andrew.kantor@roanoke.com 981-3384

If Joe Meredith and Jim Flowers are right, a big part of the New River Valley's high-tech future will grow at KnowledgeWorks, in Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center. Meredith is president of the CRC, and Flowers heads the KnowledgeWorks business incubator.

Incubators are created to help entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful companies.

It officially opened its new building Saturday -- a building made possible by $4 million from the Virginia Tech Foundation and $2 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.

It's already home to eight start-up technology companies; two more are coming soon, and 10 more are in the program. They're each in one of three stages that Flowers terms preparation, start-up, and ramp-up.

The preparation stage is designed for entrepreneurs who might have nothing more than a solid idea for a business. If accepted into the program, they pay $2,500 to get help from KnowledgeWorks partners to refine their ideas, file for patents and trademarks, and prepare to start a business.

When they move to the start-up stage, members get workspaces in the new building as well as an assigned mentor called a "shadow CEO."

They pay $125 per month for each work station.

In the third stage, the company pays $15.57 per square feet per month for an office in the new building and works with peer advisers to continue to grow the business.

At some point, the company will "graduate" out of the program.

Companies developed by KnowledgeWorks aren't required to stay in the CRC or even in the New River Valley, but Flowers thinks they will.

"People who have started their company here, grown their company here, probably want to stay here," Flowers said.

Today, there are only 18 people earning their living through a KnowledgeWorks company, but, in the hopeful words of CRC president Joe Meredith: "We believe this incubator will create jobs for the next 20 years."

Rep. Rick Boucher, D, Abingdon, was even more hopeful. "Hundreds of jobs will be added to the New River Valley."