Growing Tomorrow's Business Leaders

How a Washington, DCbased incubator is accelerating responsible enterprise

- HANNAH LEE LEIDY

imagine a graduate school type of environment: people in various courses of study attending the same program in a historic brick house, their time divided between working independently on projects in the morning and gathering together for afternoon programs. At the end of the day, they return to a communal apartment before resuming the next day's activities. Envision this, and you have a pretty good picture of Halcyon House.

The Washington, DC-based incubator houses and supports entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development. For anywhere between two and 20 weeks, fellows live at Halcyon House, where they're provided with a stipend and customized pro bono legal services, business consultations, and mock pitch sessions; they learn team-building skills and investment strategies, and they connect with a network of mentors-all while simultaneously pouring their attention into their startup. Halcyon specifically targets entrepreneurs seeking to solve social or environmental issues through a for-profit business model.

"We take really early bets on people," says cofounder and CEO Kate Goodall. "As those businesses become more profitable, it helps other communities grow. People want to work at companies that are doing good in the world; that's the future of capitalism." The application pipeline to Halcyon House funnels in about 600 applicant businesses every semiannual cycle, and they generally accept 10 to 12 businesses into each cohort. They look for talented entrepreneurs with proof of concept and a vision for developing a lasting sustainable impact.