The law to fund incubators already exists. It has waited nineteen years for the money, and as written it only reaches part of the state. We're asking the Legislature to fund it and open it to every county.
RCW 43.176 · Small Business Incubator ProgramEvery region of this state has founders building something real. Most of them never get near Seattle money or Seattle mentors.
Incubators and coworking spaces are where those founders get a straight answer, a working network and a second chance before the money runs out. Most of us run them on grants, rent and stubbornness.
Washington decided in 2004 that this work is state policy. It's time to act like it.
Incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces, makerspaces, port and college programs. If founders do their work under your roof, this is your fight.
We found more than 120 incubators, coworking spaces and founder programs across every region of the state. A nonprofit campus in Twisp. A Main Street incubator in Moses Lake. Port-built incubators in Walla Walla, Richland and East Wenatchee. Labs in Spokane, Everett and Port Angeles.
None of them gets a dollar from this law. It hasn't paid out since 2007.
A for-profit coworking space can't apply on its own. It can partner with a nonprofit and host the program. Many of you already do the work. Sign so the Legislature sees how many of you there are.
In 2004 the Legislature declared it state policy to help create and grow innovative small companies that employ Washington residents. Incubators are named as the way to do it.
The law creates the Small Business Incubator Program at the Department of Commerce. Commerce awards grants to qualified incubators for:
As written, a qualified incubator is a facility that offers space, shared equipment, daily management support and technical assistance. It must also be:
The law never defines "distressed or disadvantaged area." We mapped what that limit covers, and what it leaves out, for every county in the state.
The distressed-area limit. Good founders start companies everywhere. So do the failures that better support would have prevented.
We're asking the Legislature to amend RCW 43.176.020 so a qualified incubator in any county can apply. The nonprofit and business plan requirements stay.
This isn't new. In 2005, SSB 5755 struck the same limit and passed the Senate. It stalled in the House.
RCW 43.176.901 says Commerce has no duty to run the program until the Legislature funds it. Money opens the door. The amendment opens it for everyone.
| 2004 | ESHB 2784 passes. The Washington Small Business Incubator and Entrepreneurship Assistance Act becomes chapter 43.176 RCW. |
| 2005 | SSB 5755 would strike the distressed-area limit. It passes the Senate and dies in the House. |
| 2005-07 | The program is funded for three fiscal years. $620,000 in total. About four grants a year, averaging $48,000 each, well under the $125,000 cap. |
| 2007 | The state's auditor reviews the program. The 2007-09 budget includes no grant money. The program goes dark. |
| 2012 | The dedicated incubator account is repealed. The rest of the law stays on the books. |
| 2023 | The law is updated only to rename the agency to the Department of Commerce. |
| 2027 | The long session. A full two-year budget. The window to fund it and fix it. |
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee couldn't determine the program's impact. No one had tracked what happened to incubated companies compared with similar companies that weren't. Grantees reported for one year, then stopped.
Commerce's own response said it had no staff for an incubator program. It ran the grants on capacity borrowed from other programs.
The opportunity to expand the program simply did not exist.
Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, response to JLARC, August 9, 2007
JLARC didn't find that incubators fail. It called them ongoing experiments and named the data the state should collect to judge them: clients served, graduates, survival, jobs, wages, revenue and capital raised.
Commerce already has the authority to require reporting from every grantee. This time, we ask it to track those measures from the first dollar, for five years after a company leaves.
In 2007 the question couldn't be answered because nobody set up the experiment. In 2027 we set it up on day one.
| Oct 2026 | Done The petition opens to incubators and coworking spaces statewide. |
| Now | Underway Building the coalition: incubators, coworking spaces, ports, colleges and cities in every region sign on. |
| Dec 2026 | Next The Governor releases a proposed budget. We want the program in it. |
| Jan 11, 2027 | Ahead Session opens. Legislators hear from the people who run this work in their districts. |
| Apr 2027 | Ahead Session ends with a two-year budget. The program is in it, or it isn't. |
To Governor Bob Ferguson and the Washington State Legislature:
We lead, host and support incubators and coworking spaces across Washington. We ask you to fund the Small Business Incubator Program, chapter 43.176 RCW, at $2.5 million a year beginning with the 2027-29 operating budget.
Amend RCW 43.176.020 so qualified incubators in every county can apply, not only those in economically distressed areas.
Direct the Department of Commerce to award the funds statewide and to track what they produce.
The law is already written. Finish it.