What to Know Before INSPYRE Innovation Hub's Grand Opening

We are so close to opening the doors to CenterState’s INSPYRE Innovation Hub. This 90,000-square-foot facility will be the largest innovation hub of its kind in New York state and one of the top five largest in the entire country. 

The resources and programs at INSPYRE are designed with founders in mind. Offerings range from state-of-the-art work spaces and a new maker space to funded accelerator programs, mentorship opportunities and much more. 

Before the public is welcomed into this facility, we wanted to share a few INSPYRE essentials. The CenterState CEO team has been featured across season 3 of Talk CNY discussing different parts of the INSPYRE Innovation Hub, from its name to its significance to the region. 

On this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, we’re going back into the season to get the answers to some INSPYRE questions.

This episode features clips from:

Season 3, Episode 3: Project and Partnerships Impacting CNY

Season 3, Episode 7: Building the Largest Entrepreneurship Hub in NY

Season 3, Episode 8: Inspiring Growth Through Innovation

Season 3, Episode 9: Celebrating and Supporting Small Business

Season 3, Episode 14: CenterState Leadership Team Takeover

CONNECT

CenterState CEO Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube

INSPYRE Innovation Hub Website | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn 

Host: Katie Zilcosky LinkedIn

Transcript

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This is Talk CNY, a semi-monthly podcast by CenterState CEO. We're an independent nonprofit committed to creating inclusive, equitable and sustainable economic growth in Central New York. Join us as we meet the people and explore the projects driving the regional economy forward. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcosky, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO and your host for Talk CNY. We are so close to opening the doors to CenterState CEO's INSPYRE Innovation Hub. The 90,000 square foot facility will be the largest innovation hub of its kind in New York state and one of the five largest in the country by square footage. Resources and programs at INSPYRE were designed with founders in mind, offerings range from state-of-the-art workspaces and an expanded hardware center to funded accelerator programs, mentorship opportunities, and much, much more. So before we welcome the public into the INSPYRE Innovation Hub, we want to go through a few INSPYRE essentials. The CenterState CEO team has been featured across season three of TALK CNY, discussing a range of topics related to INSPYRE, from its name to its significance to the region. On this episode of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, we go back through the season to get answers to some INSPYRE questions, and we're starting with why did we choose to expand anyway? That question is being answered by Senior Vice president of Inclusive Growth Nora Spillane. Yeah, I think the thing that's really important to remember is 20 years ago when the Tech Garden was first a little kernel of an idea in a failed parking garage, failed, collapsed. It was about starting businesses and that Tech Garden isn't an unintentional name. We were starting to grow things, but we've seen a lot of success, but we've also seen new demand and I think that's what I'm excited about. I think that's what the whole team is excited about with the new Innovation Hub is the ability not to serve tech or the perception of tech, but really the entire small business, whether you're starting something up or you have a business and you need support, we want to make sure you feel like there's a place for you there. We did a lot of customer discovery as our entrepreneurship friends would say, and a lot of what we heard was Tech Garden was a mental barrier for people. They didn't see themselves there. I think with the new Innovation Hub, we want to be intentional about that. We know that it's really important for people to see themselves there. The first idea that you have, we want to go and who can help me? Folks at the Innovation Hub at Center State. INSPYRE is spelled I-N-S-P-Y-R-E. And that's not just for fun. There's a reason. For that, we go back to Season Three, Episode Eight with CenterState CEO's Rob Simpson. Why the Y? At the core of every interesting innovation is a question. This question of why? Why does something work the way it does? Why can't this thing be better? Why am I frustrated with how I interface with this tool or this program? It's an invitation. The why is an invitation to be curious. The why is an invitation to think about and conceptualize how something might work better. And if you think about every major company out there, oftentimes most often they're not even inventing new product categories. They're simply evolving how people experience with a certain product or a certain service. And we want that level of curiosity. It is literally, it's critical to our success as a region and it's critical to their success as entrepreneurs. So the Y is very intentional. I'll also be really candid. You look carefully at the INSPYRE Hub, and what you see inside there is SYR. We're rooting this building and the programs they're in, in place because the place really matters. This hub is very intentionally, as we said, right next to the bus station and the transfer hub. It's right in Downtown Syracuse in the center of our economic region. Place matters a lot and we wanted to offer a nod to the community that has welcomed the Tech Garden and now the INSPYRE Innovation Hub as part of its landscape and ecosystem for the last 20 years. So what exactly is new in this facility? Well, everything, but for an inside look at what exactly is new and what programs are being updated. We talked to Center State CEO's, Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship John Liddy. We have a c-suite fractional and that is for companies that have achieved product market fit and their company is growing, but they don't have all the skill sets internally. And so I