We added a new pod of desks, and we made them in the Maker Labs. Over the past few months, we’ve added a lot of new members, so we needed create some more space.
Our hotseats are the easiest and most affordable membership level we offer on a month-to-month basis. But what are they? Hotseats are open-area workstations that are available to members and day pass users on a first-come, first-served basis. They don’t have permanent owners and cannot be formally reserved.
Longtime Groover Labs member and Flint Hills Group founder Dave Cunningham launched the Whiskey Shelf app at the beginning of 2023. In February, the app went live on the App Store and Google Play. Read the latest updates about what Dave and his team are up to, how they came up with Whiskey Shelf (including experience with Campfire), and more!
We are thrilled to receive funding from the Building a Stronger Economy (BASE) 2.0 economic development grant for our CyberLink Infrastructure Expansion Project. BASE funds are intended to address infrastructure and economic development needs, and our grant award will allow us to continue critical projects we had to cancel or delay because of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Chad Cox is the co-founder of Optical Launch, a turnkey e-commerce application built to boost the optical experience of patients, customers, and optical staff. Born and raised in Wichita, Kan., Cox is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army’s 3rd Ranger Battalion stationed in Ft. Benning, Ga. He has a degree in computer science from Wichita State University and, in his free time, is a pretty good chef. Read our interview with him here.
Groover Labs members Deborah Gladney and Angela Angela Muhwezi-Hall, along with their tech startup QuickHire, were mentioned in the Washington Post for the second time in less than two months. Click the link for the article.
Brittany Sweeney is the owner of Sweeney Bookkeeping, LLC. She has an extensive background in public and private bookkeeping, having worked in the field since 2010. Over the years, she has worked with a variety of different businesses. Brittany decided to open Sweeney Bookkeeping, LLC after seeing a need for affordable bookkeeping services for small businesses and start-ups. Her clients' success is what drives her.
Check out Groover Labs member and tech startup Knowledge as a Service, or KaaS, in a recent edition of the Wichita Business Journal by clicking on the link below. They have initiated an equity crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder.com to help hire 40 people in Wichita over the next year as they move operations to town.
Read a Washington Post article published on July 27 about changes in the workforce, and specifically, the service industry workforce. The article features Groover Labs members Deborah Gladney and Angela Angela Muhwezi-Hall and their tech startup QuickHire, a mobile job search platform directed at the service industry. Visit their website here. Read other stories about QuickHire here and here.
Brandon Paulseen is the founder and host of the ICT Podcast, which focuses on talking with people who do difficult things at the highest level to learn how they power through adversity and build businesses. He started it in 2017, and has now recorded more than 100 episodes, with a new episode airing each week. Paulseen began recording in the Groover Labs podcast studio last year.
Groover Labs is proud to be an approved partner for the Kansas Department of Commerce Proof of Concept Grant announced on July 1, 2021. Qualified applicants are eligible to apply for grants of $5,000 - $25,000, and applications must be submitted through an approved partner.
We recently wrapped up our first VC Huddle, and we want to extend a big THANK YOU to everyone who joined us! We had a wonderful time, and we hope you did too. Thank you to Balaji Gopinath and Greg White of Kubera Capital, Dan Kerr of Flyover Capital, and Mary Kate Love of Koch Disruptive Technologies. And, of course, thank you to members of the Groover Labs advisory team, which include Dave Cunningham, Mark Janzen, Greg Giefer and Carie Lemack.
Today, we’re excited to announce VC Huddle: Extended, a panel discussion and networking event with another set of venture capital firms. The event takes place at Groover Labs and virtually on Tuesday, July 13, from 4-6 p.m., and we hope you’ll join us. The discussion, titled “Early-stage Capital for Midwest-based Startups,” will feature Mike Freeman, CEO, Innosphere Ventures, Maggie Kenefake, General Partner, Royal Street Ventures, and Mark Janzen, Vice President of Operations, Avalara. The panel will be moderated by Rob Gerlach (Executive Director of Tech Transfer and Commercialization, Wichita State University). Stick around after the discussion for networking, drinks, and snacks.
1 Million Cups is back, and it will take place at Groover Labs! We are excited to host 1MC, which begins at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 7. We will present alongside Marquette Atkins’ wonderful Destination Innovation Camp. As a program of the Kauffman Foundation, 1 Million Cups works with entrepreneurs, empowering them with the tools and resources to break down barriers that stand in the way of starting and growing their businesses. Mr. Kauffman believed it was a fundamental right for anyone who had a big idea to be able to bring it to life—and we're here to fulfill that mission.
