Kelly Reeser, director of entrepreneurial development with Florida West at her office Monday December 7, 2015 in Pensacola, Florida. Michael Spooneybarger/ CREO

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship was started seven years ago in downtown Pensacola to help launch and sustain small, mostly tech-oriented companies.

And there's no better example of the positive impact CIE has had on Pensacola's entrepreneurial community than Robotics Unlimited, which has developed StandiT, an extendable workstation platform system.

Founded by CEO Sebastien Cotton, Robotics Unlimited is staffed by a small but talented team of former robotics researchers from the Pensacola-based Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Sebastien Cotton started Robotics Unlimited to market a running robot developed by Cotton and a team at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. Michael Spooneybarger/Studer Community Institute

The company also produces robotics software for major toy manufacturers.

"Getting into the CIE was a great move for us because of the low costs," Cotton said. "Also, it was great to be able to connect with other entrepreneurs.”

During its two years at CIE the Robotics Unlimited team most recently developed StandiT, an extendable workstation platform kit composed primarily of four interconnected legs made of aircraft-grade aluminum.

Each leg contains an internal motor that can raise or lower in unison a 100-pound desk platform at a range between 27 to 44.5 inches, and is activated either by manual control, voice command or remotely by smartphone application.

Cotton said the StandiT product is designed to meet an increasing market demand for people who prefer not to sit for hours at a workstation.

Numerous scientific studies have shown the health benefits of workers alternating between sitting and standing during the work day.

The StandiT product has received private backing; and a recent crowdsourcing effort has attracted dozens of supporters who have pledged nearly $20,000.

As a result, Robotics Unlimited is leaving the CIE nest and moving to a larger facility in Pensacola to begin manufacture and distribution of the StandiT kit.

CIE’s startup center

That's exactly why the CIE was launched, said FloridaWest's Kelly Reeser, to incubate start-up companies, help them scale up and go out on their own with their product or service.

FloridaWest is the Pensacola community's lead economic development alliance, funded by the City of Pensacola and Escambia County tax dollars.

"Florida West views entrepreneurship as an important part of the three-legged stool strategy of economic development," said Reeser, director of entrepreneurial development at FloridaWest.

"The first leg is attraction of new businesses; the second is retention and expansion of existing companies; and the third leg is promoting entrepreneurship," she said. "And the CIE fits in perfectly within that strategy."

Reeser said that the CIE has established itself as a good "entry point for emerging companies.

CIE accepts companies that meet the following criteria:

— They are already producing revenue from their product or service.

— Or they are at what we call “proof of concept.”

— They have external funding.

The CIE's annual budget is about $120,000 for operation of facility, which is subsidized by FloridaWest and Pensacola State College, which owns the Garden Street office building.

Salaries of FloridaWest executives, like Reeser, are not included in those operational figure.

Costs to companies approved for operation in the CIE are around $10 per square foot per year.

Power and other amenities, excluding phone service, are included in the single lease fee, said Reeser.

"We recoup some of our costs based on rates we charge tenants," she said.

Those rates are very attractive to start-up companies like Robotics Unlimited.

"Just a few days ago one of my tenants told me how easy it is to get started here because they just have to pay one fee," she said.

Building successful entrepreneurs

Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly, attributes much of the early success of his national recruiting firm to being afforded space in the CIE.

"It was very important to us to have an office space to build a culture at Accountigfly," said Phillips. "Probably only way to do that is to get in a place that we would afford. CIE gave us that opportunity, and it was a huge benefit.”

Jeff Phillips, CEO of Accountingfly.

As with other CIE tenants, all office furniture was already in place, as is free high-speed Internet service, donated by Gulf Breeze-based AppRiver, an international web and email security firm.

Phillips said there are many other benefits to being at CIE, perhaps no more so than the "cross pollination" that occurs among the other entrepreneurs in the building.

"This has been a huge benefit," Phillips said other the associations forged with other CIE start-ups, that include IRIS, a Pensacola firm run by Jason Crawford that has developed and is marketing a retinal scanning device that can detect diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases.

"I think the evidence would suggest that CIE has played a great role in us building Accountingfly," Phillips said. "We've made some awesome connections here. And certainly, if I had to do it all over again, I would start Accountingfly here in the CIE.

“It's been a great fit for us."