can't afford to have a chief revenue officer or a chief financial officer and I might not have the education or the background in business to understand what it is I need. And so instead of going out and getting a full-time one, will employ those people for those people that are in the growth stage. We had this other role, which we will be breaking out in the fall, called an EIR, an Entrepreneur in Residence. Those are for founders that have been there and done that. So that's a bit of a holistic approach to I'm going to guide you as a founder because I've been through this. I've sweated payroll, I've tried to figure out product fit, I've understood what asking customers for things are, and so that EIR and both of those are models that have been very effective in other locations. We've had the EIR model here at the facility before the fractional officer role is one that we heard from founders that had exited. Some folks that had gotten out of the building, perhaps had some downtown space, perhaps even sold their company and recognized if I only had this skillset that could assist me in my growth trajectory, I would've been successful that much more faster. And we're piloting that CRO role right now. It has had a phenomenal response, and so we're really excited about it. Yeah, I was going to ask how you came up with having these positions in the new space. So it was a combination then of founder input and also seeing it as a successful model in other places. It was. And so frankly, we had to try to figure out which one we want to do first. And there are some fractional roles that lend themselves. We will have a fractional CFO company in the building, and so obviously, we will lean on them for that side of it. Sarah just came to us serendipitously had this fantastic experience in the startup space in Chicago and in the CRO space and has been a wonderful, she's been wonderful with our clients and so a great add, and so we got lucky with that one. Yeah, that's great. So, say I'm a founder in this space and I'm interested in accessing one of these folks that are in these positions. What does that look like for me? Can you walk me through the process of, do I just kind of walk up to the front desk and I'm like, take me to the Chief Revenue Officer in residence, or what's the process there? Yeah, it varies based on your clientship and what you have access to. And the other thing is we will make those fractional C-suite folks available to members as well on a pay-per-play basis as well. And so we'll have them available for the tenants and for the clients. And then the methodology is frankly, it's being worked out now. That's why we're doing this pilot. All right. Is it I take a meeting? Is it that I do an intake and I understand what their needs are? And then we have, all right, this is going to be 10 hours, going to be 20 hours, and then we have this, we just got to make sure we're threading the needle on... Are they becoming a consultant for that company? Are they working for us? And so we're working through a couple of the logistics on that side. INSPYRE Innovation Hub is intentionally more broad in its vision, aiming to help businesses across different sectors. Explaining to us how INSPYRE plans to help businesses from all across the ecosystem is CenterState's Senior Business Advisor Brandon Mastrangelo. Yeah, there's been a real intentionality to diversify who we serve and the types of entrepreneurs in terms of the stage that they're at, where they are in the entrepreneurial journey. And so we are working both, we are diversifying both in terms of industries and so businesses. We are working with restaurateurs, people that are interested in starting food trucks, catering businesses, brick and mortar shops. We are working with HVAC companies, with electrical companies, with marketing and production companies. And so that's one thing. And the other important thing is too, we're also being very intentional to make sure that we are engaging with more people in underserved communities and that they feel welcomed in this building, that they feel like there is a place for them that they can receive services. And so those are two things that are really important to us and we're designing programs and services to make sure that we are effective in serving a broader range of entrepreneurs, both in terms of industry but also demographic and in. So those are two ways in which we are really broadening who we serve. And I think it aligns a lot more with our CenterState vision, too. We'll have more INSPYRE essentials after the break. But first, a quick word from our presenting sponsor, NBT Bank. At NBT Bank, we know that this day starts with this one. This day starts with this one because no matter how unforgettable the extraordinary days are, there's a lot of every day that leads up to them. You can count on NBT Bank to help you get started. NBT Bank, it starts here. This is Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank. I'm Katie Zilcoski, Director of Communications at CenterState CEO and your host for Talk CNY. It is almost time for the grand opening of Center State's INSPYRE Innovation Hub, and we are sharing some INSPYRE insights from this season of Talk CNY so far. So you know what to expect once we open the doors. Let's jump back in. CenterState's incubator programming has historically dealt with early-stage businesses, but INSPYRE will be able to do more. We turn back to Brandon Mastrangelo, Senior Business Advisor, to learn how and who will be helped. We have looked at the entrepreneurial journey, and we have broken out programs and services in four stages to meet four different entrepreneurial stages. And so we look at our work in these four stages and those are one ideation. I have an idea, but I don't know what to do next. Two formation. I have a solid business plan. I've done some financial projections. I feel like there's a real opportunity there. It's being validated through doing the work of the business plan and the financial projections and maybe some early customer discovery. So now the need is, how do I formalize this