A 90% hire rate, accessible pathways, and a team rewriting the future of tech talent

Launching from after-school clubs, the Codecraft Collective has been a powerful force in changing the tech talent pipeline in Brevard County. In just the last 18 months, 29 people graduated from Codecraft Institute’s Software Development and Engineering Pathway, a 16-week program that is truly launching careers.

The same lure system that gets dogs zooming in backyards is now helping one of the world’s fastest animals stay active and engaged. Serious fun, taken to the next level.

Few things are more traumatic than the sudden, unexpected death of an apparently healthy young person. The National Institute of Health indicates more than 350,000 individuals in the United States experience Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) each year. Evan Ernst said losing his 15-year-old childhood friend and teammate, Rafe Maccarone, to SCA during a high school soccer practice in Cocoa Beach transformed him personally and inspired him to do anything he could to prevent it from happening to another young person.

William Cox lives on the Indian River Lagoon, the largest estuary in the United States where water quality concerns often top the list of political priorities. Before moving to Brevard County, he helped multi-billion dollar petroleum companies engineer processes to dissolve toxic, hazardous buildup in the safest and most cost-effective way. Cox recently worked with seasoned technologists to develop KationX, a nontoxic powder used by wastewater treatment facilities to instantly dissolve muck and improve water reuse best practices.  

Groundswell Startups, the largest tech incubator in the southeast, is sending a strong signal to city leaders everywhere that increasing access to world-class resources and seasoned mentors builds better communities. Groundswell hosted a ribbon cutting for a first-of-its-kind prototype laboratory on May 18. The lab is made possible by a $500,000 grant from Brevard County Commissioners supporting the not-for-profit incubator. All prototyping equipment will be accessible to area residents and companies in Brevard County. 

Melbourne, Fla. (June 1, 2023) - Groundswell Startups, the premier high-tech incubator on Florida’s Space Coast, announced its expansion on May 18, 2023 at the Grand Opening of its Prototype Lab. Groundswell will partner with Catania Product Development, a product-design and engineering firm out of Melbourne, Florida, to operate the lab which sits adjacent to Groundswell’s current location on Irwin Street in Melbourne.

The largest high tech startup incubator in the southeast just expanded – again. Productivity hums within the deep purple, blue, red and black graffiti-tagged walls of Groundswell Startup’s brand new prototype lab as the last of the new additive manufacturing machines are wheeled in and unboxed on Irwin Street. What was once an indoor skatepark, in an underserved district of Downtown Melbourne, Florida, is now home to more and more startup founders making headlines in Tech Crunch and Forbes and closing deals with seasoned and accredited investors across states like Florida, Georgia, California, Texas and Maryland.