Downtown makers space takes big step forward with first institutional member

Groover Labs, the downtown makers space, is taking a big step forward with what co-founder Tracy Hoover called the organization’s first institutional member.

The Defense Innovation OnRamp Hub: Kansas is moving part of its operations from Wichita State University to Groover Labs at Third and St. Francis just north of Wave.

OnRamp Hub: Kansas, as it’s known, is a nonprofit initiative started by the Department of Defense to share what it calls “dual-use technology,” meaning the public can use technology that started in the military or share advancements with the military.

“We’re very excited to have them as a part of our community,” Hoover said. “It’s hopefully going to mean great things.”

Rob Carpenter, the managing director for OnRamp Hub: Kansas, said he sees fantastic opportunities at Groover Labs.

“Really the goal . . . is to connect with the innovative community and the startups and find ways to connect them with Department of Defense mission partners,” he said. “We saw it as as great way to engage directly by relocating down there.”

As an example, perhaps someone is developing an automated robotic system for inspecting agricultural plants, but the same technology possibly could be tweaked and applied to look for mines, or vice versa.

“Part of what we’re looking to do is help companies improve their prototypes,” Carpenter said. “We can help them . . . improve it to a higher technical readiness level.”

‘A better outcome’

When companies work with the Department of Defense, Carpenter said, the contracting cycles are long, and the number of items the government purchases may be relatively small.

He said the department wants the companies it works with to be “broadly successful on their own” with a robust ecosystem of industry that can survive on its own.

“That’s a better outcome for our nation’s defense.”

This program isn’t strictly with makers, Carpenter said.

“The program is in place to support the local community and across the entire state of Kansas.”

OnRamp Hub: Kansas is taking the former Shift Space gallery space near the front of Groover Labs. The gallery lost its funding and had to end its lease.

Hoover prefers to use the term member rather than talking about individuals and companies simply leasing space.

There have been a number of smaller companies that have been members since Groover Labs started in 2020, and there are so many individuals and businesses using space that Hoover said she’s expanding with more offices and individual desks that will be ready by early spring.

Hoover said OnRamp Hub: Kansas purposefully will be on the main floor with other makers when it fully moves in early next year.

“They’ll be a more active part of the community,” she said.

“This really feels like an expansion of what our mission is.”

‘A good next step’

When Hoover refers to “our mission,” she’s including her late husband, Curt Gridley, who died in March after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.

The two started transforming the former Printing Inc. space into Groover Labs in late 2018, taking inspiration from when they lived in the Boston area where they were immersed in a culture of emerging technologies and start-ups.

“This kind of stuff was in the air,” Gridley, a software and hardware engineer, said at the time.

He said you could be checking out at the grocery store, and three of the five people in line might be starting a new technology company. It was sort of an instant opportunity for connection, and he and Hoover, a software engineer, wanted to create that here.

Creating was “the thing that Curt really loved,” Hoover said.

In addition to being a co-working and event space, a third of the Groover Labs building is maker laboratories with product development.

“To have a member want to come and be part of that, it validates . . . part of Curt’s vision,” Hoover said of OnRamp Hub: Kansas.

“He liked solving engineering products,” Hoover said.

“I called him my Mr. Better, Faster, Cheaper,” she said. “He always looked at the world in a different way than most other people.”

Groover Labs isn’t quite as far along as Hoover and Gridley planned.

“It all was looking very rosy, and then suddenly COVID hit,” Hoover said.

Now, though, she said, “I feel like we’re back on a trajectory that we had planned on or hoped for. . . . I’m very enthusiastic about the trajectory.”

She said her team has rallied and supported her.

“I could not have even done one tenth of this without them.”

Advancing Groover Labs with a member such as OnRamp Hub: Kansas “is one of the many ways I’m trying to honor (Curt’s) memory and his existence on this earth.”

“I hope wherever he is, he’s thinking this is a good next step for Groover Labs.”