Bradley Launches New Co-Working Space for Business Startups

06/07/2019 1:00 AM

The Illinois Small Business Development Center (ISBDC) and Turner Center for Entrepreneurship at Bradley University are launching a new co-working space for business startups.

Please join us for the official opening of Brave Launch Extended. It will take place at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, June 11, at the Peoria Next Innovation Center located at 801 West Main Street In Peoria.

Jim Foley, Director of the Turner Center for Entrepreneurship, says supporting business startup and growth in the Greater Peoria area is fundamental to the mission of the Illinois Small Business Development and the Turner Center for Entrepreneurship. “In 2016, we created our business accelerator program known as Brave Launch to help local entrepreneurs startup and innovate new businesses over an intensive 7-week training program. However, after completing the program, teams don’t have a common working space in which to continue planning and innovating their business. The Brave Launch Extended space will offer such a co-working area at no cost to alumni of the Brave Launch program.”

Currently, 20 teams who have graduated from the Brave Launch program will have access to the space. Foley says starting a business and creating innovation requires hard work supported by mentoring, networking, and new tools and resources; this new co-working area will provide some of that. Funding for the co-working space has been made possible through the support of UnityPoint Health-Methodist/Proctor Foundation, Migration Risk Management, and Companion Life.