Most business origin stories begin with a pitch deck, a whiteboard, or a grand vision.
The IncuHub began with lunch.
Not a strategic lunch, not a networking lunch, not a “let’s build an ecosystem” lunch.
Just a simple thought from founder Marko Frigelj, “I just wanted to be with other business owners, so I could learn from them” … so he renovated a space close to a few local eateries and things evolved from there.
That lunch sparked a hunger beyond food— the one that comes from wanting to learn from people who’ve felt the same punches, made the same mistakes, and fought the same battles — is what built The IncuHub. Not venture money. Not consultants. Not an accelerator playbook.
Just a business owner who didn’t know where to find other business owners, so he built the place he wished already existed.
And that decision quietly sparked something the 757 didn’t even know it needed.
A Space Built for Owners, Not Occupants
If you ask Marko or Managing Director Gene Granger what makes IncuHub different, the answer isn’t complicated. It’s culture.
“Everyone here owns a business,” Marko says. “That changes everything.”
There are no corporate employees looking for a temporary desk, no remote workers hoping for free coffee, no one killing time between Zoom meetings. The IncuHub is built for people who carry the weight of payroll, taxes, clients, schedules, and the constant uncertainty that comes with ownership.
It’s a place where you can admit you don’t know something.
Where you can complain about invoices.
Where someone actually understands why a complicated zoning application made you want to throw your laptop across the room.
And because everyone in the building is on the same path, the culture polices itself.
It’s more than a coworking space.
It’s a working space — where business owners come to move their companies forward.
Two Locations. A Third in the Works. Hundreds of Owners Colliding.
The IncuHub opened its first location in Portsmouth in June 2019. What started as 3,000 square feet quickly expanded to 10,000. The second location opened in Hampton in January 2024, and it took off faster than anyone expected.
Today, The IncuHub has more than 250 members across both locations, with roughly 165 in Portsmouth and around 90 in Hampton. And a third location in Newport News is already in motion.
This growth didn’t happen because of big-city coworking trends or tech-hub rulebooks. It happened because the model is simple and stubbornly effective: buildings located off major arteries, easy access, free parking, low cost of entry, and ownership of the spaces so costs stay practical and culture stays intact. The model works for the smallest solo operator and for companies running full teams. And sometimes the people inside collide in ways no one sees coming.
The Collision That Proves the Point
Walk into any IncuHub and you’ll hear the same line: “Returns on collisions, not returns on investments.”
If you want proof, look at Julius DelCampo with Unique Cleaning Service, Inc.(USCI)Solutions.
Julius joined The IncuHub as a solo business owner. Working alongside other founders—not isolated—gave him the connections, insight, and support he’d been missing. When he hit growing pains, he had a network to lean on. And when, during a business trip, he happened to meet someone looking to sell their cleaning company, he was ready. He and a business partner had the support, the mindset, and the momentum to seize the opportunity. That acquisition became the catalyst for growing his team to more than 200 people.
There was no curriculum guiding this. No formal accelerator. No funnel.
Just a place where people share struggles, swap ideas, and expand what they believe is possible. In its purest form, that’s what The IncuHub exists to create: real collisions that lead to real outcomes.
The Lunch Table That Became a Community
When Marko first renovated a space in Portsmouth, there was no plan for multiple locations. There was no regional map or growth strategy or vision for hundreds of members. He just wanted a place to sit with people who understood what he was going through.
“I didn’t have a fully defined mission,” Marko says. “I just wanted a community. I just wanted someone to say to, ‘Dude, business ownership is hard,’ and someone else to say, ‘I know. Here’s who helped me.’”
What he didn’t expect was for that personal need to become a regional need that applied to so many others.
People came because the space was affordable. They stayed because the people inside made it worth staying. And when they realized the owners were actually present — physically there, every day — something rare happened. A real community formed. One built on shared struggle, shared wins, and shared knowledge. A place where you didn’t have to pretend everything was fine. A place where you could tell the truth.
Gene puts it simply: “People stay because of who we are. That’s not something you can fake.”
Beyond the Four Walls: The Work You Don’t See
Most coworking spaces rent desks. The IncuHub opens doors.
Marko and Gene show up in ways most people never notice. They sit on boards, volunteer with neighborhood groups, attend cleanup efforts, support local nonprofits, and stay deeply involved in the region’s business community. They also serve as a consulting consortium, connecting IncuHub members to contracts and opportunities they’d never access alone. Branding work, technology builds, software development projects, specialized services — they organize the work, bring the members together, and manage the execution.
It isn’t glamorous. It isn’t advertised. But it moves money and opportunity through the ecosystem and gives small companies a shot at bigger work.
This is what ownership looks like when it extends beyond an office lease.
The Future: More Collisions, Same DNA
The IncuHub isn’t growing for the sake of expansion. It’s growing because the demand is real.
Portsmouth proved the model.
Hampton accelerated it.
Newport News is the next step.
Each location has its own personality, but the DNA is identical: owner-only, community-driven, low-cost, high-impact, and built entirely on culture. Some people build coworking spaces. Marko built a collision engine.
Built the lunch table needed — and hundreds of other owners pulled up a chair.
Because in a region full of ideas, hidden companies, and untapped ambition, sometimes all you need is a place where the right people collide. That’s what The IncuHub became. And that’s why it’s still growing.
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