Greenville’s Iron Yard Expands Into Digital Health & Education

Iron Yard, Global Accelerator Network, GAN, South Carolina startup, acceleratorThe Iron Yard is a startup accelerator, co-working space, incubator and educational hub in Greenville South Carolina. They’re also a member of the Global Accelerator Network.

We covered their first session at the Iron Yard accelerator extensively as they neared completion of the first cohort this summer. Companies like Trucky Love (now Locally.fm), MoonClerk, Spent, and RidePost were all featured on nibletz.com the voice of startups everywhere else, back in August.

As the Iron Yard prepares for their next cohort they’re also expanding into the world of digital health and education.

While Memphis TN is home to ZeroTo510, the first cohort based medical device accelerator, Iron Yard is taking a new approach and targeting those in the digital health space.

” Companies building everything from wellness apps to enterprise software can apply, and those accepted will settle into Spartanburg for an intensive program that will shape their idea into a company ready to launch.” Iron Yard’s Kate McCarthy told nibletz in an interview.

McCarthy continued:

“Spartanburg teams will benefit from relationships with top pharma distributors, access to major area hospital systems, connections to global medical research firms, and a world-class line-up of mentors. The accelerator and coworking space will be located in downtown Spartanburg one block from RJ Rockers Brewery. While we don’t list proximity to craft beer as an official “perk” of the program, it certainly can’t hurt.   We will begin accepting applications for the digital health program this spring, but applications to the Greenville accelerator (consumer web and mobile) are open through February 8th”

On the education front, Iron Yard is looking to develop more coders and developers in the region. They are offering free programming classes to over 70 kids and they’re going to launch an intensive three month coding course for adults in the Spring.

“At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and even robots- all for free. There are currently three after school classes offered per week and a long waiting list to join the program. Students represent a diverse population: roughly half the students are girls and one class is offered in a low income neighborhood so that students without transportation have access to the courses. Teachers Mason Stewart, Wes Whitesell, Anne Mahaffey, and a handful of volunteers all offer their time and talent to keep classes free.”

“One course focuses on teaching Scratch, HTML and CSS. The other exposes kids to electronics basics, from the circuit board, up. The really cool part: those who have completed the Scratch course can build game controllers for their own video games in the electronics course. That’s made possible by the support of Arduino, who donated Arduino Esploras for the kids to learn on.” McCarthy reported.

You can find out more about Iron Yard and these programs at theironyard.com

Join Global Accelerator Managing Director Pat Riley and Global Accelerator program member accelerators from across the country next month at everywhereelse.co The Startup Conference, ticket sales and Startup Village booth sales closing soon.