Venture Café is a nonprofit organization that hosts community events and programs that support early-stage entrepreneurs.
As of May 2020, there are 11 independently managed Venture Cafés, located in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
,
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...
;
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
;
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...
;
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
;
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
,
Japan;
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
,
The Netherlands
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Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...
,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
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Bilbao
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Spain
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; and
Sydney,
Australia. As of 2019, there were plans to open Venture Cafés in some 40 more cities.
The flagship event of Venture Café is the Thursday Gathering, a weekly meeting for new and experienced entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and support. The event usually includes several free educational sessions to teach entrepreneurs to how to start and run a business. Participants can also hold informal discussions of creative and speculative ideas and look for collaborators, co-founders, mentors, or investors.
History
The Venture Café was conceived as a restaurant in the
Cambridge Innovation Center
Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is an American real estate services company which bills itself as a "community of entrepreneurs". The company was founded in 1999 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduates Timothy Rowe and Andrew ...
in
Boston, Massachusetts.
The idea failed to attract investment, so the founders changed it to a gathering space for the entrepreneurial community, based on the book ''Venture Café'' by Teresa Esser.
Venture Café Kendall launched in 2009.
In 2014, Venture Café expanded to the
Cortex Innovation Community
Cortex Innovation Community, or Cortex is a vibrant innovation community serving as an inclusive economic engine for the St. Louis region. We create equitable economic impacts by leveraging high quality facilities, developing a portfolio of progra ...
in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, to bring together the emerging startup community.
The success of the St. Louis location prompted the launch of Venture Cafés in other cities and ultimately the creation of Venture Café Global Institute, a public benefit corporation based in St. Louis and Boston.
In 2018, as part of St. Louis Cortex District's new 4220 Duncan building anchored by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
, Venture Cafe launched Innovation Hall in St. Louis based upon Boston's District Hall.
In 2018, St. Louis launched EdHub
to support and bring together innovators to increase youth access to education.
EdHub STL is inspired by the Forward Through Ferguson report, which calls for an innovation education hub to address the region's most entrenched educational issues.
Venture Café Foundation in Boston runs the Roxbury Innovation Center.
Like EdHub, it brings together innovators in education including students, parents, administration, and teachers to help solve inequities in education and introduce youth to entrepreneurship and STEAM activities.
In September 2021, Venture Café St. Louis cancelled its events and made no public statements.
On September 13, 2021, Venture Café St. Louis board chair Whitney Masching released a statement stating, "Seven years later, it is time to close this chapter. Effective immediately, the VCSTL programming you know is on pause — but this isn’t the end."
See also
*
Co-working
Coworking is an arrangement in which workers for different companies share an office space. It allows cost savings and convenience through the use of common infrastructures, such as equipment, utilities and receptionist and custodial services, a ...
External links
CIC Venture Café Global Institute - Official WebsiteVenture Café Foundation Official WebsiteVenture Café St. Louis Official WebsiteVenture Café Sydney Official WebsiteVenture Café Warsaw Official WebsiteVenture Café The Success Story of a coworking space.
References
{{Reflist
Entrepreneurship organizations
Non-profit corporations
Community building
Companies based in St. Louis
Organizations based in St. Louis
Non-profit organizations based in St. Louis
Coworking space providers