business? And so we work with people on putting together what we call their bail team. It's an acronym for your banking, accounting, legal, And so that's where we connect people to attorneys to say, okay, you can go talk with this attorney and determine what best entity formation, what the best entity formation is for you, whether that's an LLC or an S-Corp or a C Corp, et cetera. We'll connect you to bankers to build that relationship, get that banking checking account set up, talk about potential financing that may be needed for you to start or grow your business and so on. And then the third stage is validation. And this is the stage that I think we have historically operated in. This would be early-stage companies that have some early product market fit, and they may have a first customer, maybe two customers. They may have a strategic partner, and they're looking to scale through investment and scale quickly. And so a lot of that work has historically been done with our GENIUS New York accelerator and the drones and robotics industry. And so we've lived in that space. The Tech Garden lived in that space for a number of years and did that really, really well. And so for those individuals, we will continue to serve folks at that stage and it's really about helping them scale. And that is scaling a lot of their internal systems. It's like scaling your sales process. It may no longer make sense for the founder to continue to be doing the sales day in and day out, he or she or they may be doing the sales on an Excel spreadsheet or just sticky notes like, oh yeah, I talked to so-and-so this day and I should follow up and moving them to a CRM that someone else could actually have line of sight too and maybe operate within and take over that sales process. So it's about building those internal systems for scaling, helping them understand what they should be delegating, why they should be delegating it. Helping the founder understand what he or she or they're uniquely positioned to be doing for the business and getting focused on that and hiring people to do the other things. And so that's a lot of the conversation for people that are in that validation stage, and some of the support that we provide in that. And then the last is growth. And this would be a stage of business that historically what was the Tech Garden and now the INSPYRE Innovation Hub hasn't really served. And that would be for companies that again are probably 10, 15 years old or more, potentially I would say probably have over 10 million in revenue, maybe around 50-ish employees. They're doing fine, right? They're stable, but they may be a little bit stagnant. And this is where we want to engage with them through innovation. So hey, you've been in the marketplace for 20 years, you've got a solid customer base, but your product or service hasn't changed in the last 20 years. To stay relevant and to continue to maybe adopt even more market share, we have to think about what is the next iteration of your business. And that can be really hard for the reasons I mentioned earlier in this conversation. So creating opportunities through intrepreneurship carve out time and work with those types of companies to think about what is that next iteration of their business and what are the opportunities here in Central New York? There's going to be a lot of opportunities. And so a lot of companies are going to have to say, 'Hey, we've done this for 20 years, but now there's this opportunity and can we play in that space? Can we create value there? And so I'm excited to engage with companies at that level and to help them ensure that they remain in the community. Part of our work at CenterState is to retain businesses, and so I'm excited to try to provide some more client service offerings to those types of companies to make sure that this region not only attracts new businesses and we start new businesses, but that we retain the ones that are here. And take care of people who have invested in our place to begin with. That's right. Another feature we know that entrepreneurs are looking for is mentorship and INSPYRE will have a revamped mentorship for it. Here again is John Liddy to explain what to expect from the new mentorship program. Yeah, we're running a pilot with that program as well, and mentorship is one of these things. It's frequently done. I don't know that it's frequently done well. And so not all mentors are created equal, and so there's a lot of people that volunteer. And then how is it that we hold people accountable and holding people accountable is a big part of the work that we do, and so we have some processes in place to do that for founders. We have the same opportunity to do that with mentors. We've had some great folks raise their hand to assist, and so we're working with them as a first cut figure. All right, how did that interaction go? One of the art parts of it versus the science part of it is how do you match a mentor with a founder? It's like, do they get along? Are they in the same industry? Is it the same? Hey, I need help with some specific function. And so we've actually been going through software systems that have some matching algorithms with that, and there's two people on my staff that have some history doing mentorship programs, and so we're leaning hard on them to do that. Clearly INSPYRE has plenty to offer those inside the building, but it's also a means to support the broader area of Downtown Syracuse. Senior Vice President of Inclusive Growth Nora Spillane explains how INSPYRE works as an economic development project. It's awesome. It's just really, the intentionality behind this location 20 years ago remains right now. It's right across the street from the Hotel Syracuse, the Marriott downtown, which was a labor of love for a lot of people, and it's thriving. It's right by their convention district, which is where we show off our community to people from out of town. This is an opportunity to say, 'Hey, this isn't your same old Rust Belt city. We're vibrant. We're happening. This is a space where creative things are going on.' The opening, the