Groundswell Startups

The 4th Annual Tech Trivia by Cromulence is taking place at Groundswell Startups on Thursday, August 29th! Computer history, software, hardware - come test your knowledge with a team or find a team when you get here! Brews, bites, and prizes 🏆 💾 💻 #techtrivia #groundswellstartups

You are invited to attend the HR Essentials Seminar on Wednesday, June 19, from 9 am to 11 am EST, hosted by Florida SBDC Network at Eastern Florida State College. Alan Bernstein, SHRM-SCP, will be the speaker. This free webinar will cover important aspects of HR management, such as staffing, compliance, employee relations, and performance management. It is open to everyone and especially recommended for small business owners and HR departments with one. Overview: https://lnkd.in/g6fC3hxk

We're thrilled to announce that My Steady Mind has launched a $3 million endowment dedicated to cognitive fitness and mental wellness! Starting June 2024, organizations can apply for an opportunity to receive $250,000 worth of Cognitive Fitness Training courses. This initiative, led by Dr. Seth Hickerson, is set to transform mental health services nationwide, making mental fitness as prioritized as physical fitness. My Steady Mind's partnership with Crunch Fitness ensures that these valuable resources reach communities in need. Imagine a world where everyone is equipped with practical tools for emotional resilience, sharper focus, and enhanced self-awareness. This vision is becoming a reality thanks to My Steady Mind. Apply at www.mysteadymind.com starting June 2024! #MentalHealth #CognitiveFitness #MentalWellness #LeadershipDevelopment #MySteadyMind #CrunchFitness #Endowment #MentalGym #Resilience #EmotionalIntelligence https://lnkd.in/gSxvr2Qr

Exited to announce that SeedFundersOrlando led an oversubscribed Seedfunders $150,000 investment in our portfolio company Kalogon's $1,200,000 seed extension funding round to support scaling its smart seating cushion technology beyond the medical mobility market to new opportunities in the aviation and transportation markets. Proud to support Timothy Balz and the impressive hardworking team he has assembled that are making things happen for this startup! https://lnkd.in/empMVEX9

Celebrating a Milestone: One Year of Groundswell's Prototype Lab! ⚙ Today marks the 1st anniversary of our Prototype Lab at Groundswell Startups. Over the past year, we've been proud to help transform ideas into reality through our design services and innovative prototyping solutions, supporting startups and enterprises making a global impact right here in Melbourne, Florida. We're grateful to our visionary co-founders, Bud Deffebach, John Vecchio, Mark Mohler, and Jenna Reid, for their continued guidance and collective expertise. A special thanks to Jarin Eisenberg for laying the foundation for the Lab and to our founding partners, Catania Product Development, for their mentorship. Since opening, we've made great strides in cultivating the startup ecosystem on the Space Coast while providing affordable prototyping solutions locally. With the constant feedback and support of our community, we hope to continue providing valuable solutions to our existing and potential partners, collaborators, and startups. At Groundswell, we offer coworking spaces and resources to help startups thrive. If you're an entrepreneur, investor, or interested in joining our vibrant coworking community, we'd love to connect! 🌊 Here's to many more years of innovation and growth in the #startup #entrepreneurship #prototyping #productdevelopment space!

🚀 This weekend, Spencer Macdonald led the 1st Space Coast Hardtech Hackathon, at the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design, stimulating inspiring outcomes for immediate impact, scalability, and compounding sustainability and growth of space infrastructure within the Space Coast's Innovation Ecosystem. The day started with welcome talks by Spencer, Juan Camilo Avendano , PhD, Nancy Peltonen, MA, FCCP from the Greater Palm Bay Chamber of Commerce, followed by Cassandra Hartford's enlightening presentation on 'Why the Space Coast.' 🌴 Next, two panels around 'Space Logistics, Onshore, and Offshore' and 'Digital Spaceport of the Future' brought the hackathon problem statements to life, introducing the participants to the real-time challenges that need to be solved to allow the Space Ports and Rocket Agencies to meet the exponentially growing demand for both orbital asset distribution and exploration. 🛰️ I can't emphasize how critical these panels were in bringing the reality of issues to the forefront and helping participants center their projects around solving these immediate issues. Last, SpaceX's Max Long shared insights on overcoming challenges and doing more with less. 🚀 Space Florida's Matt Chesnut, CEcD showcased financial efficiencies and opportunities. 💰 And like that, the two-day-long Space Coast hackathon began, filled with mentors like OneSixOne Ventures's Justis Mendez, Pablo Casilimas, and Christopher Kennamer, as well as Kwadwo Opong-Mensah from L3Harris and Tyler Isaacs from Wooden Whiskers Trading Company, stopping by each team checking out what each team built, and providing guidance in their hackathon pitch and effectively solving the problems. Having my Groundswell Startups mentor hat on, I focused on reverse engineering the problems to size the immediate and future market opportunities for teams. 📊 Projects included 🔒🛰️🚀: 1. SpaceDock Secure: Launch Operations Data Platform 2. Satellite Cybersecurity: ML-Powered Anti-Jamming Anomaly Detection 3. Drone Monitoring for Sea-Based Rocket Launch Sites 4. Space-Hardened AI Inference Computer on the Edge 5. Blockchain Authentication of Digital Media on Commercial Payloads 6. Autonomous Swarm Satellite Operations for On-Orbit Servicing 7. Secure API & Digital Twin for Launch Logistics. Culminating the event, the winners were: 🥇 1st - Benji M., Zanir Habib, Tyler L., and Santiago Martin with Satellite Cybersecurity: ML-Powered Anti-Jamming Anomaly Detection 🥈 2nd - Trupti Mahendrakar with Autonomous Swarm Satellite Operations for On-Orbit Servicing 🥉 3rd - Pascal Dao, Josias Moukpe, Muntaser Syed, and Chris Woodle with Secure API & Digital Twin for Launch Logistics Congrats to all! Excited to see how these innovations evolve. 🎉 Next up on the Space Coast, we have a CEO Nexus event hosted at Artemis IT on Demystifying AI featuring Loren Horsager from 3pm - 5pm on 5/22, see you there! 🤖 #SpaceCoast #Hardtech #Hackathon #SpaceTech #Innovation

