Thursday, January 09, 2020

Embarc Collective, Tampa's newest startup space, opens first phase


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

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