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Local Entrepreneurial Programs
Entrepreneurial Programs are Helping Small Businesses Spring to Life
Today, downtown Pensacola is a hot spot of
cultural activities and enrichment. The streets are lined with boutiques, fine-dining restaurants and performance venues—and nearly all of them are locally owned. Pensacola has seen a boom in economic growth and development, and locallyowned businesses are at the heart of it all.
by Fiama Mastrangelo
photos courtesy of Studer Community Institute Until recently, small business owners have had to figure it out on their own. Having connections helped, but small business networks have been historically limited in diversity, leading to issues in underrepresentation and exclusion. A local entrepreneurship hub is here to change the way that people of all different backgrounds gain access to vital resources in business growth. Enter, The Spring.
Described as “a hive of entrepreneurial activity” by its CEO, D.C. Reeves, The Spring is at the heart of entrepreneurial development in Pensacola. Located in the Studer Community Institute building on the corner of Spring and Garden Street, this hub is housed in a brandnew coworking space that serves as the base of operations for the programs offered there.
The coworking space sets the tone for participants in The Spring’s Venture Monitoring Service (VMS) and gBETA Pensacola, the two programs that are offered free of charge to entrepreneurs. Amidst meeting areas, lounges and shared desk spaces are the literal doors to gBETA and The Spring’s conference room where roundtable discussions are held for VMS sessions. As Reeves put it, the coworking space serves as the “physical front door to [Pensacola’s] entrepreneur ecosystem.”
Both the VMS program and gBETA have been brought to Pensacola from elsewhere—the VMS program is an adaptation of the model developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and gBETA is a branch of the larger national startup accelerator, gener8tor.
The VMS program offered by The Spring is for business owners at any stage of development and connects them with a team of business experts in residence to provide coaching and mentorship. These locally based experts come from a variety of industry backgrounds ranging from museums and breweries to banks and even the Waffle House. Mentees of the VMS program set their own pace, meeting regularly with their mentors and The Spring staff in order to set goals and provide progress updates.
One business owner who has benefitted from its participation in the VMS program is Dannon Hooks of Tap the Coast, a “mobile bar and beverage experience for private events,” as Hooks describes. Launched in 2019, Hooks had no idea that there was a pandemic looming just around the corner.
“2020 hit and we are in an industry that is event driven,” Hooks said. To survive the pandemic, she said it was essential to have “the ability to bounce off ideas from my mentors and build a network of people who helped us make it through 2020.”
The gBETA accelerator program that is located inside of The Spring’s coworking space is a free program offered by the larger and nationally renowned startup accelerator, gener8tor. This program runs for seven weeks and has participants meet with their assigned success team twice a week. As a team, gBETA cohorts strategize ways to bolster their businesses through developing pitches and attracting investors.
One alumnus of Pensacola’s gBETA program is Brandon Storms of Assistt Inc., which Storms describes as an online marketplace “where folks can find help find odd jobs from others in their local community.” Storms decided to begin his business. journey with gBETA because he felt like somebody understood exactly what his business was trying to do. The Orlandobased company was in search of an accelerator program that could help them achieve the traction they were looking for.
“As a minority founder, I didn’t feel that sense of welcome in some of our conversations that we had with other accelerators or investors,” he said. “gBETA just seemed to have their arms wide open and just really wanted to help us.” Another alumnus of gBETA and a current mentee in The Spring’s VMS program is Erica Richards, who is the founder of Rainey’s Closet, which provides designer clothing rentals for children and momsto-be. The significance of gBETA to the community is clear to Richards: “I really think that it is giving small businesses access to resources that they normally wouldn’t have available or even honestly know about,” she said. “There’s so many people I can call on or turn to for help or guidance moving forward.”
The overarching theme heard from participants in The Spring’s VMS program and gBETA seems to be that these programs are finally leveling the playing field for new faces in business. With help from seasoned experts and dedicated mentors, these programs enhance community growth and guide new entrepreneurs through the twists and turns of starting or sustaining a small business.
“I know there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there that don’t pursue [starting a business] because they don’t have the support system or the network to try and make it work,” Storms said. “In gBETA that’s been the most valuable thing for me personally and our team. It’s just really given us the confidence to go out there and say, ‘Hey you know what? We can do this.’”
Applications for The Spring’s VMS program or gBETA can be found at thespringpensacola.com, as well as membership plans for The Spring’s coworking space. For further questions, or to reach a member of their staff, email info@thespringpensacola.com.
