A Louisville coworking company is looking to make its community more accessible to startup founders.
Story, located at 900 E. Main St. within The Center by SIDIS, has partnered with Amplify Louisville to launch "Fridays are for Founders," an initiative that offers free coworking day passes every Friday for all entrepreneurs, along with biweekly Startup Chowdowns and a monthly pitch practice.
Lauren VanCleave, CEO of Story, told me they have been piecing together the founder-focused initiative for about a year.
Startup Chowdown, a lunch gathering for entrepreneurs, launched before the start of the coronavirus pandemic and went virtual until last summer. Story had also previously launched free coworking on Founder Fridays at its Germantown location, which closed last year.
It was a conversation with Keionna Baker, director of community engagement at Amplify, about establishing a regular pitch practice event that led to the renewed effort to offer a designated space and time for founders to connect, for free.
"We were like, 'Why don't we just do this all together?'" VanCleave said. "Why don't we just make this consistent, reliable day that founders know that they're going to be in community with others, and they're going to be tapped into organizations like Amplify, UK Innovate, University of Louisville that are already here.
"It's like all the pieces that we've been trying to make happen for our community for so long are now going to be hubbed at Story."
The launch of the Fridays are for Founders programming comes after Story added a $25 monthly membership to its offerings, which includes one coworking day pass, access to discounted and free events, and a discount on additional day passes. A regular Story membership plus coworking is priced at $200 a month.
Free coworking day passes for founders starts on Friday, Jan. 28, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and those hours will be extended starting in March from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. There is no signup or reservation required — making it as frictionless as possible for founders to just walk in and work, VanCleave continued.
In February, Story looks to host open office hours on Fridays with local experts who can talk with founders about business development, marketing, fundraising and more. Those interested in offering office hours can sign up here.
