WE WERE COOKING.

THE LAB

MY ROLE: INNOVATION DIRECTOR · COMMUNITY BUILDER

The building used to be a bank.

It sat next to Chris' Hot Dogs, just down from the Alabama State Capitol.

By the time we opened it in 2021, it had become something else entirely.

A place where people kept running into each other.

The idea didn't start with a building.

It started with work that was already happening.

TechMGM.

Entrepreneurs.

Community programs.

Universities.

The Chamber.

People trying to figure out how to build more of an innovation and technology ecosystem in Montgomery.

Then the right people started finding each other.

Marcus Shaw brought experience from Chattanooga and a broader view of how places were building technology ecosystems.

Charisse Stokes was leading TechMGM and understood the Chamber, the community, and what it would take to make something operational.

I understood the relationships between institutions and the people actually doing things on the ground.

We started putting the pieces together.

[FROM THE ARCHIVE:

CITY OFFICIALS ANNOUNCE MONTGOMERY TECHLAB

Then it became real work.

Funding.

Program design.

Recruitment.

Scheduling.

Branding.

Finding tenants.

Acquiring the building.

Renovating it.

Figuring out what the place should actually become.

The partnership came together around the City of Montgomery, Montgomery County, Alabama Power, and the Montgomery Area Chamber.

Everyone brought something different.