Huntington startup space gets name
Tyler Roye, founder of GroupGifting.com, has proposed a business incubator for Main Street in Huntington to be called LaunchPad Huntington. Credit: Steve Pfost, 2012
A new business accelerator and co-working space set to open in Huntington Village this November will be named LaunchPad Huntington, in partnership with a similar operation in Mineola.
Tyler Roye, the chief executive of GroupGifting.com and one of the investors behind the space at 315 Main St., said he will be adopting a similar model of renting out desks to early venture companies and holding networking events and relevant lectures for startups.
"Clearly it makes sense for it to be LaunchPad Huntington," Roye said. "We’ve worked together on a number of levels and they’ve got a good program coming together on LaunchPad, and we want to extend the same themes and programs they’ve put together, and we want to bring those to Huntington."
In addition, the investors behind the original LaunchPad in Mineola -- Andrew Hazen and Rich Foster -- will also consider companies that move into the Huntington space as potential investments for LaunchPad Ventures -- a fund initially created to invest in startups that moved into the Mineola office.
LaunchPad Ventures also has an investment in Roye's GroupGifting.com, which will be one of the anchor tenants in the Huntington space.
LaunchPad Huntington was approved to receive more than $140,000 in tax breaks from the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency last week. The space -- a second floor loft on Main Street -- is slated to open by November.
