free on-site business counseling from the Tennessee Small Business Development Center.

The INCubator program is accredited by the International Business Innovation Association. 

 

A Bit of History

The BDC building was built for manufacturing in the late 1920s when Chattanooga’s economic base was largely industrial. The site housed innovative industrial giant 3M in the 1950s until it was transitioned to Hamilton County in the mid 1980s. Local economic development leaders transformed the facility into the community’s first business incubator, planting the seeds of what would become Chattanooga’s dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem.