Doors are open at LaunchPad Long Island
Rich Foster and Andrew Hazen sit in one area of LaunchPad Long Island, the shared office space they have opened for entrepreneurs in Mineola. (Jan. 14, 2013) Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
LaunchPad Long Island, the new co-working space in Mineola, officially opened its doors Tuesday morning.
The building, a project of local investors Andrew Hazen and Rich Foster, allows start-up companies to rent share office space for cheap and work in a social environment to promote creativity.
About 10 start-up groups have been accepted to the co-working space at LaunchPad to start using the space Tuesday, and there are about 50 more applications in the pipeline, Hazen said.
Hazen said the project has received widespread interest from the community, as well as investors and start-ups from outside New York. Hazen and Foster are already planning a similar co-working space in Suffolk County, and Hazen said he has an acquaintance in Atlanta interested in using the LaunchPad model to start a similar space in Georgia.
In addition, local investors have also expressed interest in adding to Hazen and Foster's $250,000 fund to invest in the early stage companies that work at LaunchPad.
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