H.

Louis Cooperhouse
Acting Director
Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
450 East Broad Street
Bridgeton, NJ 08302

www.foodinnovation.rutgers.edu
cooperhouse@njaes.rutgers.edu
Phone: 856-459-1900, ext 4516
Cell: 732-266-3977




September 15, 2014

U.S. Senator Cory A. Booker
141 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Booker:

We are pleased to write this letter of strong support for the Startup Opportunity Accelerator Act, which
will provide critically needed support to new and existing accelerator programs in our nation.
Accelerators provide critically-needed access to funding for startup entrepreneurs, and result in seed
capital, business innovation, job creation and community revitalization. It has been demonstrated that
small businesses are creating the overwhelming majority of net new jobs in this country, and a small
subset of these small businesses are fast-growing gazelle companies that are creating the greatest
economic impacts. We feel strongly that a best-practice accelerator program will be linked to an
established best-practice business incubator, and focus on these high-growth gazelle firms, and this
is exactly our objective at the Rutgers Food Innovation Center.

The Rutgers Food Innovation Center (FIC) has recently been recognized by the U.S. Small Business
Administration (SBA) as a winner of its first Growth Accelerator Fund competition. As a result, we will
be able to provide support to companies in search of capital from throughout the food industry value
chain, and we feel confident that our efficient model for venture investments to food entrepreneurs will
result in substantial job creation and economic development in the New Jersey region.

The Rutgers FIC has been recognized globally for its economic development impacts, and has been
named Incubator of the Year by the National Business Incubation Association, and an Agricultural
Innovation Center Demonstration Program by the USDA. We are located in Bridgeton, NJ, and assist
producers, processors, and purchasers of value-added food and agricultural products in New Jersey
with business development advice, technical and food safety support, and a state-of-the-art USDA
and FDA-inspected food processing facility. We have served over 1,500 clients since our formation
in 2001, and have developed a food innovation cluster in the State of New Jersey, in which we have
aggregated food companies from throughout the food industry value chain (farmers, food processors,
startup food companies, food retailers, etc.) and surrounded them with state and federal resources
and service providers.

Please let us know if we can provide any additional information. Thank you very much for supporting
this key legislation!

Best Regards,

H. Louis Cooperhouse
Acting Director
Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey