Red DWG Library, the Pawtucket-based coworking spot, has announced that it is in the early stages of developing an accelerator program with a seed fund of up to $125,000 for tech startups, set for launch in late spring or early summer of 2018.
The intensive program will be three months long, and have particular focus on developing participants’ brands. Mentors and sponsors will be from the Boston area, with RDL formally announcing their identities at a later date. The accelerator will include a pitch competition.
“[We’ll] have a panel that will select five teams [called the] 'RDL A team,'” said David Gomez, founder, CCO and brand ambassador for RDL. “The five teams will be called Team Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta and Echo.” Their work with the accelerator will help them have a better sense of “who they are, and how to solve the problems they want to solve in that technology sector,” Gomez added, with RDL taking 8 percent equity in the five participating startups.
“I feel like this program will really put Pawtucket and Rhode Island on the innovation platform as a really competitive force in the east..."
The accelerator will mainly focus on working with fintech startups, but Gomez added that if companies outside that sector apply in spades, “of course we’re going to accept them into the program.”
While it’s not the first accelerator in the state, Gomez said it will set itself apart. “I think we have an opportunity to really weed-out the mediocre from the great idea,” he continued. “I feel like this program will really put Pawtucket and Rhode Island on the innovation platform as a really competitive force in the east, in the Northeast, which will attractive more economic development in Rhode Island — really attract big, big companies to our state, in terms of what we’re doing here, in terms of innovation."
The seed fund is currently anchored by RDL’s own private investment firm, Bull DWG Investments. Gomez added that RDL is looking to onboard more organizations to offer more grants, both from private groups and those at the state level.
For the RDL leadership, creating a program of this nature was always in the business plan. First, however, they wanted to ensure they knew the needs of the community’s entrepreneurs and how to best serve the ecosystem.
“We wanted to get a handle on Rhode Island and its innovation,” Gomez said. “We already knew there was a lot happening here, and we didn’t want to do something where a few organizations were already doing it. This is a very small state … and a lot of companies are connected to each other. We didn’t want to step on anybody’s toes.”
The coworking space, which launched in April of this year, spent its first seven months getting familiar with what was happening within the ecosystem, as well as fine-tuning its first-ever coworking location. It didn’t take long for the team to realize an accelerator would work, and it began to formulate plans in September.
“Rhode Island is exploding,” Gomez said. “More tech companies are moving in, more startups, more entrepreneurs coming up with crazy tech and products and services, so we knew that it’s good to [move forward with the program] in Rhode Island.”
