16 Jan Beaufort Digital Corridor launches with first tech startup, Vireo Labs
Beaufort Digital Corridor launches with first tech startup, Vireo Labs
Even as Beaufort city leaders cut the ceremonial ribbon at the Beaufort Digital Corridor offices Thursday night, people at the grand opening learned the first tech startup was moving into the new work space.
The Beaufort Digital Corridor introduced Vireo Labs as the first tech startup to move into BASEcamp — the tech business incubator and co-working office space at 500 Carteret Street in historic downtown Beaufort.
Vireo Labs is a career-focused education technology startup founded in 2015. The founding team is leveraging its higher education, ecommerce and mobile experience from SCAD, eBay, Amazon and LinkedIn into the development of its first mobile product, C’reer, to address the $7 billion recruitment marketing segment in the U.S.
C’reer – available on both the iOS and Android platforms – will be launched this month by Vireo Labs.
“It’s taken a lot of work to get to this point, but once we committed to making it happen, it’s happened very quickly,” said Stephen Murray, a Beaufort City Councilman who spearheaded the Digital Corridor project. “Now the real work begins.”
The Beaufort Digital Corridor follows the lead of the Charleston Digital Corridor, which in 15 years has seen its tech economy grow from 18 companies in 2001 to 350+ companies in 2015. With an average wage of $88,066, pay at tech companies is almost twice the regional and state wages.
“Locating to Beaufort’s BASEcamp is really the fulfillment of what C’reer tries to accomplish for all who use it,” said Vireo Labs co-founder and CMO, Ian Leslie.
“C’reer is about connecting people with the career of their dreams and the school that will get them there, while BASEcamp and the Digital Corridor are working hard to bring new opportunities to the Beaufort region while expanding the knowledge economy.”
By locating to Beaufort, Vireo Labs will also gain access to the network of entrepreneurs and professionals in Charleston, SC. Vireo Labs joins the University of South Carolina Beaufort, which has also established an office for a faculty member in the Computational Science program.
“Our goal is to stimulate collaboration between our students and the tech entrepreneurs located at BASEcamp,” said Computational Science assistant professor, Brian Canada.
The Beaufort Digital Corridor program manager is Karen Warner. She can be reached at info@beaufortdigital.com, 843-470-3506 or via the website at www.beaufortdigital.com.