Ex-Boost CEO and Grill’d founding shareholder Simon McNamara has joined franchising doyen Rod Young in a business incubator, Inkuberra, to invest in early stage food and retail businesses with high growth potential.

McNamara said Our aim is to create brands that are loved by customers, and to build great businesses that generate significant wealth for the owners of these businesses. We’re focused on companies we believe will become standout leaders in their category.

There is a critical window when a young company is exploiting a market niche but the model and a stable platform required to really scale it are not yet in place. This is where we have experience and look to add significant value.

Rod Young, also the founder of consulting firm DC Strategy, said With Inkuberra we have created a team and model that has a well-tested tool kit and knowledge base around the transition from start-up to national and international enterprise. Between us we have been involved in these sorts of transformations literally dozens of times.

Inkuberra also includes brand and marketing strategist Antony Morell who told Franchising typically we’ll be looking for between 30 and 50 percent ownership. We will help bolster a management team, which may mean being a steward of a project for a set time, if that’s required.

The company hopes to invest in one or two businesses early in 2011.  We are working through a handful of opportunities right now, McNamara said.