Three-month old
Venturef0rth is growing fast, and announced this week that
DreamIt Ventures grads
Cloudmine,
MetaLayer,
Grassroots Unwired and
SnipSnap have all taken up residency at the incubator, located in an in-between neighborhood the team has dubbed Southern Liberties. Elliot Menschik, Jesse Kramer and Jay Shah even registered the domain
solib.org to help classify their spot at 8th and Callowhill, which is neither Center City nor Northern Liberties.
Opening its doors just three months ago in March 2012, Kramer notes that the endeavor is picking up momentum with the goal to enable the next big thing. Certainly, Cloudmine qualifies. From its original founding three partners, the back end mobile solutions provider has grown to nine employees, and occupies the entire eastern section of Venturef0rth.
"They had us when we came in and saw the space," says Cloudmine co-founder Brendan McCorkle. "I have to keep the engineers happy."
McCorkle says his team looked all over the city, seriously considering a standalone office in Old City that was the former home of Indy Hall. But looking forward, McCorkle knew that Cloudmine would soon outgrow that space. Also, adds McCorkle, "We offer our customers pay as you go pricing, and that's what they're doing here."
With eight companies in residence, and one already graduated, Menschik says, "We built Venturef0rth to be an inspiring place to work. It attracts certain types, and repels certain types. You can see when they walk in whom it resonates with. They either love the 14-foot ceilings or think, 'How am I going to have a conversation here?'"
Russ Oster, whose Grassroots Unwired adds mobile connectivity to door to door campaigns nationally, was the first paying tenant in March.
"We looked at all the coworking options, and realized that with Venturef0rth, you also get the wisdom of the three co-founders."
Within a week of moving in, Grassroots Unwired received a term sheet from a West Coast VC, and got great advice on handling the process. "We did close our seed round based on that term sheet," says Oster.
The company that's moved on is
Lessonsmith, which has merged with
Defined Clarity. Founder Dan Lopez is Venturef0rth's first alum.
Venturef0rth also announced that it's hiring. The team is in search of a
killer office manager, which includes the task of keeping the refrigerator stocked with local craft beer.
Says Kramer, who comes from a marketing background, "Think about every brand that you love. There's not one thing that makes you love it. You want to identify with it because of a variety of attributes."
Source: Elliot Menschik, Jesse Kramer, Brendan McCorkle, Russ Oster, Venturef0rth
Writer: Sue Spolan