Greenville-based Iron Yard Ventures will debut its Las Vegas accelerator this fall, focusing on the hospitality industry with a topsy-turvy model aimed at explosive growth in one of the country’s largest cities.
The three-month program will pair traditional accelerator elements with front-end research that could boost participant results in a real way, says recently-hired managing director Ryan Negri. The key, he says, is figuring out what companies want on the front end and building solutions, not vice versa.
“It’s a different model, and I think this will yield more successes,” says Negri, who will develop the program and build investor and industry partnerships leading up to the October launch. “We will have an immediate path for almost everything that we bring in.”
Founded in 2012, Iron Yard Ventures started with a Greenville-based education technology accelerator, followed by a digital health accelerator in Spartanburg and a life sciences accelerator, HubX, in Arkansas. The company shuttered its Spartanburg accelerator this year, and is no longer accepting applications for its first two projects. The company helped launch companies such as Chartspan, Moon Clerk, RidePost, Resiliency Technologies and Recovr, among others.
Negri plans to include eight to 10 companies within the first cohort, each of which will get between $25,000 and $50,000 in seed funding, intense mentorship and working space. Iron Yard Ventures will hold six to 10 percent equity in each company, but he aims to expedite additional investments and contracts by the end of the program. Las Vegas Hospitality Accelerator will be located in downtown Las Vegas, which is similar to Greenville when it comes to cost of living.
Applicants can be entrepreneurs with existing ideas to individuals who want to be a part of a burgeoning company, Negri said. The idea is to take existing industry pain points and build solutions that can get immediate traction.
“Finding the needs is not a problem, because this space is wide open… You go into any lobby and ask, ‘Why is there not a mobile check-in?’” he says. “There’s gaps everywhere in hospitality and food and gaming, so there’s not a shortage of pain points or ideas, but there’s a shortage of integration.”
Hospitality companies have generally struggled to innovate internally, says Negri, putting together teams that come up with great products that can take too long to implement. By the time they reach consumers, they’re obsolete.
“I think they’re thinking too big. They’re thinking as a corporation rather than a startup, ad that’s why that’s so much of a need here,” he says. “We can actually form a team around them that can start working right away… and produce things at a rapid pace.”
Applications are due Sept. 1. Negri plans to hire on a program manager to build the program.
“This is an exciting new phase for Iron Yard Ventures as this is our first full Iron Yard Ventures Accelerator program in a city with an already established Iron Yard Academy,” according to an Iron Yard Ventures announcement. “We are excited to be working with local startups and entrepreneurs as well as some of the largest companies working to transform the hospitality and gaming industry in the heart of Las Vegas.”
Iron Yard Ventures has invested in more than 50 early-stage technology companies that have raised more than $70 million in follow-up capital, according to the company. It spun out of Greenville-based The Iron Yard, an international coding school with 22 campuses that attracted investment from University of Phoenix owner Apollo Education Group.
