ThinkHouse NC is a major stepping stone for many young entrepreneurs, evidenced by the seven men and five startups who graduated from ThinkHouse’s inaugural class in June.

It is part-startup accelerator—they’re matched with mentors and attend weekly workshops—part-living community. The entrepreneurs accepted into the program live and work together in a house in Raleigh’s Boylan Heights over an intense nine-month period of business learning and building. It’s a model founders Christopher Gergen and Jason Widen hope to take to cities around the world in coming years.

One of the biggest opportunities it affords, said men from the first group, was the camaraderie and peer-to-peer interactions as they built businesses.

That’s likely why Gergen and Widen had no problem recruiting for year two. Today, they announce a second set of fellows to begin their journey on August 1. It also accomplishes a key goal set as the first group came to a close: to incorporate a mix of different skill sets and support more women in entrepreneurship.

The full story can be read at ExitEvent’s website.

(Note: ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.)

(C) ExitEvent