Would-be local tech entrepreneurs got a new place to take their startup ideas last week.
What was once one of several ski shops along Tahoe Boulevard in Incline is now Tahoe's only tech accelerator. The definition of that term tends to change depending on who you're talking to, but according to Jameson Stafford, CEO and co-founder of Elevate Blue: "We gestate ideas, build them up, get them prototyped, we staff to the idea, get entrepreneurs to run it, and then we fundraise."
To get into Elevate Blue, entrepreneurs pitch a team of investors on their idea. If it seems like a winning business, the accelerator will create a company around it and divide equity between Elevate Blue investors and the entrepreneur. Then Elevate Blue will provide everything a startup needs to succeed, ranging from funding and software developers to office space, marketing support, even a CEO.
Elevate Blue also plans to host various meetups between area startup groups. And because they want to help build the local tech talent pool, they'll run coding classes for local college students interested in developer jobs.
