Nashua is “Open for Business” Business Incubator Ready to Show the Way
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ometimes all that’s needed for a business to take off is a little guidance and some inspiration. nashuaHUB is ready to provide both.
nashuaHUB – a new business incubator designed to provide young entrepreneurs with those key elements, and a lot more – was brought to life by Brendan Keegan, founder of velocityHUB, and Jay Jacobs, chief executive and president of Nashua-based RAPID Manufacturing. Joined by Executive Director Chris Williams and Directors Amanda Rogers and Matt Sordillo, the team at nashuaHUB has launched the first opportunity of its kind in the city. “When it began, my wife and I wanted to give something back to the community,” Keegan says. “We have the Keegan Family Courage and Faith Foundation, which focuses primarily on youth, and now, from a business standpoint, we have this.” nashuaHUB members pay $150 a month and get downtown parking (“Which in itself is pretty good,” Keegan says), 24/7 access to the co-working space, access 44
to a print station, conference room, discounts from more than 20 sponsors and membership to the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce for one year. Discounts are available on related services and products such as printing jobs, tax returns, setting up a back office system and marketing efforts. The group’s stated goal is to help 250 businesses over the next 11½ years, creating 5,000 local jobs. “The goal is for someone to stay for a year and then graduate,” Keegan says. “But during that year they would reap a savings from the eco-system that we’ve built that would really pay for their membership. If you’re starting a business, you need a lawyer, accountants, you need to design a logo, you need to get business cards – and you won’t have to spend hours and hours figuring that out. We’re saying, for example, ‘Here’s a bank where you can open an account.’ You can go
N magazine GREATER NASHUA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
anywhere you want, but here’s a group of people that are invested in you before you even decided to take this job. “You can’t get space at this price anywhere, and then there are 20-plus businesses there to support you.” The site itself is 2,000 square feet of space on Water Street where as many as 20 people can work. The modern, Silicon Valley-style space has a conference room, a kitchenette complete with its own beer tap, and workspace deliberately designed to encourage collaboration. “Attached to that is an executive collaboration center if someone wants to have client or investor meetings,” Keegan says of the space, which is also available to nonprofits when it’s not in use by nashuaHUB. The result: Keegan, Jacobs, Williams, Rogers and Sordillo are building a community of entrepreneurs. “It creates an entrepreneurial community that hasn’t really existed in Nashua,” Keegan says. “It embraces entrepreneurs