Week 6/10 — A strength of Melbourne’s Startup Ecosystem

Week six! It is unbelievable that my time in Melbourne flew by so quick; In about month, I will be officially finished with my internship at Groundswell Startups. In my six weeks here, I had the opportunity to learn a lot about Melbourne’s community and specifically, their startup community. This week, I’m going to be writing about a strength Melbourne’s startup community has and how it plays an integral role for economic growth and development.

What it means to be the “Space Coast”

Melbourne, and the rest of Brevard County is dubbed as the “Space Coast”, a county-wide area dominated by government contracted, defense, technology, & aero-nautical companies. On top of being an area that hires a huge chunk of engineers and tech-based jobs, Florida Institute of Technology, a private university that helps create fresh and talented college graduates, is at the center of it all. With a region that offers more engineering talent per capita than any other location in the United States, this modest county located in central Florida, has a lot of potential to be a thriving and innovative tech-hub.

What does this mean for the future?

Having this much potential, Groundswell Startups sought to turn that potential in to opportunity. Having a primary mission to “create a strong pipeline to capital, resources, and industry expert support for the benefit of high impact startup companies in the Space Coast,” Groundswell aims to be a middle-man that helps streamline resources to up and coming space coast companies to help develop the local economy and ultimately put Melbourne on the map.