By DAVID BERTOLA
dbertola@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1621

In the year since SUNY Fredonia's Technology Incubator opened, about a dozen companies have settled in with an eye on growth and prosperity. And the high-quality work contributed by students - as interns and in other roles - has been a welcome human resource.  

Looking ahead, incubator Director Robert Fritzinger said they will continue to play a significant role there.

"We have grown faster on the student-involvement front than we anticipated, as they have taken on substantial roles with the businesses," he said.

A confluence of factors led to students having larger roles there, he said.

Devices such as the iPad and iPod are becoming more popular, he said, adding that the lines between entertainment, technology and content are blurring. Fredonia is good at content development, he said, and they have deep curriculums in areas such as new media, music, animation and digital design.

All this, plus the prevalence of Facebook and other online social networking websites opened the door for knowledgeable people who wanted to roll up their sleeves and work for the companies who work there. Specifically, the students.

"They plug themselves into the companies and have had measurable impacts," Fritzinger said.

Among them is Laura Culhane. She won a logo design contest for Sellinghive, a company that built an online social network of salespeople. SellingHive founder Robert Richardson was so impressed by Culhane's work that he hired her as an intern. She has since developed the company's brand, which incorporates a beehive with a world map imposed on it.

Opportunities such as these, according to Fritzinger, have become common at the incubator. For Culhane and others, there's a high potential for using good relationships during their academic careers as springboards to jobs at the companies where they were working.

He calls it "refining yourself academically so you are prepared professionally" and said that in startups, it's common to for younger people to be involved.

He tells entrepreneurs that a lot of the decisions they'll make in the early going need to be correct ones.

"The first five or six hires you make are the most important hires you'll make," he said.

While Culhane may be positioned for a full-time position eventually at SellingHive, Jennifer Reinhart was hired for a position at the incubator after inquiring about running her company there.

Reinhart graduated from Fredonia in 2010 with a degree in environmental science and a minor in biology. Her business concept focused on nutritional vending for schools and corporate wellness programs.

Today, she said, she is "working her dream job," learning from entrepreneurs and Fritzinger as a project staff assistant at the incubator. Among her duties are those related to operations, as well as overseeing client affairs.

Regarding the companies there, and the way they communicate with each other and Fredonia State, Fritzinger sees an opportunity to build an online social networking presence for them.

"Companies that are running youth movements and building youth leadership are using Facebook as the way they communicate," he said, adding that the incubator could migrate toward a model where email is not as prevalent. Facebook, instead, could be the way to share curriculum information and communicate among incubator tenants.

"We can communicate more effectively through it," he said of Facebook.

Additionally, a Fredonia State sophomore, Stephanie Calderon, is advising the incubator on how to develop a Facebook strategy and, ultimately, achieve Fritzinger's vision.

"Twenty-two percent of all page loads are to Facebook," he said. "It's taking over the Web, and you have to be advertising and promoting yourself there. If you are not there, you are invisible."