Vinik-backed
Embarc Collective, Tampa's newest startup space, opens first phase
(Photos) Jan 7, 2020, 2:48pm EST Updated: Jan 7, 2020, 4:09pm EST
Lakshmi Shenoy is starting the new year with a new,
long-awaited space for Embarc Collective.
The CEO, handpicked by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik
in 2018, has spent 2019 working on choosing startups to mentor, securing
partnerships with national organizations, creating an entrepreneur-focused
coffee brand and teaming up with community organizations. Shenoy hails from
Chicago, where she served as the vice president of strategy and business
development at similar innovation hub, 1871.
And now the final piece of the puzzle for nonprofit Embarc
Collective is falling into place: A roughly $10 million, 32,000-square-foot
space is ready to open in downtown Tampa that will host events, a coffee shop
and space for startups to grow.
“We have great people, we have great startups — I would
argue we don’t have enough," she told the Tampa Bay Business Journal on
Tuesday. "So, I would want to amplify what’s here and realize our
potential. Our goal is to be a mechanism, an asset, that this community can use
to get us where we want to go.”
The building will be in its soft opening phase throughout
January, which will come to a head on Feb. 4 with a ribbon cutting and grand
opening. A public open house will be held on Feb. 12.
The 100-year-old space has open collaboration tables,
conference rooms, a nursing room, prayer room, quiet room, offices for a slew
of startups that are Embarc Collective members and an events space that holds
250 people. There’s also Endeavr Coffee, the Blind Tiger-run coffee space
within Embarc Collective.
The building is split with a 20,000-square-foot space and a
12,000-square-foot space intended for larger startups.
Kreher/Barna Design Studio and KWJ Architects, both based in
Ybor City, led the architecture and design of the building and Creative
Contractors did the build out.
Shenoy believes it will not only help the startups attract
talent, but also place the region on a new platform to showcase the innovation
occurring both within the buildings' walls and beyond.
“When [startups are] recruiting talent — the prospective
hire can come in and see it’s not only the one company they’re interviewing
with, but [there are] all these other companies [in the region],” Shenoy said.
“It creates a visual density which is really powerful in amplifying what is happening in
Tampa Bay. You can see it in one shot ... and for new and prospective customers
and investors, this becomes their first impression of what’s happening in the
Tampa startup environment,” she said.
“They get to see it and they walk away
telling their people, ‘There is something happening in Tampa Bay.'”
Lauren Coffey Reporter Tampa Bay Business Journal