sTARTUp HUB has also so far been the name of the whole building, that is a business and community centre for ca 80 persons from various IT and tech companies. Apart from the coworking space, the rest of the house holds office spaces that are connected with open spaces areas for all the house members to jointly use to make coffee and network at the same time. Despite the name change, sTARTUp HUB team and purpose remain the same - to offer starting entrepreneurs affordable office space and possibility to attend entrepreneurial events in an environment surrounded by like minded innovative individuals.
Garage48 HUB coworking space in Tallinn will also continue with a new name - LIFT99 (powered by Garage48) and with the aim to lift Estonian startups off the ground. Priit Salumaa, one of the co-founders of Garage48, explains: “Garage48, a non-profit and volunteer organization has been active for almost 7 years. Additionally to organising hackathons in Estonia we opened Garage48 HUB coworking space already during our first year and with the aim to support the Estonian startup community. Our activities have so far shown that you have to keep changing and improving constantly. This applies both to organizing hackathons and our coworking spaces. And now it is time for the hubs both in Tallinn and Tartu to rise to the next level. sTARTUp HUB team with Rein Lemberpuu in the lead has proven to be an indispensable partner in our activities. sTARTUp HUB community manager Karin Sepp led the organizing of Garage48 Open & Big Data hackathon and the idea to start our Garage48 Alumni Club came from Rein. And this is exactly how great things come into being - thinking and acting together.”
By leading the activities of Garage48 Alumni Club, sTARTUp HUB team aims to strengthen the co-operation between the participants of Garage48 hackathons after the events. By bringing the participants and mentors back together it is possible to support the development of the ideas presented at the hackathons and help the teams move into business accelerators.
“Garage48 hackathons are events where many great ideas and teams are born that could take the ideas to a more serious level. But at this moment we are missing the supportive link in our startup ecosystem. We do have two excellent accelerators, but often the ideas/teams are in a too early stage to move forward. It is one of the aims of Garage48 Alumni Club to fill this void,” explains Rein Lemberpuu (founder of sTARTUP HUB, Contriber and SPARK Tartu).
Garage48 Alumni Club kick-off event will take place on December 9th at sTARTUp Day business conference. The conference will be a first event in Tartu in the series of many that will bring together the whole Estonian startup ecosystem members and great speakers on the stage. Talks will be concentrating on the theme “How to earn if there’s nothing to burn” and the amazing new Estonian National Museum building will surely have enough room for all curious to join.
Check out the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/225738217862801/
In case you have additional questions about sTARTUp HUB, Garage48 Alumni Club or sTARTUp Day, contact the community manager @ sTARTUp HUB: Karin Sepp, karin@contriber.com