This past Saturday, we moved our offices to the second floor of the Terminal Tower in Tower City. We’re upgrading from about 4,000 square feet to 7,000 square feet to use for our startup accelerator.
Not only are we in a larger office space, right in the heart of downtown Cleveland, but we moved in as the first tenant of StartMart. The entrepreneurship hub for startups and resources that our founders Charles Stack and Jennifer Neundorfer have been forming for almost a year is no longer just a concept. Read the news in the press release below.
Flashstarts Names Terminal Tower Future Home of StartMart
Cleveland Startup Accelerator to Relocate to Launch Entrepreneurship Hub
CLEVELAND, May 13, 2015 – Flashstarts, a Cleveland-based startup accelerator and venture fund, today named the Terminal Tower as the future location of StartMart. The entrepreneurship hub will occupy nearly 30,000 square feet on the Terminal Tower’s second floor and support startups and startup resources.
Flashstarts will be relocating to the second floor of the Terminal Tower as StartMart’s first tenant in advance of the 2015 Flashstarts Accelerator beginning on May 26.
StartMart will publicly launch in September of 2015. Flashstarts co-founders Charles Stack and Jennifer Neundorfer began planning and socializing the concept in May of 2014. As StartMart is a collaborative community-led initiative, Stack and Neundorfer have been developing partnerships for implementation.
“We envision StartMart to be a large central work space where great entrepreneurs can gather to share ideas, knowledge, services and resources,” said Stack. “That kind of density and diversity will produce a synergy with great potential for innovation. It’s ‘engineered serendipity’.”
The StartMart entrepreneurship hub will include the following features:
- Space, “but more than just space,” said Neundorfer. “At StartMart, promising startups and entrepreneurs can work in ‘startpods’, which allow teams to expand as needed and allow for both privacy and collaboration”
- Startup community “for entrepreneurs, created by entrepreneurs”
- Access to OneCommunity’s ultra-high speed 100-gig broadband
- Resources, including access to professional services and telepresence technology
- The StartMart Fund
In preparation for the launch, Flashstarts will continue engaging the community for feedback on the StartMart design; begin identifying and communicating with prospective tenants; and expand the investor ecosystem. These efforts will be led by Shannon Lyons, Flashstarts’ executive vice president.
“The goal is to make StartMart a nucleus of our startup community,” said Lyons. “StartMart will help Cleveland to transform into a world-class startup mecca that will draw entrepreneurs from across the country and around the global. The magnitude of this venture requires support from the entire entrepreneurial community.”
About Flashstarts
Flashstarts is a Cleveland-based startup accelerator and venture fund focused on unique and innovative uses of software and technology. Startups will benefit from Flashstarts’ executive team’s deep expertise in Enterprise and Healthcare IT, Gigabit Fiber applications, mobile and digital publishing and media. Flashstarts’ rigorous 12-week summer accelerator program is powered by rapid cycles of feedback and iteration, customized guidance from dedicated coaches, an extensive network of top-tier, experienced mentors, and an award-winning internship program. For more information, visit www.flashstarts.com or follow @Flashstarts on Twitter.
About StartMart
StartMart is an entrepreneurship hub that serves as a catalyst for wealth generation, job creation and economic development in Cleveland. The community-led initiative will connect entrepreneurs to critical resources including startup accelerators, service providers and high-speed broadband, and capital. StartMart’s startpods and flexible leases allow promising startups and entrepreneurs to focus on growing their businesses and share ideas, connections and resources. The unique combination of space, process and technology will allow startups to experience innovation through ‘engineered serendipity’. For more information, visit startmart.us or follow @StartMartUS on Twitter.
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View the PDF version of the press release.
