Here’s a little blast from the past, around when Schuyl, Inc. was starting to build its foundation!
Monday, March 4, 2002
Pottsville Republican & Evening Herald (now known as Republican Herald)
Incubator creates 1st high-tech job
Web designer blazes innovative trail
BY JOSHUA SOPHY
Staff Writer
With two tenants and a half dozen other prospective clients showing interest, the Pottsville/Schuylkill Technology Incubator now boasts its first employee as well.
Liana E. Evans, a self-employed Web designer from Frackville, has been added to the staff of Schuyl Inc., which provides high-speed Internet access and Web hosting, hardware and software.
Schuyl Inc. and Next5 Interactive, a Web page design and hosting company, are the incubator’s first tenants.
After the South Second Street facility – the former Pottsville Post Office – opened in November 2001, the goal was to have two tenants by the end of year one.
Schuyl Inc. president Mark Fanelli said his business is aimed at retaining local talent for Internet, high-tech jobs.
“Internet based products and services are globally marketable while keeping operations in Schuylkill County; this means we can keep jobs local as Schuyl Inc. grows,” Fanelli said.
Evans recently began a business of her own and went live with frackville.org, a community bulletin board.
She is also a product of outmigration returning. Evans sought jobs in Herndon, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb, and Houston, Texas.
Growth within the incubator is encouraging as a “batch” of new tenants may be eyeing space as early as late summer.
Executive Director James J. Cooksey said that a half-dozen clients may make presentations before the technology-sharing incubator’s board of directors by the end of summer.
According to protocol, a potential client must present a business plan and meet with the board of directors before accepting space at the incubator.
Four to five months will pass before a presentation, a board decision and the tenant establishing itself.
Two of the potentials are touting start-up staffs of 30 more employees, and a starting salary average of more than $30,000.
Most salaries, however, could range between $40,000 and $80,000.
Cooksey said the incubator could have 80 employees by the end of five years.
“They’re all in a batch,” Cooksey said. “Most seem to be heading to June or July to make their presentations.”
The groups coming in are “wide and varied,” Cooksey said, but would not name any companies. The companies will fill niches in the Web-based design, hardware and software, and analysis markets.
“A couple are consulting businesses,” Cooksey added to the list. “The jobs are those that people have to leave here and get.”
Cooksey said one of the companies is based on providing online services for drug use, and another service to the elderly, which he said was a “substantial player.”