UCF Business Incubator in Winter Springs gets three more years of funding

It was about six years ago when Winter Springs resident Michael Connell quit his day job.

Connell and his partner at Sportzcast had built a product that would transmit sports scoreboard data in realtime. The product was already in use at high schools and some college campuses. 

“We were literally building hardware on our dining room table,” Connell said. “We have engineering backgrounds. We don’t have business backgrounds.”

So Connell stopped into the University of Central Florida Business Incubator Program in Winter Springs, and got accepted into the program. Since then, Sportzcast has “graduated” from the incubator and still has its company – and its local employees – in Winter Springs; the product is manufactured and assembled in Seminole County. Sportzcast eventually was acquired by Genius Sports Group.

“Without the incubator, even though we had a successful product, we were prone to failure,” Connell said. “We had to get some expertise or guidance to help us grow the company.”

Seminole County wants to see more businesses like SportzCast. The Board of County Commissioners for Seminole County earlier approved spending $795,000 over the next three years to fund the University of Central Florida Business Incubator Program in Winter Springs. 

Check here to watch a video of Seminole County commissioners approving the funding for the incubator. 

The incubator, located just west of the intersection of State Road 434 and State Road 417, currently has a dozen clients.Those small businesses and early-stage companies get access to university know-how, space and coaching to grow. 

Rafael Caamano, the Associate Director and Site manager for the Seminole Business Incubator Program, said the incubator supports companies with a total of 157 employees making an annual average salary of $85,350. 

“We don’t have 50 companies like Research Park,” Caamano said. “But these companies are creating an impact out there. This is how the backbone of the Florida economy looks like – small companies bringing in capital from the outside and generating some cool innovations.” 

Caamano said the incubator is also working on programs for the broader business community, where businesses can come in and get help with their business models. 

One difference with the next round of funding for the incubator? There’s more funding for what’s known as the Soft Landing program. This targets existing companies outside of Florida or the U.S. to come to the incubator. 

“They extended the agreement by adding a portion dedicated just to Soft Landing,” Caamano said. “If you can attract a big company from outside the area, that automatically brings outside capital and brings new jobs and makes our ecosystem much more fertile.” 

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann said the city of Winter Springs also increased its funding to $75,000 – back to pre-pandemic levels – and is glad the county is increasing funding as well. 

The incubator could have a bigger impact in a city like Winter Springs, which gets more than 80 percent of its tax revenue from residential properties. 

“That is the goal,” McCann said. “The incubator building these businesses and one day we can expand into a white collar, research kind of work.”

One possible concern on the horizon? It’s not yet clear what impact President Donald Trump’s announced potential freezes to federal grants could have for businesses in the incubator and around UCF.

UCF Business Incubator by the numbers

Economic Impact of the Winter Springs Business Incubator program from January, 2022 to December 2023: 

•Total jobs supported annually: 157 

•Total company revenues: $34 million 

•Total wages supported:

        o   Direct: $13.4 million      

        o   Indirect: $9.9 million     

        o   Average wage: $85,350

•Total overall impact: $69.2 million

•Partner funding: $645,838

Source: Report from the Haas Center at the University of West Florida, shared by the UCF Incubator.

FY Budget Categories

FY 25 Amount FY 26 Amount FY 27 Amount

Labor $72,048 $72,048 $72,048

Facilities $139,952 $139,952 $139,952

Indirect Cost $53,000 $53,000 $53,000