Pasco EDCโ€™s Wesley Chapel Incubator Opens In The Grove

SMARTstart program director Dan Mitchell says space like this boardroom is where small businesses will have the opportunity to collaborate with other owners, industry experts and mentors as they prepare their businesses for launch. (Photos: John C. Cotey)

In the center of what many think is the hottest and hippest entertainment development in Wesley Chapel at The Grove, just above the office of developer Mark Gold, is a large โ€œcollab-o-spaceโ€ hoping to launch the areaโ€™s next hottest and hippest thing.

Thatโ€™s Dan Mitchellโ€™s hope, anyway. The program director of SMARTstart โ€” part of the entrepreneurial arm of the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC) โ€” stands in the middle of the 5,000-sq.-ft. Entrepreneur Center & Business Incubator and imagines it filled with the bustle and hustle that only enthusiastic entrepreneurs can bring to it.

โ€œItโ€™s going to be a great environment,โ€ Mitchell says.

SMARTstart at The Grove held its official ribbon cutting on Feb. 18. The workspace has 10 private offices, two โ€œhuddle rooms,โ€ 32 dedicated desks, a co-working lounge, an executive board room, as well as a classroom and other meeting spaces. 

A digital media studio will offer light boxes, podcasting mics and mixers, as well as other equipment needed to produce various electronic media.

Those desks, offices and board rooms will soon be mostly filled by small business owners sporting ideas but looking for guidance and hoping to reap the benefits a collaborative setting can provide. Small businesses have a large fail rate within the first two years, but Mitchell says SMARTstart helps develop business ideas and get them to market on more solid footing.

SMARTstart at The Grove is open to anyone, but their business must be based in Pasco County. It is looking for small business owners who are in the start-up phase, or in the first year or two of their business.

Once accepted into the program, you choose your membership level and get access to not just the space โ€” you can rent a private office for $600, or just take a desk in the open area for $100 โ€” but also classes, roundtable discussions, workshops and mentorship. The SMARTstart team will assess the needs of entrepreneurs, and will connect them with industry experts and coaches.

โ€œWe ask people when they join, what do you need?,โ€ Mitchell says. โ€œWhat is holding you back? Do you need workspace, do you need guidance, do you need to collaborate with other entrepreneurs, do you need funding, do you need education? We offer something in all of those program areas.โ€

And, Mitchell adds, โ€œIf somebody needs all of it, great. They can get all of it.โ€

This area provides 20 working spaces for entrepreneurs, but offices and meeting rooms are also available.

SMARTstart is funded by the Penny for Pasco program.

The Wesley Chapel location will be the third EDC incubator in Pasco County, joining the locations in New Port Richey (which focuses on professional services), and the one in Dade City (focused on food innovation).

Those in the SMARTstart program also are eligible for the EDCโ€™s popular โ€œmicro loans,โ€ ranging from $30,000-50,000.

Since the programโ€™s inception five years ago, 82 businesses have started and grown in the Pasco EDCโ€™s incubators, including 24 last year. The micro loan program has funded 57 companies, for a total of $1.8 million in loans. 

So far, the new Wesley Chapel incubator has four members, with 30 more on the waiting list.  Those who get in are limited to two years in the incubator, after which they must spread their wings and find their own locations.

โ€œThis is not your permanent home,โ€ Mitchell says, but in the meantime, members can use the incubatorโ€™s address to register their business with the Florida Department of State at Sunbiz.org (found at DOS.MyFlorida.com), use the conference rooms for meetings, focus groups and more. โ€œPeople come with an idea and, within six months, can get the funding and when they do launch, SMARTstart will hold a ribbon cutting for them.โ€

The under-construction SMARTstart crate at The Groveโ€™s KRATE container park be available to small businesses to rent as a pop-up to show or sell their products and services.ย 

Dade Cityโ€™s Johnathan McKeen-Chaff has taken advantage of multiple SMARTstart programs and he says that, as a result, his music teaching and academic tutoring business is better off for it. 

He has added a handful of clients and is now ready to open his first physical location at the KRATE container park at The Grove this summer, where his team will give piano, guitar and drum lessons, as well as supplemental tutoring in math, English and other subjects.

โ€œIt was worth every penny and more,โ€ McKeen-Chaff says. โ€œThatโ€™s the kind of education I can get behind. Dan Mitchell and everyone there are very good at what they do.โ€

McKeen-Chaff, who says his company is focused on using technology to improve the way people teach and learn, also took advantage of the EDCโ€™s micro loan program.

