Catapult was established in 2014 by the Lakeland Economic Development Council (LEDC) with the purpose of “fostering the growth of startups” and is located on the ‘I-4 Tech Corridor’, a 23-county region, according to its website, and the Florida High Tech Corridor website respectively.  In accordance with Malagon, the intention of the meeting was “to introduce potential new accelerator tenants to Catapult’s available co-work spaces”. There were tours of the facility along with the capabilities that they offer. There was also a presentation regarding SBIR/STTR to get businesses acquainted with the application process and how funding is allocated through America’s Seed Fund.  (Note: SBIR/STTR means Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer respectively.)

Malagon’s background lies principally in business, but he has had different positions throughout his career. From Sales Manager of Gusto Marketing to the now vice president of Campus Risk Solutions® , Malagon has collectively served over 28 years in the business world.

During the meeting, Malagon noticed that the “attendees were, primarily, startups with a couple of investors. There were also folks from USF and other higher learning institutions.”. Malagon also stated that, while attending the meeting was not an urgent affair because they aren’t ready to move their office location at this time, he felt that “it is very important to us to be able to talk about our company, share successes with others and have them share successes with us.”

After the meeting was finished, Malagon concluded with the fact that “Not having our software published yet makes it challenging for some to visualize what we do and how we do it. Laying down the foundation of name recognition and offering product demos are good reasons to attend these meetings.”