Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

UNLV business incubator seeks to nurture young entrepreneurs

UNLV Incubator Powered by Hughes Center

Steve Marcus

Vivienne Kwong, director of portfolio management for EQ Office, and Robert Rippee, executive director of the UNLV Incubator powered by Hughes Center, pose at the incubator Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. The facility, which will promote tech and hospitality entrepreneurs, will officially open on Sept. 29.

UNLV Incubator Powered by Hughes Center

Vivienne Kwong, right, director of portfolio management for EQ Office, talks with Robert Rippee, executive director of the new UNLV Incubator powered by Hughes Center, during an interview at the incubator Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2021. The facility, which will promote tech and hospitality entrepreneurs, will officially open on Sept. 29. Launch slideshow »

At an office complex just east of the Las Vegas Strip, UNLV students are diligently working to bring new business ideas to life.

One group is working on a sports betting innovation, while another is pursuing a food security idea.

“New companies, like what could spring up from this incubator, would help to diversify our economy,” said Robert Rippee, executive director of the UNLV business incubator at the Hughes Center.

“We could change everything from tax revenues to the perception of the labor market in Las Vegas. There would be a lot of benefits from incubating new companies here,” Rippee said.

The role of the incubator is to help bridge the gap between an entrepreneurial idea and turning that idea into a viable business. It is a public-private collaboration between UNLV and EQ Office, Blackstone Inc.’s real estate investment company.

EQ Office owns some 80 office properties, including the 68-acre, 1.5 million-square-foot Hughes Center office campus. The UNLV incubator there, a collection of modern offices and tech-oriented meeting rooms, was shown to the public for the first time last week.

The first entrepreneurs, all UNLV students, started meeting there earlier this month.

“The possibilities are limitless,” Rippee said. “We want people to think about solving big problems. If your idea is good enough, we might bring you into the incubator and help turn it into a real business opportunity.”

To be considered, teams must apply and be accepted to the program. Members must be UNLV students, though that criteria could change, Rippee said.

“Most startups fail, but it’s generally not because they came from a bad idea,” Rippee said. “It’s often because people have a bad business model. From there, ideas can fall apart pretty quickly.”

Students don’t receive college credit for their work at the incubator, but they have access to the expertise of Rippee and others from UNLV’s Office of Economic Development.

While almost any idea will be considered, Rippee, a former marketing executive for Las Vegas Sands, said concepts related to the gaming, hospitality, transportation and retail industries stand out.

The incubator is located just minutes from the Strip, which boasts some of the most recognizable brands in the world in those areas.

“If we’re talking about those sectors, there’s probably no better place in the world to be,” Rippee said. “There are resources here, potential customers here, potential laboratories to test an idea. For gaming, hospitality, entertainment, retail and the technologies that support all those sectors, all that is about a block away from here.”

Vivienne Kwong, a commercial real estate professional for EQ Office, said the idea for the partnership with UNLV emerged about three years ago.

“The whole idea for the Hughes Center is that we want to create a collaborative community,” Kwong said. “We wanted to have a place where industries and innovators could connect. We thought of reaching out to the educational community, which is what we did. When you think about entrepreneurs and innovation, that’s kind of where you start. There was a middle piece missing, which is what we were for this incubator.”

Though he has high hopes for the program, Rippee said it will also take time to get it off the ground. “In a sense, we’re in the process of incubating our incubator right now,” he said.