Milwaukee- and Madison-based startup accelerator gener8tor has announced its expansion into two new cities.
Through a partnership with the Youngstown Business Incubator, gener8tor will enter the Youngstown, Ohio market with gBETA and a gALPHA programs focused on the additive manufacturing industry. And gener8tor will operate three programs per year in Lincoln, Nebraska, in partnership with Nebraska startup organization NMotion.
gALPHA is a free, four-week workshop that aims to help students and faculty develop their ideas into startup companies. gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local or regional ties. gALPHA will begin in early 2019, and gBETA will begin in summer 2019 in Youngstown.
“We are grateful for the opportunity the Youngstown Business Incubator has given us to work with local entrepreneurs, and we can’t wait to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” said Abby Taubner, managing director of gener8tor’s gBETA program. “As our 13th market, we are eager to begin connecting Youngstown’s budding entrepreneurs with the programming and national network we’ve built over the last seven years, and can’t wait to see the progress that emerges.”
“With the relationships we have with America Makes and Youngstown State University, combined with the efforts of the Northeast Ohio Additive Manufacturing Cluster, this partnership with gener8tor is a natural fit,” said Barb Ewing, chief executive officer of the Youngstown Business Incubator. “This is a great opportunity to provide an even higher level of service to some of the most innovative technologies and talent in this region.”
The seven-week Lincoln programs will be free to startups, with no equity taken, similar to gener8tor’s gBETA programs. It will begin in spring 2019 under NMotion’s brand, and include five startups per cohort. Two of the cohorts will be open to startups in any industry, and one will be focused on AgTech and food startups.
“When we launched NMotion six years ago, our goal was to provide a program and network to help startups move forward, faster,” said Brian Ardinger, founder of NMotion. “NMotion 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 new opportunities for startups to launch and grow in the Midwest.”
NMotion is seeking a director to operate the Lincoln program, and applications are open for startups that would like to participate in the program.
“As gener8tor has expanded throughout the Midwest, so has the network we can offer to each participating startup,” said Troy Vosseller, co-founder of gener8tor. “We are excited to add NMotion to the gener8tor family of accelerators and expand our startup platform across the Midwest to better connect entrepreneurs, startups, mentors, corporations and investors.”
