Startups
Accelerators / Incubators

Hatch House is expanding and restructuring

The new plan for Wilmington's live-in startup incubator features space for 10-25 entrepreneurs.

Inside Hatch House Venture's new location. (Courtesy photo)

We spoke to Hatch House Ventures founder Steve Boerner last year about the company’s expansion into Wilmington. Well, the expansion was put on hold because Boerner wanted to make the move more strategic.
The Delaware Business Roundtable growth agenda was released last year, making a number of suggestions on behalf of Delaware CEOs relating to economic development, including the creation of an “entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem” within the First State.
Boerner wanted his expansion to be more in line with these recommendations.


The new location will be on 7th and Market, just a block away from the CoIN Loft. Currently, Hatch House has locations in Lehigh Valley and Newark, Del.
Hatch House — an incubator meant to capture university-born startups with attractive live/work options in downtown business districts — used to be a nonprofit organization, but it no longer classifies itself as such.
“It wasn’t conducive to our growth strategies as we found that we were eligible for grants without that nonprofit status,” Boerner said in a recent interview. “With our business model, being a nonprofit put restrictions on our freedom to operate and we’re still fulfilling the same philanthropic mission regardless of filing status. In the future, we will look to becoming a B Corp to show that for-profit companies can be both socially conscious and profitable.”
There has also been a call to move away from strictly calling it a “live/work” space, because the term no longer describes what the organization does. Boerner refers to it now as, “A growing network of startup accelerators in partnership with higher education.”
The new Wilmington expansion will consist of 8,000 square feet spread out over three floors and will include housing quarters and a coworking space. Once this location opens in spring 2017, it will be ready to serve 10-25 entrepreneurs.
Interested in checking out the space? There will be two open houses: Aug. 26, from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and Sept. 14, fro 5-7 p.m.

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