Tallahassee, FL
Veterans Florida, a non-profit created by the State of Florida to help military veterans transition to civilian life and to promote Florida’s status as the nation’s most veteran-friendly state, announced agreements with four coworking spaces to expand business incubator access to participants in the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program.
Partnerships with Domi Station (Tallahassee), Groundswell Startups (Melbourne), Rising Tide Innovation Center (St. Petersburg), and Tampa Bay Wave (Tampa) will provide veteran entrepreneurs with a variety of resources, including dedicated workspaces and conference rooms, one-on-one mentoring, exclusive workshop admission, office amenities, and more.
“Veterans Florida is the largest creator of veteran-owned businesses in the state. Offering coworking spaces across Florida furthers our mission to equip veteran entrepreneurs with a diverse set of tools and provide local mentorship to succeed at all stages of their business venture,” said Veterans Florida Executive Director Joe Marino.
“We are honored and thrilled with our new collaboration with Veterans Florida. After their service to our country, veterans have the skills, discipline, and training that can be an excellent foundation for entrepreneurship,” said Domi Station Executive Director Bill Lickson. “In fact, some of the most iconic companies in our country were launched by veterans. Hopefully, these scholarships are the first of many expanding opportunities for Domi Station to serve our veterans that are starting or growing businesses.”
“As a veteran-owned business, working with organizations such as Veterans Florida allows us to continue to live our mission to expand entrepreneurship opportunities for veterans and foster a broader spectrum of locally owned enterprises in the Tampa Bay region. We look forward to building great things together,” said Rising Tide Innovation Center Co-Founder Tina Fischer.
“Wave is incredibly proud to partner with Veterans Florida on our new scholarship program. Thanks to the generosity of Veterans Florida, Wave will be able to assist even more veteran-led startups here in Florida,” said Tampa Bay Wave President and CEO Linda Olson.
“We are thrilled to partner with Veterans Florida to provide scholarships to veterans in our Groundswell Community,” said Groundswell Startups Chief Operating Officer Jarin Eisenberg. This scholarship provides opportunities for three veterans to have a dedicated space at Groundswell, get connected to our business mentoring services, and an avenue for them to connect with our entrepreneurs who are going through a similar experience. We deeply value the skills, expertise, and sense of community veterans bring to our startup ecosystem, and this partnership further allows us to serve veterans in a way that helps bring their ideas to life.”
Veterans interested in starting their own business can apply to the Entrepreneurship Program via veteransflorida.org/register.
Since 2016, Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program participants have generated $59.6 Million in revenue, opened 277 businesses, hired 392 employees, and received numerous industry awards and national recognition for their accomplishments.
