Three successful entrepreneurs returning home to Oklahoma from stints outside the state have launched a venture accelerator in Oklahoma City that will develop local startups by providing investment, mentorship, office space, free services and access to further venture capital. Called VentureSpur and modeled on successful venture accelerators throughout the US, the new Oklahoma City accelerator launches on February 1, 2012.
Founders include David Matthews, a partner in VC firm Trailblazer Capital and manager of the Oklahoma Opportunity Fund; Gabe Bass, managing partner of Bass Law, a law firm with offices in Oklahoma City and El Reno; and Kraettli L. Epperson, owner of Black Mesa Consulting, a new Oklahoma City information technology consulting company.
“Over the last several years, venture accelerators have become the leading tool to develop startups that are lean, fast, focused and efficient investment vehicles,” said Epperson. “We’re taking the lessons learned at other successful accelerators and applying them to Oklahoma. Our job is to spark the innovation economy by building businesses that keep and attract talent and investment in Oklahoma, and that produce in-demand goods and services,” said Epperson.
“We think Oklahoma is ripe for an accelerator,” said co-founder Gabe Bass. “VentureSpur is modeled on Y Combinator, TechStars, Capital Factory and Tech Wildcatters, which have seen quick success with multiple companies receiving substantial follow-on investment or acquisitions. We want to do the same in Oklahoma,” said Bass.
In an effort to spotlight what's happening in the technology community in Oklahoma City and beyond, the RACK59 blog will be featuring Q&A's with leaders in the digital field. From website developers, to entrepreneurial innovators, there are many bright minds doing great work in our community.
To kick off the series, we talked with Cory Miller, who runs iThemes. iThemes "builds high-quality, feature-rich, search engine optimized WordPress themes for businesses, government organizations and bloggers who want a professional website with a polished design without having to pay thousands of dollars for a custom web design."
If you like this Q&A, suggest some more to RACK59 by following us on Twitter and liking us on Facebook.
1. Who are you and what do you do (in 140 characters or less)?
I am the founder of iThemes, an Edmond-based company that seeks to make web design fun & easy for do-it-yourselfers and freelancers. 2. What exciting project are you and your company working on? Our motto is 'make people's lives awesome' - we do that by continually innovating with our products to solve our customer community's problems in web design. 3. What do you think about the tech community in Oklahoma City? It's in the very basic but growing stages. We have some amazing companies (and more importantly people) doing innovative, rockin' work in web tech and we want to help grow that community here to create more web businesses and thus jobs and revenue for our city and state. We'd love to see OKC referred to as Silicon Pasture. 4. Flashback: Tell us about your experience with tech as a kid - what got you on this path? I remember Ataris and the first GameBoys and playing Oregon Trail in our school's computer lab. I bought my first Mac in 1994. I was using it as a fancy typewriter but signed on to AOL to get on the Internet (even though I didn't really understand that's what I was doing). I created my first website in 1998. I've always enjoyed technology when it makes people's lives better and easier. 5. Flashforward: What do you see happening in technology in the next few years? The web is much like Oklahoma was during the Land Rush -- largely unsettled but brimming with opportunity. It's an exciting time to be on the web. You can stake your claim and with your time and talent make something out of nothing. That's exciting for me as we see the rapid innovation on the web and seek to be a part of its settling and expansion. I can't possibly phantom what innovative, game-changing, world-changing things will happen in the next few years as a younger generation who are digital natives seek and seize the opportunity out there. But like many others, I'm anxiously eager to see these creative endeavors unfold in my lifetime.
Cory Miller photo by Matt Danner
Welcome to the RACK59 blog!
We can't wait to share our story with you and learn about what everyone else has to offer.
Our first steps today are to tell you something about RACK59, this blog and what's coming soon.
RACK59 is Oklahoma City's largest data storage center, with more than 30,000 square feet of data storage in one of Oklahoma City's most unique and important industrial sites. As part of the OKCWorks campus, RACK59 has a deep history and a nearly limitless potential in its future.
RACK59 is located in the former Lucent Technologies center just off Interstate 40 (and now just across the street from Oklahoma City's new outlet mall) which gives the data center its unparalleled security and structure to help its customers. With its own on-site power sub-station, multiple levels of security and a state-of-the-art environmental controls, RACK59 is committed to excellence for clients.
And that's where the name comes in.
What does RACK59 mean? The 59 stands for the gold standard of the data storage business - uptime of 99.999% availability. Thus five nines.
RACK59's commitment is not just to excellence but also to the community. We want to build this blog up as a hub for news, profiles and features about what's happening in the Oklahoma City tech community, from the upstart innovator to established companies.
Coming in the next few weeks will be Q&As with local tech stars, the story of the long history of our building and more about the latest news about data storage, information privacy and how it impacts business
Thanks for visiting on Day 1. Leave a comment with suggestions and links for stories we can tackle in the future.
In the meantime, you can always follow us on Twitter and like RACK59 on Facebook.