I moved to the Tampa Bay Area from Chicago to launch Embarc Collective, a startup hub in downtown Tampa where early-stage technology and tech-enabled startups can work with experienced advisers, attend regular group programming, access a driven peer community — all in one central place.
Even before the pandemic, I was hesitant to center Embarc Collective’s story solely around our 32,000-square-foot physical space, which opened in January 2020. Instead, I chose to focus on what the space enabled: a community of driven entrepreneurs, the efficiency of a central landing zone of resources, and a place to be discoverable when investors, customers, and other stakeholders visited our region.
Then came the pandemic. Like most, we carried on our coaching and programming virtually and temporarily closed our facility. When we came back to our hub in June after implementing new COVID-19 safety protocols, I saw Embarc Collective shift — from a space where you work to a place where you have purpose…