CHARTLOTTE—Most people trace the current resurgence of interest in Charlotte’s startup community to Dan Roselli and his wife Sara Garces opening Packard Place as a co-working facility Uptown in 2011.

Roselli left Bank of America to co-found the very successful REDF Marketing with Garces, at age 29, and also founded CustomerStream and TargetPoint Consulting. The question of where to house their startups was one reason they bought the Packard Place building for more than $3 million and renovated the building, originally built as a parking garage in 1928 and converted to an office building in 1953.

Another reason, though, was that they saw something more was possible. Today, Packard Place, now managed by HQ Charlotte and home to 100 companies and two startup accelerators, is part of the three-pronged HQ Community that includes HQ Raleigh and HQ Greensboro. It is the fifth largest center for entrepreneurs nationally

“It was an all chips on the table bet,” Roselli tells WRAL Techwire. He wanted to “Change the face of what Charlotte looked like. We wanted it to be a different and better community.”

And while he admits, “There are easier ways to make money,” from a mission standpoint “It was a homerun outcome.”

First outside of Silicon Valley

Packard Place was the first major co-working facility outside of Silicon Valley, he says. “There was no good reason for it to exist in Charlotte except that we went and did it,” he says.

Co-working facilities offer startups relatively inexpensive office space with high speed Internet, community spaces, meeting rooms, programming and space to grow. Small offices can be rented for as little as $149 a month. High speed Internet alone can cost businesses $100 on top of rent in commercial office buildings that offer none of the support services and common spaces available at co-working spots.

While Charlotte has seen an increasing focus on entrepreneurship, something Roselli credits in part to the Charlotte Chamber visit to Seattle in 2011, which led it to recognize the value of stimulating an entrepreneurial community. It even developed an initiative to that end with $500,000 set aside to fund it. Roselli said that may finally be allocated to hire a professional to oversee the city’s now fragmented entrepreneurial support system.

We’e doing longterm farming

Roselli notes, however, “We’re doing long term farming. We’re five years into a 20 year game plan. We’ve done a good job of showing support and providing training. We’re seeing more A rounds, more companies with 40 people. But we’re still at the beginning of the journey.”

He says Charlotte is playing really good AA baseball in entrepreneurship. But five years ago it wasn’t playing baseball at all.”

Taking the next steps, he says, “Is going to require every part of the community, not just entrepreneurs. Also the city, the universities.”

Toward that end, the Chamber unveiled the Charlotte Development plan for the next four years and Entrepreneurship is number one on the list. Roselli, who manages the Fintech accelerator at Packard Place, believes that’s one sector where the Queen City will excel. “In fintech, we think we can compete nationally and draw people to Charlotte. We’re working hard to put it on the map as the fintech capitol of the world.”

Roselli said consideration of applications for the sixth class of the Queen City Fintech accelerator program just began.

Charlotte series:

Sidebar on Charlotte Entrepreneur Survey: https://wraltechwire.com/charlotte-entrepreneur-survey-reveals-strenghs-and-weaknesses/16129676/

Part One: https://wraltechwire.com/entrepreneurship-focus-on-the-rise-in-the-queen-city/16126736/

Part Two: https://wraltechwire.com/advice-to-charlotte-startups-go-after-mid-to-large-sized-companies/16129498/