Vault Coworking and Collaboration Space wants to offer entrepreneurs more than just a desk and community; they’re ready to give them a curriculum.
“We want to help entrepreneurs move through the process,” Vault operations director Kris Fassler told Silicon Prairie News today. “That’s the thought of the Startup School.”
Beginning Friday with an aim to hold two per month, Vault is offering free workshops for individuals starting or wanting to start a business. The first session, limited to 18 registrants (the space has a classroom that seats around 40 individuals), is Design Thinking, and future workshops could cover such subjects as the lean startup and business valuations.
It’s “entrepreneurs teaching entrepreneurs,” Fassler (right) said, noting the long-term goal of the program is to parlay it into an accelerator in order to help the Cedar Rapids area see more companies created. The company may also begin charging an annual subscription for access to programs such as Startup School.
Thanks to our sponsor
Vault opened in 2011 with the help of free rent for the first 18 months. That period ends in July, at which point Fassler hopes to finance the space with sponsorships on top of the coworking tenants—he recently closed his first sponsorship. The space currently has 20 members, with about 15 of them full time, Fassler said. Bandwidth Pool and RecBob are two of the space’s startup tenants. Vault also hosts 1 Million Cups Cedar Rapids.
Credits: Kris Fassler photo courtesy Fassler
