When Michael Maniscalco describes moving his tech company, Ihiji [uh-HEE-gee], to Austin from West Palm Beach, Fla., in one weekend in 2010, the co-founder still betrays a hint of exasperation.

"In the weekend that we moved, we sold [another] business, launched our product at a trade show in Orlando, moved our families and picked up Monday morning and kept running with the new business, all in a three-day period," he remembers.

What helped make it possible for the Ihiji team to transition in such a short amount of time, and since flourish in Austin, was the Landing Pad Program, an initiative formally launched last year by the Austin Technology Incubator, a division of The University of Texas' IC2 Institute.

Companies apply to the program, and, if accepted, rent space at ATI's office in UT's West Pickle Research building on Braker Lane and MoPac for about $250 per month. After six months, the company may become a full-fledged member of the incubator.

"It's turnkey," said Robert Reeves, director of ATI's wireless and IT portfolio. "We have furniture, Internet, coffee, security, a receptionist; you just show up with your laptop and you get to work."

Although ATI has provided similar services to companies since the incubator was founded more than 20 years ago, the services were not unified into a specific program until recently. In 2011, Landing Pad helped 13 early-stage companies relocate to or establish their national headquarters in Austin.

Maniscalco and his business partners considered relocating to Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham and the West Coast, but Austin stood out for its talent and specialization in software development.

"It's very hard for engineers in this town to explain to their mom what they do for a living," Reeves said, jokingly. "This is the town not where the Xbox or PlayStation was created, but where the chip that runs them was designed." He adds: "It's not very sexy, but it's what we do best."

And adding to Austin's charm was Landing Pad, Maniscalco said.

"I think the Landing Pad Program was something nobody else really offered," he said. "The way that they work with their portfolio companies stood out. They're not just leasing office space, which is what we found with some incubators."

Reeves and his colleagues all have backgrounds in starting and growing businesses. Reeves co-founded Phurnace Software in 2005 and sold it to BMC Software four years later. But now he likes spending his time working with startups and scouting for prospective ATI members.

"The talent is moving here, jobs are being created here, people to fill high-tech jobs are in demand and the market is going to grow," he said. "We are doing our part by bringing in the smaller guys and giving them a place to land."

Austin Technology Incubator, 3925 W. Braker Lane, 305-0000, www.ati.utexas.edu