โ€œThey taught me how to start a business, and walked me through everything I needed to do,โ€ McKeen-Chaff says. โ€œI know I have a better chance (of succeeding) just having them on my side.โ€

McKeen-Chaff will be KRATE neighbors with SMARTstart, which also will be renting a converted shipping container. Members of the SMARTstart program will be able to rent the crate as a pop-up to sell their wares, which could be popular with the fledgling food businesses being cultivated at the EDCโ€™s Dade City incubator.

Pasco County-based businesses interested in more information or in joining the incubator program can fill out an application by visiting SMARTstartPasco.com.

Pasco EDC To Open Business Incubator In The Grove!

The Pasco County Economic Development Council (EDC) is in the process of building a 5,000-square-foot SMARTstart Business Incubator office in The Village at The Grove at Wesley Chapel.

Bill Cronin says that when some people first hear the word โ€œincubator,โ€ they usually think of young chicks being hatched and raised in a confined environment.

Thatโ€™s not exactly what the new incubator coming to The Grove in the fall is, however.

โ€œThe funny thing is, itโ€™s not too far off from the truth,โ€ jokes Cronin, who is the CEO of the Pasco County Economic Development Council (EDC).

Instead of eggs and chicks, though, the SMARTstart Entrepreneur Center and Business Incubator, operated by the Pasco EDC through its SMARTstart Small Business Program, hopes to take business start-up ideas and nurture them into successful enterprises that grow into companies that will stay in Pasco County and bring investment and jobs to the community.

SMARTstart is funded by the Penny for Pasco program.

The Wesley Chapel location will be the third incubator in Pasco County, joining locations in New Port Richey, which focuses on professional services, and one in Dade City that is focused on food innovation.

โ€œThey are all looking to build healthy businesses,โ€ Cronin says. โ€œOur goal is to help them become scalable, healthy and strong companies, and that they grow from there.โ€

The Dade City location, which opened in February, was previously located downtown, but Cronin said so many companies were graduating and then moving back to Wesley Chapel and Cronin says, โ€œit was very clear we needed something in the Wesley Chapel area because thatโ€™s the area the demand was coming from.โ€

So, the Dade City incubator partnered with the University of Florida Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences Extension and is now an incubator kitchen, and Wesley Chapel is getting its own Business Incubator.

โ€œWe are extremely excited to be able to offer our areaโ€™s entrepreneurs a place within striking distance to all that our county and region has to offer,โ€ says Dan Mitchell, the EDCโ€™s SMARTstart program director. โ€œThis third center will continue to allow our start-ups to have a countywide presence with just one membership. At the same time, this doubles the capacity of our impact in Pasco.โ€

Located directly above the current office of Mark Gold, the developer of The Grove, and his Mishorim Gold Properties, the 5,000-sq.-ft. space will offer a plethora of tools for budding entrepreneurs.

The incubator will have 10 private offices, 32 desks, a co-working lounge, huddle rooms, an executive board room, classrooms, meeting spaces and a digital media studio, for things like podcasts.

Office rental space will be provided, as well as classes on financing, marketing and legal issues businesses may encounter. Sometimes, itโ€™s a fresh idea that needs a helpful nudge, or it can be an already established business that is stuck and looking to get to the next level.

The Pasco EDC also offers micro loans (between $30,000-50,000 are the most common amounts), and being in the incubator offers opportunities for networking and the exchange of ideas and strategies.

The SMARTstart Small Business Program also will operate a space for food entrepreneurs out of one of the re-imagined shipping crates that are part of the innovative KRATE by Gold Box project that Gold is building in his effort to revive The Grove.

Because small businesses have a large fail rate within the first two years, Cronin says the idea behind the incubator is to give businesses the tools they may otherwise lack. Cronin says it is like taking an idea and adding the entrepreneurial approach to it.

โ€œInventors are good at inventing things,โ€ Cronin says, โ€œbut sometimes not as good at getting those inventions to market.โ€

While many businesses are struggling during the current Covid-19 pandemic, and opening something new may seem ill-timed, Cronin says times of economic turmoil are perfect for a business incubator program.

โ€œThis is when you see a big increase in start-up activity,โ€ he says. โ€œThis incubator offers them a great opportunity.โ€

For already-established businesses, the EDC has helped the county provide numerous grants of up to $5,000 per business during the Covid-19 crisis. 

To join the waiting list for incubator space, or get more information, visit http://smartstartpasco.com/?/The-Grove-Entrepreneur-Center.