Tire SwingStart. Connect. Grow

TireSwing is Boise’s jump off point for the entrepreneurial community. A physical and virtual meeting place convening nomadic independent workers, entrepreneurs, funders, educators, and business.

The Need: Jobs• Boise must develop, retain, and attract high paying jobs. • Various groups, working independently, spend time and

treasure on this goal• The effort is sub-optimized. We lack:• A branded, marketable area focused on the creative economy • One entity that aggregates diffused efforts • A coordinated entrepreneurial ecosystem that delivers physical

spaces for a company life cycle:• individuals, seed stage, pre-profit startups, growth stage, mature

What is TireSwing

• Aggregation• The Groups, people and efforts of Boise.• Electronically. Making a definitive online tools for the

community.

• Connecting Education to the Business Community• BSU, College Of Idaho, U of I, Etc..

• Networking

• Community & Ecosystem• Shared Workspace.• Collaboration

How We Got Here

• Started in 4th Quarter of 2009.• Prominent Business Leaders Addressing Urban

Vitality and Job Creation.• Recommendation Delivered to Mayor 2nd Quarter

2010• TireSwing 2.0 Efforts Formed 4th Quarter 2010.• Fund Raising Efforts to Commence 3rd Quarter 2011.

Starting point: Shared Work Space and Leadership

• Full Time Leadership Is A Must Have for sustained success.• A large segment of the creative class are working alone in a nomadic

existence. You see them in coffee shops, libraries, and home office space: developers, telecommuters, consultants, publicists, students

• These Independent professionals create more jobs sitting together than alone

• The “starting point” for a job creating entrepreneurial ecosystem is “co-working” space, where independent workers are brought together for collaboration, education, mentoring, and creative combustion

• This fast growing job creation/community sustainability tool is well-established in several cities:

• Youngstown Business Incubator• Dogpatch (San Francisco)• Office Nomads (Seattle)• The Hive Cooperative (Denver)

TireSwing: Boise’s Co-working space

• TireSwing will attract participants from emerging knowledge and creative industries by providing:• The intersection of entrepreneurs, academia, government and the

established business community.• Office needs (desks, copier, internet, meeting rooms, etc)• Programming, mentoring, ongoing education, networking.• A connection point for commerce, academics, and creativity• The starting point in a “farm system”, feeding growth companies to move-up

space such as The Water Cooler

• TireSwing will begin the coordination of creative economy efforts:• Begin aggregating similar but underfunded/understaffed efforts • Market downtown Boise as a jobs destination. Maintain a robust

website that publishes open job positions, provides links to support services, and keeps a community calendar of events

Where?The ideal location will be Downtown:• Energetic, connected to the buzz of the

arts, night life, and existing companies • Synergistic with the existing tech and

creative communities• A place that causes educators, students,

advisors, service providers and entrepreneurs to want “to be a part of it”.

Who’s involved?

• Prominent Business Leaders• Universities (BSU, U of I, Idaho State, College of

Idaho.)

• Idaho Technology Council• Capital City Development Corporation• The Mayor’s Office• Boise Valley Economic Partnership

Governance and Funding• 501 (c) 3 funded by:• corporate sponsorships, private donations, federal

grants, and public sector support• Fee based rental services

• Lead by a Board of Directors, and a full time Executive Director• Possibly a dedicated program within an existing

organization such as Kickstand or TechIdaho• Projected annual costs of $200K including rent, full time

ED, and website