By Logan Moore – Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal Mar 23, 2021, 2:21pm EDT
Laura Guillaume has owned several businesses in her lifetime, from software organizations to restaurants, but these days she enjoys helping other Jacksonville-based businesses find their potential and grow.
Guillaume, the founder of Think it Thru — a local incubator — told the Business Journal that her program aims to help businesses during the growth phase.
“I realized that the real struggles started to happen after the launch and during the growth phase,” she said. “I realized what I needed to do is create an accelerator.”
So on March 1, Guillaume launched her accelerator.
Founded in 2017, Think it Thru, the 6,000-square-foot warehouse near Saint Johns Industrial Parkway, is providing startups that might have a lot of product to distribute the space they need.
“Most of our entrepreneurs are companies with products, so they’re doing distribution,” she said. “Some folks start out at their homes or in their garage, and at some point they outgrow their home.”
One of the companies she said is an art subscription business that ships supplies to its customers. She said it’s companions like this where there’s a need for space.
Since 2017, she said Think it Thru has incubated about 30 startups, not including the four in the accelerator program. She also said there’s no end date to the program and that the hope is businesses will “outgrow” the Think it Thru space.
As well as warehouse space, Think it Thru also provides technology and software solutions for the startups, including software to organize e-commerce for their financials and inventory.
Guillaume said Think it Thru is different than most accelerators in that it has a working knowledge of distribution and Enterprise Resource Planning solutions that enable businesses to better manage their operations. For example, eCommerce, purchasing, forecasting, financials, inventory management and shipping.
“It is a month-to-month rent system, so they don’t have to walk in and sign a long-term lease,” Guillaume said. “This is a big challenge for these people as they’re starting to grow and might not know how much space they need.”
She said the rate is lower than what the businesses would be paying otherwise.
The company partners with Odoo for the software services, a Belgium-based company that hosts suites of business management software tools.
“I’m looking for businesses that (want to) grow their business in a collaborative environment where they can share their experiences,” she said.
Guillaume and her husband self funded their company, and while Guillaume declined to disclose figures, she said they’ve spent “quite a bit” on the operation.
Guillaume said Think it Thru takes no equity from the companies that it helps to grow and is not looking for any ownership in the companies separately.
“I mean we’re all one big ecosystem (in Jacksonville), and our goals are all aligned,” she said. “It’s not a competitive landscape; it’s more of a collaborative landscape.”
