The main purpose of this article is analyse the management system developed by a reference business incubator Business Center to Develop Advanced Technologies - CELTA, of the CERTI Foundation, located in Florianopolis (SC), in order to identify the features that lead to success. Through a case study and semi structured interview with the CEO, it was concluded that the main differential elements are related to five items: 1) the incubation period is set according to the reality of each incubated company, 2) the consulting to solve specific managerial problems, in order to develop each company, 3) the incubator like a self-sustaining business, 4) the incubator acting to prepare enterprises to face the real market conditions and, 5) the incubator weaving partnerships. It is important to remember that the findings of this presented paper could be very interesting and valuable to the academic community and to the managers, shareholders and stakeholders of the business incubators.51 18641880