While New York City tech has been largely sequestered downtown, with startup offices sprinkled around the Flatiron district and throughout the quaint streets of Soho, there’s a tech hub growing in Midtown. And it’s all in the same building.
The force driving this budding point of density is
(GCT), an organization that’s turning the incubator concept on its head.
Housed in Facebook’s former 15,000-foot headquarters overlooking Grand Central terminal, GCT accepts companies into its accelerator program on a yearly basis. In contrast to traditional accelerators, GCT then provides its cohorts of startups with free office space for a year, with a zero equity fee to participate.
The program was founded by Charles Bonello and Matt Harrigan, who met as children and attended Regis High School on the Upper East Side together. Regis is a unique institution in that the tuition is free for each student, and the pair founded GCT in their desire to give back to their alma mater.
Originally, Bonello and Harrigan wanted to provide a way for Regis students to gain access to opportunities in tech. With this mission, they used the high school as an experimental space where tech companies could incubate for free in exchange for employing interns from the high school.
This initial program was a success and soon after, with a backing from the dynastic Milstein family, Grand Central Tech was opened in 2014.
In exchange for free rent and zero equity, GCT startups commit to rent adjacent office real estate once the program ends. With this stipulation, Grand Central Tech is building upon its vision for a new tech community to take root in the heart of Manhattan.
“Midtown has never really been the cool place for people to come but there's a reason why everything is around here,” said Grand Central Tech cofounder Charles Bonello. “Part of our mission is to leverage all of New York's key competitive advantages in the favor of both our companies and the ecosystem writ large.”
Additionally, GCT has partnered with a number of educational partners, including Regis High School and tech companies such as Girls Who Code, in order to foster the next generation of tech talent. With these partnerships in place, recent graduates are able to intern with GCT companies and leverage the program’s alumni as mentors.
In February, the program announced it had received a $2.5 million grant from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) to build a premier community of tech companies specifically focused on the challenges of urban living. With this award, GCT will continue to function as an accelerator, develop out an additional 40,000 square foot coworking facility called “Build” and operate a new floor of flexible office space.
The coworking space will be available for GCT companies to work in once they graduate, allowing the incubator’s community to continue to grow and work together beyond their initial year with the program. The new office space, dubbed the “Hub@GCT,” will occupy 50,000 square feet on the floor above GCT at 335 Madison Avenue. The custom built, flexible offices will offer highly discounted rates to growth-stage companies focused on urban tech.
To date, GCT has incubated two cohorts of startups, and is now accepting applications for its third class of companies. According to Bonello, GCT is “proudly sector and stage agnostic,” accepting a broad range of companies into its community. The program’s current members run the gamut between
, a data analysis platform for the Internet of Things, to
“Grand Central Tech has been a great place to build Common,” said Common founder Brad Hargreaves. “It's useful and inspiring to be surrounded by talented entrepreneurs all building venture-scale businesses. Charlie and Matt have been extraordinarily accommodating as Common has grown and required more space, and they've continued to cultivate a friendly and collaborative environment among the teams here. On top of all that, you can't beat the price!”
In its next group of startups, GCT is specifically looking for companies with founders that are uniquely capable of handling the challenge before them. They will also favor companies that have an idea that touches across a large scope in its industry, traction relative to the stage of the company and a strong in-house engineering team.
“A company’s first day at Grand Central Tech is the last day they ever have to worry about space, community or infrastructure because we’re uniquely equipped to handle that throughout its lifecycle,” said Bonello. “This applies to when the company has two people to when it has 200 people.”
