Charles Stack and Jennifer Neundorfer founded Flashstarts in 2012 with the mission of funding and coaching startups in Cleveland. Since then, Flashstarts has turned out more than a dozen successful companies through its rigorous 12-week summer accelerator programs – offering coaching, mentorship and other resources startups need to get off the ground.

Now Stack envisions a startup community that pools Cleveland’s many business incubators and accelerators into one space. StartMart is a plan for a mixed-use downtown space where various accelerators – like Flashstarts, LaunchHouse, SEA Change and Bizdom – could be housed, in addition to a co-working space; meeting space; short-term flexible lease space for startups; space for investors, attorneys and other advisors; and retail space.

“There’s a certain benefit from getting big amounts of diversity and density in one place" when it comes to nourishing startups, explains Stack. "The exchange of ideas circulate more frequently and rapidly – like a giant water cooler.”

The StartMart plan, much like the entrepreneurial hubs at Cincinnati’s Cintrifuge and Chicago’s 1871, brings players together to fuel ideas, support startups and house resources fledgling companies need in the early stages of development. Rather than limiting it to technology, healthcare or retail ideas, the space would throw all types of entrepreneurs together to fuel creativity and ingenuity.

While Stack has not yet signed a lease on space, he has garnered support in the startup and accelerator communities. LaunchHouse and Bizdom have stated their intentions to move at least part of their facilities into the common space.

“StartMart would have all sorts of synergies and energies,” says Ethan Cohen, head of the Cleveland Bizdom office. “It would be a more exciting environment in which to work, bounce ideas off each other. It would be a critical mass of entrepreneurs working together.”

Shannon Lyons, chief business development officer for LaunchHouse, said they were on board as soon as Stack approached them. “This is just what Cleveland needs, because it’s raising the visibility for all of our entrepreneurs,” she says. “Having this kind of epicenter, having a place that has visibility, there’s something very magical when the stars align. Watching the city evolve over the last 10 years, I’m like, 'yes, this is the next step for startups.'”

More established startups that have been through area accelerator programs have also committed to StartMart. Anthony Stedillie, co-founder of CompassMD, which pairs patients with the right doctors, established his company at LaunchHouse and sees StartMart as a great resource. “It’s the next logical half-step from the accelerator programs,” he says. “It’s designed to bring all the participants – investors, customers, startups and mentors – together to work in one place."

Stedillie says there’s no venue in Cleveland to fully flush out an idea. “Accelerators are great, but we’ve yet to bridge that startup idea with execution – getting someone in to test the idea, validate it,” he says. If StartMart comes to fruition, CompassMD would be one of the first tenants.

“I see this as a great place, even for existing startups that are further along,” says Stedillie. “We would be looking to move in there. The hardest thing we’ve found is connecting with the hospital systems here in Cleveland. We had to build those relationships organically.”

Ryan O’Donnell, who founded Sociagram in 2011 and, more recently, launched Sell Hack, also sees StartMart as the entrepreneurial ecosystem Cleveland needs. “You need to consider people who have already started and need support and people who would like to start a company and haven’t started yet,” he says. “That’s where I see StartMart having an impact. It’s experiential and teaching.”

John Knific, who five years ago founded DecisionDesk, a solution for reviewing and sorting college applications, didn’t go through an incubator when he was just starting out. While he did have the support of the North Coast Angel Fund, Knific says he would have benefited from the resources StartMart proposes.

“If I had been around the types of advisers they’ll have, I’d have structured a lot earlier,” Knific says. “Ecosystems that challenge people would have been great for us. It’s sometimes about not wasting time drilling into the business until you’ve validated your model and product market fit.”