A Madison tech hub six years in the making finally opened its doors this week.
StartingBlock Madison brought in more than 500 visitors to its official soft opening Tuesday as the co-working space and innovation center unveiled its space to the public. Located in a new 50,000 square foot space on East Washington Avenue, StartingBlock believes it can become the epicenter of Madison's growing tech scene.
"StartingBlock started with this concept of—how could we really put Madison on the national map?" Chandra Miller Fienen, StartingBlock Madison's director of operations and programming, said in an interview.
Local tech and business leaders began developing the idea for StartingBlock back in 2012. The community needed a place where entrepreneurs could learn from one another, scale and grow companies without moving from office to office, and provide people both inside and outside Madison a way to see the innovation happening in the community first hand, Miller Fienen said. Construction on the building began last year.
StartingBlock provides flexible and reserved office space for both solo entrepreneurs and scaling upstarts. The idea is the space can grow with the founders, offering open desk space as well as larger private offices up to 6,500 square feet for anchor tenants.
"The idea is a company can scale pretty quickly and stay at StartingBlock without having to move their team constantly," Miller Fienen said.
Taking up three floors in American Family Insurance's Spark building, StartingBlock's amenities include a dev cave, projection screens, podcasting room and a video studio with a green screen. Around 15 startups have already committed to working in the space, and community organizations like gener8tor, Wisconsin Game Alliance, Bunker Labs, The Commons and 1Million Cups also call the building home.
The group looked at innovation hubs across the country for inspiration, including Chicago's 1871, and learned some of the dos and don'ts of launching a tech hub. StartingBlock decided it needed open workspace that wasn't too open, allowing companies to have privacy when they needed it. They also got the advice to keep 10% of the space undeveloped, allowing StartingBlock to build programs and spaces that the community needs over time.
Ultimately, StartingBlock wants to be a space to sprout new companies, connect existing startups, and give back to the Madison community at large.
"The four strategic missions of StartingBlock are launch, grow, innovate and give back," Miller Fienen said.
StartingBlock plans to hold an official grand opening later this fall.
