Services for entrepreneurs and startup companies are sprouting almost as fast as new companies across the Triangle.

Startup hubs, accelerators, shared office space, mentoring …

The newest addition comes online Thursday when EntreDot, led by veteran tech executive and angel investor Bill Warner, opens an office in Chapel Hill. (The town also is launching its own incubator, Launch Chapel Hill, in the near future.)

On March 7, EntreDot will launch in Pittsboro.

The group, which began operations in 2010, already has an office in Cary and another in northern Wake County.

The Skinny caught up with EntreDot’s Fred Hathaway to talk about EntreDot and what entrepreneurs can gain from working with the organization.

  • Why did you choose to locate in Chapel Hill?

We chose to locate in Chapel Hill as a deliberate effort to place innovation centers in bedroom communities in need of entrepreneurial support. We previously have launched Cary and Northern Wake County, and will open Pittsboro on March 7.

  • Do you charge fees for services, and if so what are they?

We provide entrepreneur education and mentoring for a fee of $250/month, whereby the mentee is assigned a matching mentor from our considerable database of several hundred.

This subscription fee covers up to five hours of individual mentoring, plus complimentary attendance at workshops, meetups, and other featured events.

  • Can firms secure office space and related services?

If an organization requires office space, conference room, and the like, we are able to provide those services in addition to the education and mentoring for an additional fee, based on the associate (mentee) needs.

  • How does EntreDot differ from startup hubs, shared office spaces and accelerators if at all?

Very few of the local startup resource centers offer programming to all participants.

Most are beauty pageants that provide support for winners and little besides networking for those who do not win.

Our Six Steps to Success series is a model proven to assist people with ideas–whether entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs–in their efforts to commercialize winning concepts.

With a pay for services model, the associate is incentivized to work on issues that make a difference to stakeholders other than investors. To that point, we focus on “Main Street” businesses who comprise the 35 percent of the startup market that is neither the high growth nor the sole proprietor extreme.

Our programming stretches across the educational spectrum from middle schools to graduate schools and reaches not only young entrepreneurs but is especially appropriate for second career entrepreneurs.”

The “Steps”

FYI, here are the six “steps” that Hathaway mentioned:

  • Ideation
  • Conceptualization
  • Creation
  • Evaluation
  • Preparation
  • Commercialization

So we now have The HUB in Raleigh, a soon-to-be American Tobacco clone in downtown Raleigh, the original Underground in Durham which soon will expand downtown, EntreDot’s existing locations, the Triangle Startup Factory, the First Flight Venture Center in Morrisville, an upcoming hub in Morrisville, another in Chapel Hill, and others. Then there are the universities’ efforts like NCSU’s Garage.

Next question: Are there enough legitimate startups to keep all these places in business?

Let’s hope the answer is “Yes.”