Tire Swing Start. Connect. Grow

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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)

6. TireSwing: Boise’s Co-working space • TireSwingwill 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

7. 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”.

8. 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

9. 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