Dev shop Aviture turns extra space into startup incubator The Garage

Since 2004, Aviture has been building software for major companies and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, but founder of the dev shop, Mark Griffis, had an itch. An itch to get back into the product research and development niche he used to do so well in the dot com era as CTO for…

Since 2004, Aviture has been building software with major companies and defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, but founder of the dev shop, Mark Griffis, had an itch.

An itch to get back into the product research and development niche he used to do so well in the dot com era as CTO for Mindflow, which solved plenty of problems, including a cloud-based solution for supply chain management at Pizza Hut. 

And in 2013, when Aviture moved to its current West Omaha office, near Interstate 80, they had an opportunity to get more square feet for cheap. The perfect combination of talent, space and desire came together for what will be a new incubator in Omaha, known as The Garage by Aviture.

Earlier this year, they brought in HuntForce, a hunting camera management startup that had gone through Straight Shot accelerator, and two other startups as a sort of beta test for the program. The Garage will kick off in full force later this year, says Ryan Wade, vice president of sales for Aviture.

“These companies have been tinkering in their garages, so why not bring them to our Garage and incubate them here?” Wade told Silicon Prairie News. “We can use our experience and resources to help launch companies within Aviture.”

Wade said it’s a next-generation incubator and could fill an underserved piece of the ecosystem in the region.

Beyond an accelerator, founders need avenues to continue honing ideas and challenge assumptions as their product evolves, the Garage’s website states.

The incubator will hone in on B2B and B2C concepts that have big potential, but the program won’t have a set time period, rather focusing on milestones, like validating customers, aligning product with types of value propositions and bringing on marketing and sales teams.

The Garage offers space, a team, network and capital.

“We want to focus on community and being a connector while continuing to educate, incubate and innovate,” Wade said.

So far, they’ve just tried to get a proof of concept down and are hoping to make a bigger splash in the next six months, bringing in more startups. Wade said they are in a unique position to offer software engineers to the startups and then those engineers have the opportunity to join the startups if all parties agree. Two former Aviture employees recently were hired by HuntForce, the CTO and chief engineer.

Wade said Aviture can allow employees to do that because its been around for 10 years and has 50 employees with lots of experience. He said they’ve developed enough of a talent pipeline that they aren’t afraid to let developers go work for the startups they collaborate with.

The engineers get to work on the most innovative defense contracts out there, as well as enterprise-level commercial products and modernization of commercial products, but also get to help some of the smallest startups, he said.

“Engineers like solving problems and we’ve created an environment where they can solve all sizes and shapes of problems,” Wade said.

And in it all, their lead software engineers lots of experience are learning how to be entrepreneurial. 

“They’re learning from each other,” he said.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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