ROCK HILL, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) It’s being described as a concierge for entrepreneurs. Knowledge Perk Coffee’s Co-Founder, is now taking on a new venture, the Gravity Center.
The new center will be a place where entrepreneurs can network, share working space, brainstorm and is a one-stop-shop for business resources.
The Gravity Center, a hub created for entrepreneurs, is looking to connect York County’s communities.
Ryan Sanderson, a founder of the Gravity Center, says, “How do we bill these connections? How do we build an ecosystem for entrepreneurship? And what we have discovered over time, and being an entrepreneur is, there are so many entrepreneurs and there’s so many resources the biggest misconception is that all those resources are readily available to everybody and most people don’t know about all of them.”
The Gravity Center’s goal is to take all of York County’s existing business resources, and help entrepreneur’s succeed in one space. They hope to be able to connect the county’s entrepreneurs with the right programs to strengthen the business eco-system. Leaders say navigating through COVID-19 really showed them the importance of having those resources, saying its can be the difference between sinking or swimming.
“I tell people all the time it can be a very lonely place being an entrepreneur and the pandemic was terrifying and if it was not for the support of Rock Hill, the support of the county not just customers coming in and buying things that the programs that were created and the families I got created as we all work together, that’s part of Rock Hill’s DNA at this point. It’s part of York County’s DNA,” says Sanderson.
Community leaders like Gravity Center Board member, Tadean Page, are joining the center’s efforts, saying there’s even more that can be brought to the table.
“It’s not that we’re only focused on small business, but really about how we better our entire community, providing services, resources, to both small businesses and nonprofits in this area which is kind of the two cornerstones of what I love the most, right? So, what I think I can bring to the table is how we all come together to make that happen, how we include both sectors and then how we come to the table to create solutions, strategies to help better those companies, organization, and our community as a whole as well,” explains Page.
“What this entrepreneurial scene will bring to York County, is more than just business, it’s more than just homegrown economics, it is a culture changer that is going to affect multiple generations down the road,” says Sanderson.
The Knowledge Park Technology Incubator is teaming up with the Gravity Center.
The Tech Incubator has been around since 2013. Having started at the Tech Incubator the Gravity Center’s founders are now looking to partner up in the effort to make the new center a one-stop-shop.
The goal of the center is to breed new ideas, like the Gravity Center, that will boost the city’s business eco-system. The idea is for entrepreneurs to pitch ideas to staff at the Technology Incubator, to determine how viable they are and to use resources to develop the business.
David Warner, Director of the Tech Incubator at Knowledge Park, says, “There’s now an evolution that takes place in the Gravity Center is a part of that evolution. So, back when the Knowledge Park Action Plan was done, a lot of the community involvement, about five years ago, was this idea of a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs. And that grew out of the idea that ‘oh we have a Technology Incubator and they’ve been tremendously successful, they’ve helped over 200 clients, we need to kind of leverage this into something even more powerful’.”
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson is speaking with the new center’s leaders about their goals for York County.