visibility literally into the space from Harrison Street as people are walking from the hotel to the convention center around for food. It's a visible recognition of what we've done sort of behind the scenes, and that's exciting, but it also is an investment, and it's right by transit, so it's right by the Centro Bus hub. It's right by the STEAM school as I said. It's a really important part of the downtown sort of quad. That southern end of downtown has always kind of lacked a real consistent anchor, and it's an important bridge into the south side of the city, which as we know is an area where there's a lot of opportunity right now, 81 folks coming in. It couldn't be more perfectly positioned. It's like we planned it 20 years ago. INSPYRE is way for CenterState CEO to support the small business community in new and expanded ways. Acting President and CEO Ben Sio and Senior Vice President of Member and Business Experience Andrew Fish explain how this new building will allow for new ways of engagement. I think there's a lot of momentum in the small business space right now. We've talked a lot about workforce development, ON-RAMP with hiring Dr. Lacey and all the great work of the intermediaries that we run at CenterState. One thing that is oddly we have not been as vocal on as we can be is what's happening with the small business ecosystem, what's happening with small business lending and startups and the entirety of the ecosystem, not just the tech businesses that came out of the former place that we call it formerly the Tech Garden. Now we call the INSPYRE Innovation Hub. And I think that's the next big thing for us at CenterState, right? We're going to open this facility. We've reoriented how we think about the facility, and how we want to welcome people in. And now we're building programming, new investment mechanisms, and I think a new energy around it because there's an opportunity. That's the biggest thing. There's a massive spending opportunity that needs to be spent in our community, especially with small businesses and minority and women-owned businesses around the Micron project, but not just the Micron project. We need to make sure we are elevating the entire civic ecosystem around supporting these businesses. I think when I look at what's happening with INSPYRE, and I also look at how we've evolved, kind of the way we engage businesses through our membership over the past few years, it's really a great time for that synergy to be created, right? It's looking at the broader network that we have and expanding that, bringing more people into the Innovation Hub who traditionally have not felt welcome walking through those doors for a variety of reasons. It's thinking about the ways in which our existing business ecosystem can support those businesses and engage with them, whether that's through customer discovery or validation of product or even just mentorship. And so looking at this as an opportunity to really say, this is an interconnected group of people in our network that we want to make strong connections with, that we want to see positive outcomes, that we want to help people upskill and upgrade what they're doing within their own workspaces as a result of those interactions that INSPYRE Innovation Hub. It's a really exciting time for us to think more broadly about where there's opportunities for overlap, where there's opportunities for, and doing that in an efficient way normally overlap oh, no, it's duplication. But in this instance, we think it can really accelerate growth in this region. And so we're excited about.....like a multiplier, like a multiplier, like a multiplier, like a multiplier. Yeah. So we're excited about how our members will be able to experience this space and how they will be able to interact with these small businesses as they're starting to become part of the fabric of our community. And more than just a brand new facility for innovation. This building is a symbol of how far we've all come. Interim senior vice president of Strategy, Policy and Planning Kevin Schwab explains the significance of INSPYRE Innovation Hub in Downtown Syracuse. Really kind of metaphorical though about this project. When you look back over the 15-year-plus existence now of CenterState CEO, when we started the then Tech Garden had never been full. I don't think it had ever been more than half full in its entire existence. And of course, remember this was a former collapsed parking garage. It collapsed around the same time that this region was seeing the lowest amount of venture capital investment of any metro in the country. And now come this fall, not only are we talking about growth as a region, but specifically within the small business ecosystem and our startup ecosystem that has now put us in the top half in the country for venture capital investment, one of the fastest growing communities in the country for venture capital investment. But now Syracuse is about to have the largest business incubator and accelerator in New York, and it's gone from being this thing you barely knew was there to a place that is going to be well inspiring and open to anybody and everybody in this community who says, I've got an idea. I want to start this business. I can build a better mousetrap. INSPYRE aims to have something for entrepreneurs, the business community, and the community at large. So maybe you're asking yourself by the end of this episode,'How do I get involved?' Visit INSPYREhub.com to learn more about our resources, programming and everything else related to INSPYRE. Thanks for listening to Talk CNY. We can't wait to welcome you to the INSPYRE Innovation Hub. CenterState CEO's podcast Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank, is available on all major podcast platforms or centerstate ceo.com. Additional content and clips can be seen across CenterState CEO's social media channels. For new episode reminders, be sure to subscribe in your favorite podcast listening app, and don't forget to leave a quick review or five-star rating. Thanks for listening to Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank.