At the heart of Dayton’s comeback are talented people taking risks and shaping our city. You can find their stories in locally-run coffee shops, coworking spaces, entrepreneurial hubs, artist spaces, brewery tasting rooms, and the kitchens of local restaurants. A groundswell of entrepreneurial and creative activity is changing Dayton.
Earlier this year, almost 100 people came together to begin an initiative to help more enterprising Daytonians start downtown. This initiative promotes the people and their stories who are changing Dayton and why they are launching their endeavors here. One of several “Start Downtown” volunteer-led programs, the “I Started Downtown” video series interviews a diverse group of business owners who invested in downtown Dayton.
This is the first in the series, featuring the “I Started Downtown” story of Juanita-Michelle Darden-Jones, the proprietress of Third Perk Coffeehouse and Wine Bar at 42 W. Fifth St. in downtown Dayton.
The Downtown Dayton Partnership are also launching several new projects as our contribution to the cause:
Pop-up Coworking:
Beginning in November, we are teaming with several partners to host monthly pop-up coworking events at interesting and fun locations around downtown. Our first one is at Dayton Beer Company on November 3rd – click here for more info.
Dayton Kiva Team:
We are organizing a Dayton-based Kiva network to connect local funders to local small businesses that need support. Kiva is like crowd-funding, but instead it’s crowd-lending – after your loan is repaid, you can use the same dollars to support another small business. Sign up for Kiva and join the Dayton network by clicking here.
Innovation / Improvement Challenge:
Volunteers are launching a new challenge for startups and established businesses around solving problems and creating significant returns on investment at the established company. The first cohort will launch in early 2017 – more to come.
Dayton Collaboration Network:
Interested in providing discounted business services to startups to help them grow? We are organizing the Dayton Collaboration Network to better support startups in downtown Dayton. To join or learn more about the network, contact Scott Murphy at murphy@downtowndayton.org or (937) 224-1518 ext 223.
To learn more about the Start Downtown programs and how to get involved, visit http://bit.ly/StartDowntown
