Dogpatch Labs has interest from 250 to 275 companies for about eight to 10 desks, liaison Matt Meeker told Betabeat, after a steady increase gave way to a rush. “It’s been building over the past couple months, but the past couple weeks have really accelerated a lot (sorry for the pun),” he said. “I wish I had twice as many desks.”
As a result he’s scheming about getting more desks into the sunny Union Square area coworking/accelerator hybrid, which is sponsored by Polaris Ventures and provides some exposure to mentors, but lets companies move in for six months or so without paying rent or giving up equity. “About to do some spring cleaning of the space, invest some into the space, and hopefully add more desks with a new layout,” he told Betabeat. “Right now we have 41 people in 16 companies, have some moving out soon (their six months are up and their fundraising has been successful), so meeting lots of companies to move in during June… probably will have eight o 10 desks for four or five companies, but interest from 250-275 companies for those seats.”
With all the new accelerator programs popping up in New York (DreamIt, Entrepreneurs Roundtable, TechStars Summer Redux), Betabeat was surprised to hear that any one space had seen an increase in interest, even though it’s a pretty sweet deal.
“Some is the trajectory of the NYC startup scene, which as you know is on fire,” Mr. Meeker said. “Some is having me 100 percent focused on it, which is different than 2010, where no one was working solly on Dogpatch in NYC. And a big part is our community and residents–having the big events here, our residents talking about it a lot, lots of people visiting the current residents, and even investors referring some of their portfolio companies to us.”
