Columbus Entrepreneurs Call Rev1 Labs Home
Rev1 Labs is an innovation center and an important part of Rev1’s investor startup studio. Once a mattress factory, more than fifty startups, spinouts, corporates, students, and researchers now reside here. Investors walk the halls.
Five resident companies—a nationally branded coding bootcamp, two Growth Stage companies, and two Early Stage firms—share the benefits of building their companies from Rev1 Labs.
Why did Invirsa choose to start at Rev1 Labs?
Invirsa, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company developing formulations for ocular conditions associated with DNA damage, has been a resident of Rev1 Labs since the company was formed. Invirsa recently announced the closing of a $7.7 million Series B financing round, with Rev1 participation.
Invirsa and Rev1 have been working together from the week the company moved into Rev1 Labs through multiple milestones and financing rounds.
Isaiah Shalwitz, Co-Founder and Sr VP of Operations, Invirsa
We’ve been at Rev1 Labs since we started the company. Rev1 Labs is an excellent first space. It captures the essentials. It’s the simplicity and cost-effectiveness that makes it so good for a startup. We are not looking for frills, which no startup should be. This location has all the minimum requirements that a startup should ever want.
Instead of imagining the ideal space, here are the things a startup needs: Reliable and fast Internet. Parking. Separate meeting rooms. Clean office space with a couple of desks, chairs, and a few other items. You don’t need leather couches, big tables, fancy lights, or awesome views. Those things don’t matter when you are starting out. Rev1 Labs is affordable space with basic requirements that make it easy to work and a location that makes it easy for people to visit you. In Columbus, this is the space you want to choose.
We also enjoy and develop connections at the networking events, happy hours, the founders’ stories, meet-ups and whatever else is on the building schedule. It’s good to see and to get to know a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space. We engage, re-engage, and share ideas and stories.
Why did Tech Elevator choose to Create Coders at Rev1 Labs?
Tech Elevator is an important contributor to the entrepreneurial ecosystem of our region—training people to be software developers and then providing career readiness skills that help them get jobs in technology roles.
Kevin Gadd, Campus Director, Columbus, Tech Elevator
This building is the heart of tech startups in this region. Tech Elevator started with that one classroom and the idea that companies, including startups, were struggling to find talent. It made perfect sense to be right here. Technology companies, who need staff, come here for events. It’s a great location, easy to get to, and we have room for our own big events—class orientations, graduations, and other events. There’s a bus line here and we are right on Ohio State’s west campus. We now have three full classrooms here.
Our students are in class here from nine to one learning technical skills for 14 weeks. They code every single day (Java in two classrooms and .net language in the third). That’s 700-800 hours during each bootcamp. Students then come back into this main large room, which is like a student union, with flat spaces, monitors, coffee and snacks, to do their homework, work together, or participate in afternoon sessions.
Rev1 does a good job of hosting all-building mixers and other events several times during the year. Rev1 invites our students. Part of Tech Elevator’s curriculum is helping our students develop soft skills; they are not used to going to tech events. We drill them on their 30-second elevator pitch, then our staff goes with them to the networking events here in the building and in the community. These opportunities help our students get outside their comfort zone, to meet the people they need to know to launch new careers in technology.
When our students graduate, they are not what they were when they came in. They are software developers. That’s why for us it makes so much sense to be located in Rev1 Labs. They are the flag bearer for this community.
Why did ResCon Technologies choose to Research and Develop at Rev1 Labs?
ResCon Technologies, a spinout of The Ohio State University (OSU), employs machine learning to create digital twins of complex dynamical systems for low-power and edge computing environments—projects (such a drone applications) that need extensive computation with limits on size, weight, and power.
Kevin Reiss, Machine Learning Algorithm Developer, ResCon Technologies
Before being at Rev1, we didn’t have office space. As we began adding people—I’ve been here about a year—we needed a place to work and collaborate. One of the first things we did when we moved in was ask for that huge white board. It’s been great. ResCon is developing a technology based on the combination of scientific innovations of Dr. Dan Gauthier, Professor of Physics at OSU (licensed from OSU) and from the expertise of Brian Gyovai, a retired Air Force pilot and Weapons Officer.
Both Dan and I come from a physics background—we communicate best by writing out equations and drawing on the white board. The framework for our technology is well-established. The minutia for any given problem needs to be explored with a physics-minded intuition. We are developing new types of algorithms and researching the environments we are modeling. The Rev1 Labs space is the perfect place where we can collaborate.
It’s also very nice that Rev1 has networking events. It’s been nice to meet different people in the building and from the community—it’s good to get out of our “room.” Living at Rev1 Labs, we have access to a wide and diverse set of entrepreneurs. I’m always fascinated by the number of people I meet who are working on similar things to me and also by the people who are in a completely different business thinking about different problems. There are several bio-med companies here. It’s great to talk to them about what they are doing in eye treatments and to fight cancer. There’s also the common ground, the shared struggles of starting a company. You might not struggle together, but you have struggled separately and understand each other’s perspectives.
Why did SenseICs choose to Live at Rev1 Labs?
SenseICs is designing and building next-generation integrated circuitry and micro-electric solutions for sensors and systems for defense and commercial markets.
Like many entrepreneurs, the SenseICs team worked out of their homes for the first couple of years. Then, in 2019, the company took space at Rev1 Labs.
Shane Smith, President and Co-Founder, SenseICs
We began our business in 2017, and when we added our first employee in 2019, we connected with Rev1. The Kinnear location is right across the street from OSU, and we knew it would be convenient if we could have a place here. It’s easy for us and for the students who are working with us on research projects to get to OSU and back. Then once we got connected, we started having conversations about how Rev1 could help support us in validating our technology.
I feel fortunate that we made this choice; the Rev1 network is really strong. We have a team of advisors that we speak to on a monthly basis, and they have been incredibly helpful. We made those connections because we are residents at Rev1 Labs.
Rev1 often have happy hours and other events where we can meet other folks at Rev1 or sometimes local businesses. The networking opportunities are really good for us. We are in a growth phase now. We started out with customers from the Air Force and Army. Now we have DEO, NASA, and the Navy.
Why does 3Bar Biologics Remain at Rev1 Labs?
Bruce Caldwell, CEO & Founder, 3Bar Biologics
Being in this space has been incredibly helpful. We are currently expanding our manufacturing to a new 15,000 square-foot facility specifically designed for our needs. But we are keeping our offices at Rev1 Labs. (We would have loved to have our manufacturing on this same campus, but that just wasn’t possible.)
Rev1 Labs is very flexible. As we grew and needed to expand our offices, we were able to lease the space we needed. In the commercial real estate market, five-year leases are common. To have the flexibility to add space incrementally as we grew has been extremely important.
Another great thing about being here is the increasing number of life science companies, including some food and agriculture. Through this location and Rev1, we are connected to other startups in the life science community and similar industry groups. Also, we are really close to the OSU campus. We are on the same bus stop. It’s easy to gain access to the talent and intellectual capital at the university.
Rev1 creates networking events that tie the startups here with each other and the community. We learn from each other through their lunches and happy hours. If everyone left the building at the end of the day, we would lose the benefits of walking around and meeting each other.
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It’s no wonder that the entrepreneurial community views Rev1 Labs is the best place for Columbus entrepreneurs to start their companies and grow their businesses. Rev1 Labs residents enjoy the community environment, while outpacing other startups in capital, revenue, and talent.
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