Gravitate Weekly Update
Weekly Project Status
The past week has been filled with coffee meetings with potential sponsors, tours with potential members and lots and lots of excitement about the space overall.
We met with an interior designer who is helping assemble a color palette, an office furniture supplier on furnishing the space and an ISP about providing getting blazing fast internet. There is a tremendous amount of work to do but overall I think things are moving along at a good pace.
Sponsorship
We're excited to welcome two more sponsors this week: LendTrade and Great Western Bank. Thanks to both organizations for their support of the entrepreneurial community.
If you're interested in supporting the project, see these options.
Coworking Members
We're sitting tight this week with 25 confirmed coworking members. Several organizations have expressed an interest in the two remaining offices but no one has committed to them yet so they're still on the table for interested parties.
If you're interested in joining as a coworker, see these options.
Social Members
The social membership option is proving to a popular one across the whole state. In the past week we've nearly doubled our numbers here to 19 members.
Construction Update
Late last week, Kasey McCurdy got construction started by taking out most of the ceiling in one of the big rooms that will eventually make up "the bullpen" coworking area (photos below). The current plan is to leave the drop ceiling grid in place but take out all of the tiles. There is about 18 inches between the grid and the concrete ceiling and its filled with 101 years of stuff (multiple drop ceilings, cords, pipes, HVAC equipment, studs from walls that have been removed, etc). We're going to paint everything about the grid in a dark color which should provide a real cool textured look behind the lighter colored grid.
Early this week, walls started to come down (photos below). The two photos on the left are different angels on The Bullpen. Missing from these photos is the big wall in the photos above (though the metal studs are piled on the floor). The next photo with the wood studs is from two offices that we're combining for the Hatchlings team. The photo on the right is of the Cafe space. It's the combination of two past offices and a galley kitchenette.
Geoff Wood has been helping tell the story of the Iowa startup community since 2009. In addition to writing here daily, he hosts a weekly podcast, speaks at conferences and organizes several events in the community.
Photo Credit: deathtothestockphoto.com
