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Northwest Missouri State University had announced the acquisition of a fifth tenant for its Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a combination business incubator and academic facility that opened this fall on the school's Maryville campus.
On Friday, the university's board of regents gave formal approval to an agreement between Northwest and Hero Teams LLC. The start-up information technology firm specializes in providing support services related to Internet servers, Web hosting and the cloud computing industry, a general term for activities that involve delivering hosted services, such as e-mail, Web sites and data storage, via the Internet.
Robin Greenhagen, chief executive officer and founder of Hero Teams, said his company plans on hiring about 15 full-time employees over the next several weeks. Charles McAdams, Northwest's dean of arts and sciences, said ten of those hires could come as early as next month. Wages, McAdams said, will exceed the Nodaway County average of $13.90 per hour.
McAdams said Greenhagen contacted the university about possibly moving into the CIE after conducting an Internet search for a rural location within 100 miles of Kansas City.
Before starting Hero Teams, Greenhagen founded GreenSoft Solutions Inc., which provides high-security Web hosting services for credit card processing companies and other firms that rely on high-volume financial transactions. According to a university release, Kansas City-based GreenSoft currently serves about 150 corporate clients and has a staff of approximately 80 full-time employees.
“Participating in the CIE really enables Hero Teams to stay focused on the most critical aspect of our business — the people,” Greenhagen said. “We are able to benefit from ‘ready-to-run’ facilities, including critical training and office facilities, that would have otherwise driven us to significantly drain our startup capital resources."
Greenhagen said leasing CIE space will allow Hero Teams to "immediately realize a return on investment," which will free up cash for training programs and personnel development he hopes will ensure a "successful launch over the next six to 12 months."
In addition to the advantages offered by the university's technology-friendly incubator, Greenhagen said he has been impressed with the level of cooperation extended by local government and economic development officials.
“Those resources, coupled with the unique resources available to us at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northwest, made selecting Maryville and Nodaway County an easy decision for us," he said.
Northwest Missouri State University had announced the acquisition of a fifth tenant for its Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a combination business incubator and academic facility that opened this fall on the school's Maryville campus.
On Friday, the university's board of regents gave formal approval to an agreement between Northwest and Hero Teams LLC. The start-up information technology firm specializes in providing support services related to Internet servers, Web hosting and the cloud computing industry, a general term for activities that involve delivering hosted services, such as e-mail, Web sites and data storage, via the Internet.
Robin Greenhagen, chief executive officer and founder of Hero Teams, said his company plans on hiring about 15 full-time employees over the next several weeks. Charles McAdams, Northwest's dean of arts and sciences, said ten of those hires could come as early as next month. Wages, McAdams said, will exceed the Nodaway County average of $13.90 per hour.
McAdams said Greenhagen contacted the university about possibly moving into the CIE after conducting an Internet search for a rural location within 100 miles of Kansas City.
Before starting Hero Teams, Greenhagen founded GreenSoft Solutions Inc., which provides high-security Web hosting services for credit card processing companies and other firms that rely on high-volume financial transactions. According to a university release, Kansas City-based GreenSoft currently serves about 150 corporate clients and has a staff of approximately 80 full-time employees.
“Participating in the CIE really enables Hero Teams to stay focused on the most critical aspect of our business — the people,” Greenhagen said. “We are able to benefit from ‘ready-to-run’ facilities, including critical training and office facilities, that would have otherwise driven us to significantly drain our startup capital resources."
Greenhagen said leasing CIE space will allow Hero Teams to "immediately realize a return on investment," which will free up cash for training programs and personnel development he hopes will ensure a "successful launch over the next six to 12 months."
In addition to the advantages offered by the university's technology-friendly incubator, Greenhagen said he has been impressed with the level of cooperation extended by local government and economic development officials.
“Those resources, coupled with the unique resources available to us at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northwest, made selecting Maryville and Nodaway County an easy decision for us," he said.
McAdams said Hero Teams met all of the requirements set forth for CIE tenants, including the creation of opportunities for student and faculty research and student internships.
"We are excited about the plans of this new company to hire so many highly skilled employees over the next year,” McAdams said. “Hero Teams also will utilize student interns from Northwest who are majoring in computer science and business-related fields."
Hero Teams joins current CIE tenants Carbolytic Materials Company, Practical Sustainability and Riley and Rabel Consulting, along with "virtual tenant" Alyoop.
CMC, which extracts industrial material and fuel from shredded automotive tires, conducts research and development at the center. Practical Sustainability is a chemical and biological consulting firm. Riley and Rabel performs consulting for clients in the pharmaceutical and biomedical sector. Alyoop is a Web-based distributor of manufacturers' coupons.
