When is it smart to be small' Diego de Biasio, Chargé de Mission for Technoport in Esch, answered just that question at a British Chamber of Commerce lunch in January. 

Speaking about two of the incubator's home grown success stories: LuxScan Technologies and SecureWave, he explained how these two companies are positive examples of how small companies can develop with the assistance of Technoport's infrastructure and available services.

As an organisation within the Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, Technoport's objective is to "provide companies with access to resources that entrepreneurs and small companies typically lack". Diego explained they help entrepreneurs with planning and coaching in the pre-commercial (idea) phase, the start up phases, and only now are they beginning to assist in the high growth phase.

Right from the start, Diego said, good people are everything. He listed necessary attributes such as: guts, flexibility, optimism, brains (techno based), no fear of doing the dirty work, and an ability to develop a clear and concise vision. Flexibility is also important during start up as sometimes, to make a small company succeed, people need to be able to face limited resources and adapt to their environment. Both LuxScan Technologies and SecureWave had the right people to make their projects work. In fact, SecureWave credits its success as stemming from "the extreme technical talent within and the ability of all of its teams... to think and create out of the box".

Once you have the right people and a good potential idea, how specifically can Technoport help? One way is with direction and guidance. Diego cited how, in writing the business plan for a particular company, they completely changed its strategy from a "consulting" firm to a "product" firm. This is one way in which Technoport helped SecureWave - by pointing it in the right direction. And SecureWave has been an out and out success as a leader in endpoint security software. In December 2004 it was selected as a Top 100 Innovator by Red Herring and was invited to present at Forrester's Emerging Technology Showcase (ETS). Not bad for a small Luxembourg company that entered Technoport in 1999.

LuxScan Technologies is a company that designs, develops and sells vision systems for automatic quality control in the timber industry. Their first main support was Technoport and they experienced an accelerated start up phase. Lab facilities were made available to them wherein they produced the first proto type. In 2003 over 60% of their turnover came from North American markets and they experienced a growth rate of 104%.

When asked his definition of a successful company in terms of Technoport, Diego said it is one that exists long term, is innovative and brings something to Luxembourg. Technoport has a specific remit and doesn't accept companies that are subsidiaries of larger companies or from abroad, but otherwise they are always looking for "quality innovative projects and businesses managed by determined, proactive entrepreneurs".