Business accelerator to open Monday

Springboard Baton Rouge, a startup accelerator based at the Kress building at Third and Main streets, will open Monday, CEO James Digby says. It will feature both offices and a large co-working space, with different costs for different levels of access. Digby intends to create an “entrepreneur-in-residence” plan, where people he knows from other cities will come in temporarily to work on their companies, “to start enabling entrepreneurs from the local region to see what they’re doing, and kind of catch a spark that enables them to go, ‘OK, I can do that as well,'” he says. “The idea isn’t to run a co-working space. The idea is to have a creative melting pot for our accelerator.” Digby wants the space to appeal to all sorts of local entrepreneurs, from someone who wants to develop software to someone with a lawn care business. He also wants to host educational events where children can learn computer program coding. Digby says he plans to open the space up for free for the first month. “Just get people to start leaving the different coffee shops or the library, and just come work with us,” he says. Digby says people interested in learning more can contact Springboard Baton Rouge through Facebook. —David Jacobs