Milwaukee- and Madison-based gener8tor Management LLC has announced it will begin operating The Brandery accelerator in Cincinnati.
Founded in 2010, The Brandery operates a 16-week mentorship-focused accelerator program that ends with a Demo Day. Its most recent class ran from June to October 2017. gener8tor Management will run The Brandery’s 2018 program in the fourth quarter, with the help of 2017 Brandery program manager Jeff Boeh. Other Brandery employees, including co-founders J.B. Kropp and Rob McDonald, and general manager Tony Alexander, will stay on as mentors.
The merger will not impact gener8tor Management’s gener8tor accelerator or its gBETA programs, the company said. gener8tor Management also runs a gALPHA program.
According to gener8tor, The Brandery’s mentor, investor and agency partnerships will add value to its existing network, and the organizations will share best practices. It plans to keep the accelerator’s structure “relatively similar” for 2018.
“The Brandery and gener8tor have been peer programs for years and we are confident that merging our networks together will help us further our mission and provide all of our alumni even more resources and opportunities,” the announcement said.
gener8tor Management leaders could not be reached for further information.
gener8tor Management offers 12-week, equity based gener8tor accelerator programs in Madison, Milwaukee and Minneapolis, for which it selects five companies per cohort from pools of hundreds of applicants from around the country. Its gBETA programs, held in Milwaukee, Madison, Beloit, northeast Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Detroit and Indianapolis, help fledgling businesses with local roots become competitive for angel financing or accelerators like gener8tor. And its gALPHA platform, an even earlier stage program to foster entrepreneurship by helping innovative people explore ideas, is offered in Madison. gener8tor, established in 2012, has been named one of the top accelerator programs in the U.S. by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project for the past three years.