YBI ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH WISCONSIN-BASED GENER8TOR

YBI Announces Partnership with Wisconsin-based gener8tor

Youngstown, OH — The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) announced a partnership yesterday with gener8tor, a nationally ranked accelerator that invests in high-growth startups. The partnership will bring gener8tor’s gBETA and gALPHA Programs to Youngstown, with a primary focus on the Additive Manufacturing industry.

Based out of Madison, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis, gener8tor is a nationally ranked, concierge startup accelerator and part of the Global Accelerator Network (GAN), an invite-only community of the world’s most respected organizations that provide startups with the best resources to create and grow their businesses, wherever they are.

gALPHA is gener8tor’s free, four-week venture-creation workshop designed to help entrepreneurially-minded students and faculty create high-growth startups. gALPHA provides product ideas, mentorship and coaching to teams of students and faculty, and then works with them one-on-one for one month to help them develop an innovative and marketable product or solution. These ideas and ventures can be any type of business, they do not have to be tech specific.

gBETA is a free, seven-week accelerator for early-stage companies with local or regional ties. Each program is capped at five teams, and requires no fees and no equity. The gBETA program in Youngstown will be specific to companies and technology related to the Additive Manufacturing industry.

“We are grateful for the opportunity the Youngstown Business Incubator has given us to work with local entrepreneurs, and we can’t wait to roll up our sleeves and get to work.” Said Abby Taubner, Managing Director of gener8tor’s gBETA program. “As our thirteenth market, we are eager to begin connecting Youngstown’s budding entrepreneurs with the programming and national network we’ve built over the last seven years, and can’t wait to see the progress that emerges.”

“With the relationships we have with America Makes and Youngstown State University, combined with the efforts of the Northeast Ohio Additive Manufacturing Cluster, this partnership with gener8tor is a natural fit.” Said Barb Ewing, CEO of the Youngstown Business Incubator. “This is a great opportunity to provide an even higher level of service to some of the most innovative  technologies and talent in this region.”

 

Abby Taubner, Managing Director of gBETA at gener8tor, and Barb Ewing, CEO of Youngstown Business Incubator

With the recent announcement from General Motors regarding the Lordstown plant, this announcement comes at a critical time.

“I am thrilled to see the announcement of this new partnership between the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) and gener8tor. The necessity of connecting our region to both capital and accelerator programs was highlighted during the Comeback Cities Tour that I led earlier this year – an initiative to bridge the gap between Midwest entrepreneurs and startups and coastal-based VCs. This effort directly supports that goal.  This announcement is a critical development towards keeping Northeast Ohio at the center of an emerging, tech-based, digital American economy, and is indicative of the outstanding work that YBI has been able to accomplish in conjunction with America Makes and Youngstown State University.” Said Congressman Tim Ryan.

“The partnership with gener8tor is a great example of the continued progress of Youngstown and the YBI that I’ve experienced over the past two years starting with bringing AI-Media to the area and announcing the launch of Comeback Capital recently. This partnership will truly help continue Youngstown’s transition to a tech-based economy.” Said Patrick McKenna, Managing Director of HighRidge Venture Partners.

Scott Shane, Managing Partner with Comeback Capital, said, “We are very excited to see gener8tor and YBI partnering to encourage startup activity in Northeast Ohio. Comeback Capital’s first investment was a gener8tor graduate and Youngstown State and YBI are world leaders in additive manufacturing. We can think of no better partnership than a YBI-gener8tor effort to build world-class additive  manufacturing companies in Northeast Ohio.”

“With Comeback Cities, we wanted to better understand the investment opportunities in the Heartland,” said Roy Bahat, Head of Bloomberg Beta and one of the Comeback Cities organizers. “That trip resulted in investment funds, pitch competitions, and now this new accelerator. We’re thrilled to see all of the continued momentum since our visit.”

The gALPHA and gBETA programs will launch in early 2019, with the first round of the accelerator (gBETA) starting in the summer. The gBETA program is a selective process with only 5-7 startup companies being selected each year.

 

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ABOUT THE YOUNGSTOWN BUSINESS INCUBATOR

The Youngstown Business Incubator is an Ohio based technology incubator whose mission is to facilitate the creation of high-value businesses through collaborative partnerships that promote innovative technologies and long-term sustainable employment opportunities, with a focus on Information Technology, Advanced Manufacturing, and Women and Minority Owned Enterprises.. YBI provides comprehensive, high-quality entrepreneurial services such as facilities, industry resources and equipment, entrepreneurial counseling, and networking opportunities. As part of the JumpStart Entrepreneurial Network, YBI’s footprint services Software and Advanced Manufacturing businesses across 21 counties of Northeast Ohio. For more information on the YBI, please call 330.746.5003 or visit www.ybi.org

ABOUT gener8tor

gener8tor’s turnkey platform for the creative economy connects startups, entrepreneurs, artists, investors, universities and corporations. The gener8tor platform includes pre-accelerators, accelerators, corporate programming, conferences and fellowships focused on entrepreneurs, artists and musicians.

gener8tor is a nationally ranked, GOLD-tier accelerator in the U.S. as ranked by the Seed Accelerator Rankings Project:http://seedrankings.com.