Being able to expand our lab space as needed with the availability of Groundswell Startups new prototype workspaces is fantastic! We can scale our shop space up and down as needed!

Can you feel the momentum? We hit the ground running this year and aren't stopping anytime soon. 🚀 Last week, we wrapped up our GenAI event series and Hackathon in partnership with AWS. Working with our team and Sailesh Kadam on this front was an absolute pleasure. The tech and non-tech hackathons showcased innovative projects ranging from GenAI-powered Education and FaithTech Apps to Self-Healing Data pipelines. A big congratulations to the winners: Angie Buchine Rogers, Pariss Youngblood, Justin Ho, Alec Leeseberg, Benji M., and Christopher Muse. 👏 I'm excited to see where these projects lead! Yesterday, I had the privilege of presenting to the talented University of Florida Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering students at the BEGINNING of their Capstone Design course. 🐊 As many of you know, I'm passionate about educating students before Capstone Design, raising awareness, and upskilling them to be entrepreneurial in building their projects and recognizing the opportunities they have upon university exit. I emphasized the importance of testing their value proposition by working closely with end users from the very beginning. By identifying essential MVP features needed for initial adoption, these student entrepreneurs can set themselves up for success as they transition from the classroom to the real world. Moreover, I stressed the significance of building a strong startup, mentor, and investor network during the Capstone Design process, which can help accelerate their path to market and secure funding to transform their groundbreaking MVPs/Prototypes into reality. We covered much more, such as methods for staying lean to not overburden founders. I look forward to working with the students throughout the summer. A huge shoutout to Sean R. Niemi, PhD and John T. Womack III (Trey) for facilitating this, and thanks to Matthew Traum for the opportunity to present to his summer cohort. This weekend, we have the 1st Space Coast Hardtech Hackathon, coordinated by Spencer Macdonald, who is crushing it in bringing major stakeholders to the Space Coast. The event takes place on May 18th-19th at Florida Institute of Technology's Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Innovative Design. 🛠️🚀 This hackathon welcomes engineers working on aerospace, manufacturing, or defense challenges, and offers a $3,000 first-place prize and a $2,000 second-place prize. It's an amazing opportunity for participants to showcase their skills and innovative solutions. 💰🏅 If you're interested in participating in the Hardtech Hackathon, don't miss your chance! Register now at https://lu.ma/eax4lcbo 🔗 Let's keep the momentum going and continue to push the boundaries of what's possible! 💪

Last week, we wrapped up an incredible series of events with Amazon Web Services (AWS), culminating in the AWS Tech & Non-Tech Hackathon. The day was filled with idea brainstorming, expert solution guidance, and separate hackathons for tech and non-tech participants. The energy and creativity in the room were truly inspiring! A big thank you to all the participants who brought their unique perspectives and skills to the table. The winning teams showcased the power of GenAI on AWS Bedrock in solving real-world challenges: Tech: 1st Place: Velocity Explorations, with their Multi-Modal GenAI Education App. 2nd Place: Benji M. & Christopher Muse for their AI Self-Healing Data Pipeline solution. Non-Tech: 1st Place: Family Hub, for their GenAI-Powered Faith Tech App. 2nd Place: Benji Magnelli & Christopher Muse for their AI Self-Healing Data Pipeline solution. The event concluded with presentations, judging, awards, and an after-party for networking, providing an excellent opportunity to connect with like-minded innovators. We'd like to extend our gratitude to AWS and Sailesh Kadam for their support and partnership throughout this event series. Together, we've explored the potential of GenAI and its applications across various industries. This hackathon may have come to an end, but the journey of innovation continues. We can't wait to see how the ideas and solutions developed during this event will shape the future of GenAI and beyond. Stay tuned for more exciting events and opportunities to collaborate! Once again, congratulations to all the participants and winners! Keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology. #GenAI #AWSHackathon #Innovation #Collaboration #GroundswellStartups

We made some amazing new friends at #GEOINT 24, but perhaps the real treasure was the satellite we won along the way! 🛰 🇺🇸 Looking forward to engaging more with the Capella Space team! Shout out to: Charles Ince, Kyle Brazil, Sarah Preston, & Bart Small. And thank you Jim Klucar for stopping by the new BoxMica office!