Some of Boston's big companies are teaming up to house startups in their headquarters to provide mentoring and guidance.
"The idea is to create an industry-specific location that works well with (startups)," said Bill Jacobson, co-founder and CEO of Workbar. "By working with leading industry companies, startups in a specific sector can have space and access to mentorships."
Workbar, which offers shared office space in Cambridge and Boston, along with several other locations, is working with Boston area companies to match early-stage startups with big companies that can help guide them along the way. Called Centers of Excellence, the large companies house and support the startups within their offices.
"It's about developing those relationships," said Ernesto Humpierres, a co-founder of Socrex, a startup that aggregates non-traditional credit information for people with little credit history. Socrex, along with three other financial technology startups, is working out of Digital Federal Credit Union's Boston office.
At DCU, the startups have access to the bank's leadership team for everything from marketing advice to technology help. Even DCU's CEO is getting involved.
"The goal for us is just to learn what's the next best technology that's going to be coming," said David Araujo, vice president of information systems for DCU. "There's so many things we can think of for our users, but at the end of the day there's a lot of young, innovative companies that we can learn from."
Araujo said the immediate goal is not to invest or partner with the companies, but its something DCU is not ruling out.
"We're really there to help them along, but if we can benefit at some point in time, fantastic," Araujo said. He said the best-case scenario is for the companies to develop tools and services that DCU will one day use.
Jacobson is in discussions with a Boston marketing company to create a marketing technology Center of Excellence, and said he is also looking to create design and education technology versions.
"The idea is for younger companies, startup companies to have a little bit more centered knowledge and connections in their industry," Jacobson said.
The marketing center is close to being finalized, Jacobson said, but the others are in their early stages.
Shared office space for startups is on the rise in Boston. National companies WeWork and Coalition have expanded into Boston, and the Cambridge Innovation Center is in the process of opening space for 300 startups in the Financial District.
"There's a ton of co-working spaces in Boston, but there wasn't anyone who had a differentiator for us," Humpierres said. "This gave me access to the experts at DCU and the contacts in the industry."
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