AIM and the Omaha Startup Collaborative are celebrating the “grand (re)opening” of The AIM Exchange, a new space for entrepreneurs to “meet up, start up, move up” in downtown Omaha.
The public opening culminates months of renovation of the 100-year-old Grain Exchange building at 1905 Harney Street. The building is already home to well-known area startups like Crumb, Blabfeed and a remote Travefy office. The purpose behind the project is to move the startup community from mere hype to solid traction.
“We’ve added 10 members in the last 30 days,” said Erica Wassinger, co-founder of the Omaha Startup Collaborative. “More than half of our startups have added 1-3 employees since we moved into The Exchange.”
The AIM Exchange will be offering free coworking all week during Omaha Startup Week with free refreshments for visitors. The building will also be hosting many of the events for Omaha Startup Week as well. It’s an opportunity for the local community to get a taste of the excitement in the building.
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“What’s most exciting is that we started with a community first and then built around it rather than a build-it-and-they will-come mentality,” said Wassinger. “Although there’s a few official co-founders there are hundreds of unofficial co-founders. It’s something that makes Omaha proud.”
The public opening is also another win for the partnership between the startup community and the Omaha’s traditional corporate tech community via AIM, a not-for-profit community organization that works to improve the IT talent pipeline.
“It’s important to AIM and the community that AIM joins forces with as many organizations as possible to drive tech talent in Omaha,” said Kandace Miller, CEO of AIM.
In 2015 AIM acquired Big Omaha and Silicon Prairie News, which are now based out of The AIM Exchange. The building is already home to the Straight Shot business accelerator and Interface Web School. In coming months it will also be the site for the Brain Exchange, an AIM initiative to get youth excited about careers in technology.
SPN chronicled the development the OSC-AIM partnership in an article in October, “Will the AIM Exchange finally solve Omaha’s density problem?”
