Florida Tech Company Feathr Expands Funding and Relocates to Permanent Home

By Kaitlyn McKinley posted July 1, 2016

Thriving event marketing tech enterprise Feathr just confirmed a contract with Gainesville, FL commercial real estate contractor and designer, Trimark Properties, to relocate to a newly-customized office to account for its rapid expansion. 

Formerly located in the University of Florida’s Florida Innovation Hub, an incubator program for startup businesses, the company won a startup contest at SXSW and moved to Austin, Texas, in 2014 to continue the development of the business. When an influx of other successful businesses transferred into Innovation Square during their brief time out of state, co-founders and current CEOs Aidan Augustin and Aleksander Levental, both previous undergraduate students at the University of Florida, decided to return to Gainesville to capitalize on the networking opportunities and supportive resources the flourishing college town provided. The city’s small size, low-cost of living and talent, and its top-rated University’s recurring patronage in promoting and sponsoring local startups led the CEOs to believe Feathr would profit the most headquartered in Gainesville.

After a recent investment brought Feathr an additional $2M in venture capital funding, the co-owners decided to transfer to a private commercial office space suitable for the company’s expected enlargement. The investment, which was led by Florida Gulfshore Capital with participation from the Florida Opportunity Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Capital Factory, and several other strategic partners, is only the second formal financing for the company, whose first funding venture was $150,000 from Angel Investors in February 2013.

Feathr collaborated closely with Trimark Properties to design a made-to-order office space which catered to the needs of the tech business. After Feathr chose an approximately 2000 square foot vanilla shell office building located only two blocks from its original headquarters, Trimark modified the expansive space to include contemporary features that would parallel the cutting-edge technology Feathr develops.

“It became our favorite spot very quickly,” Levental acknowledged. “The stained concrete; high, exposed ceilings; and there’s lots of natural light.”

The newly-renovated space, which comprises of 12’ to 16’ foot ceilings, interior glass walls, and a roll-up door, was tailored specifically for Feathr by Trimark to maximize the available building layout. The formerly empty space now includes three private offices, an open work area, a conference room, and two phone booths, a new movement in office design which permits workers to make phone calls or conduct meeting in private rooms without disrupting other employees.

Parts of Feathr’s logo are displayed throughout the building, including an accent wall above the telephone booths painted in the same light blue color as their logo mark, plus a frosted glass accent featuring the company’s emblem of a feather in a once-modest division wall. Keeping with the modern interior theme, the office features exposed ductwork and polished concrete floors. The overall effect is modern and minimalistic, but also inviting.

Feathr’s new office is less than an 8 minute walk from both the UF campus and downtown Gainesville, and it borders two other growing startup companies, Starter Space and Fracture. The choice of this location was pivotal for the CEOs since, “a lot of the tech scene in Gainesville is Downtown and in Innovation Square,” declared Augustin.

Feathr, which originated in 2012 as a mobile application for distributing business cards, uses advanced algorithms and behavioral marketing analytics to provide event marketers with the ability to link with their clients and exhibitors by merging social network data, business websites, and contact information into a digital layout with interactive tools.

Augustin and Levental estimate further accomplishments for the already burgeoning business, which recently experienced an increase from two to fourteen employees and expects exceed that number by 2017. By utilizing Gainesville’s reinforcement of local businesses and the strong network of resident companies, Feathr is looking forward to advancing its business and reaching a bigger scope of event marketers.