Gather the latest news about Groover Labs, Wichita Coworking, Startups, and Founders on our blog.
Wichita Startup Week Call for Speakers
Wichita Startup Week, presented by Koch Industries, announced at its Preview Party last week the tracks planned for this year’s event and opened a call for proposals. Wichita Startup Week 2023 will present five days of panel discussions, sessions and workshops across five tracks designed to transform ideas into startup reality.
What Is a Dedicated Desk?
When you sign up for a dedicated desk, it’s your desk. Unlike hotseats, which are first-come, first-served seating, a dedicated desk belongs to you. Even better, you have 24/7 access to the building.
Groover Labs To Sponsor Dragon Derby
We are excited to announce that Groover Labs is sponsoring the Fourth Annual Dragon Derby on Saturday, September 2, from 7-9 p.m., in the Lazy River at the Richard A. DeVore South YMCA Water Park in Wichita, Kansas.
What is a Hotseat?
Our hotseats are the easiest and most affordable membership level we offer on a month-to-month basis. But what are they? Hotseats are open-area workstations that are available to members and day pass users on a first-come, first-served basis. They don’t have permanent owners and cannot be formally reserved.
Members in the News: Flint Hills Group, Dave Cunningham, and Whiskey Shelf
Longtime Groover Labs member and Flint Hills Group founder Dave Cunningham launched the Whiskey Shelf app at the beginning of 2023. In February, the app went live on the App Store and Google Play. Read the latest updates about what Dave and his team are up to, how they came up with Whiskey Shelf (including experience with Campfire), and more!
PLOT Raises $2M
Congratulations to Chris Callen, Chad Cox, Nick Dreiling, and Andrew Potvin of PLOT Jobsite Coordination on their recent $2M raise. We know they’ve been working hard, and now we see the hard work has paid off. Read a recent interview with Chris on Startland New here, and read the press release with details about the raise here and below.
Author Interview: David Bisek
You probably already know David Bisek as a community associate at Groover Labs. He is also the founder of Food Rise Marketing, a food industry marketing consultancy. Now, David can add to his list of accomplishments that of author.
People you should know in Wichita's startup scene
The June 19, 2023 edition of the Wichita Business Journal featured several components of Wichita’s growing startup ecosystem. One section covered “People You Should Know in Wichita’s Startup Scene” and listed our co-founders, Curt Gridley and Tracy Hoover.
Updated 1 Million Cups Schedule
1 Million Cups is officially operating on its summer schedule, which includes taking a break for a few Wednesdays in a row, and hosting a presentation at another location. Click the post to view the summer schuedule.
Groover Labs Receives $1.15M BASE 2.0 Grant Funding
We are thrilled to receive funding from the Building a Stronger Economy (BASE) 2.0 economic development grant for our CyberLink Infrastructure Expansion Project. BASE funds are intended to address infrastructure and economic development needs, and our grant award will allow us to continue critical projects we had to cancel or delay because of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
Member Interview: Francis Baalmann and ICTShortStay.com
Member Francis Baalmann began his career as an attorney. Now, he’s a real estate property manager, short-term rental owner, and entrepreneur.
InfoFluency to Launch Revenue Management Tool
Groover Labs member InfoFluency is launching a new Revenue Management Tool. We sat down with Alyssa McGuinn, managing director of business development, to discuss the tool and the reasons they decided to build it.
Local Software Firm Flint Hills Group Launches Whiskey Shelf App
Dave Cunningham, founder and CEO of Flint Hills Group and Groover Labs early adopter, has spent the past several months with his team building a new mobile app for whiskey lovers. Dave, a whiskey enthusiast himself, drew inspiration for the app while leading Campfire, a 12-week startup course taught at Groover Labs.
WorkTorch's Deborah Gladney Testifies Before Congress
Longtime Groover Labs member Deborah Gladney, founder and CEO of WorkTorch, the only career discovery platform for the service economy, testified before the House Finance Subcommittee on Capital Markets on Wednesday, February 8. The subcommittee is a part of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.
Groover Labs and Member Ingrid Green on KSN
Groover Labs was recently featured on KSN for a weekly segment titled, “Here for You Spotlight.” Reporter Julia Thatcher toured Groover Labs with co-founder Tracy Hoover to learn more about our mission. She then spoke with Ingrid Green, executive director of Drones4Girls, a program that teaches kids to build, code, and fly mini-drones.
Member Interview: Ethan Franks
Ethan Franks started coming to devICT’s Thursday morning Code & Coffee events last year to network with software developers in the area. He’d been working in construction when the Covid-19 global pandemic hit, and he decided to change careers. Ethan enrolled in code boot camp and was a regular fixture in the hotseat area. He recently landed a job as a mobile app developer. We sat down with him to talk about his journey.
Book Our Event Venue!
Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful holiday break. We did, and we’re glad to be back at work. Speaking of work, we’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Of interest to us: the number of calls and reservations we’ve had for our event venue. We’ve booked events with little-to-no warning and events that reach out all the way to October 2023.
WSU Athletics Partners with DARI Motion
Read the latest press release from one of our longtime members, DARI Motion, about their agreement with Wichita State University Athletics, to provide musculoskeletal health and human motion assessmentnts from WSU student-athletes:
Studios Available on January 1, 2023
We have two studios available starting January 1, 2023. The studios are $350/mo., are billed on a month-to-month basis, and seat between 1 and 3 people. While the private offices in the coworking area come with desks and lockable file cabinets, the studios come as they are: you are free to furnish them with your own desk, chairs, couches, lamps, etc.
Members in the News: WorkTorch
Congrats to Groover Labs members WorkTorch on their article appearing in Essence Magazine! WorkTorch, formerly known as QuickHire, recently announced a $2.2M raise as well as a rebranding of the startup’s focus to incorporate not just job discover but also career development.