The Office of Possibilities is dedicated to individuals and organizations looking to adopt and cultivate innovation.
We are an idea accelerator and entrepreneur support community.
Find your innovation community.
Network and learn with your peers.
Our Approach & History
We are a growing group of ideators and entrepreneurs who support each other. We are defined by who shows up each week seeking a trusting community of innovators. Let us help you connect with others who understand your needs and are available to assist you in your entrepreneurial journey.
In the fall of 2022, a group of community members met at a Design Thinking Workshop for Community Impact. Steve Rice, Tex Criqui, Josh Hart, and Will Kitchen sat at a table and met for the first time. Brittany VanderBeek and Nick Beadleston facilitated the session. Out of this session came a desire to influence educational change and celebrate a startup community and innovation.
Providing you with safe spaces to innovate and share.
Our primary focus is on supporting individuals, cultivating entrepreneurs, and building businesses — prioritizing the person's growth above all else.
a typical Tuesday at OOPs
Startup Community Way Principles
1. Entrepreneurs must lead the startup community.
2. The leaders must have a long-term commitment.
3. Startup communities are complex adaptive systems that emerge from the interaction of the participants.
4. Startup communities can be guided and influenced, but not controlled.
5. Each startup community is unique and cannot be replicated.
6. Startup communities are organized through networks of trust, not hierarchies.
7. The startup community must be inclusive of anyone who wants to participate.
8. Openness, support, and collaboration are critical behaviors in a startup community.
9. The startup community must have continual activities that meaningfully engage the entire entrepreneurial stack.
10. Startup communities must avoid the trap of letting demand for measurement drive flawed strategies.
11. Putting founders first, giving before you get, and having an intense love of place are essential values in a startup community.
12. Startup communities are propelled by entrepreneurial success and the recycling of those resources back into the next generation.
13. The best startup communities are interconnected with other startup communities.
14. The primary purpose of a startup community is to help entrepreneurs succeed.
OOPs was built on the following principles as outlined by Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway from the introduction from their book, “The Startup Community Way: Evolving an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem”.
Principles
We believe that entrepreneurship, and an entrepreneurial mindset, is valuable to our society.
We can be found throughout the community - CommonPlace (every Tuesday from 9am-11am) and Northwestern Michigan College (by appointment) or where you need us!
In-Person & Personal
NMC and CommonPlace Community Co-Working play a crucial role in our Startup Community!
CommonPlace
414 East 8th St Traverse City, MI
NMC
1701 E Front St Traverse City, MI
"I was impressed such an incredible resource existed! And not only does it exist, but the entire OOPs team also welcomed me, listened, iterated, and set what must have been no less than 5 different wheels in motion to connect me to resources that I needed to take the next steps on logistics, legal, and market understanding.
The resources, the connections, the expertise, the experience, the sense of community, the camaraderie - was absolutely astounding and humbling. But more than that, I left that first meeting with a sense of confidence that I could be on to something. That it could have an impact and improve people's lives as I imagined. That nudge that something could be there was invaluable. For the first time in my life, I actually felt like an entrepreneur and that with hard work, effort, and openness to possibilities, the vision I have could actually be made real and make a real difference to the community I live in. "
Erin Cooley Eatough | Founder, ChefShare
"As a serial entrepreneur and small business owner, finding the OOPs community has been a transformative experience for me. I have never found a space that blends the world of business and the desire to create with the openness, honesty, and curiosity that exists in every OOPs' meeting."
Loghan Call | Co-Founder & CEO, Audacia Elixirs, Drinking, Reimagined
“When my family and I moved to Traverse City last summer I could only count a small number of professional contacts in the area. Within 6 weeks, I conservatively multiplied that number by 5 times. My new turbo-charged network accelerated my business entry into the region by at least 6 months.
This was all made possible by NMC and OOPs. I have attended meetings both at the College and CommonPlace. These meetings were instrumental in my journey to become more established in the community.
While the professional contacts have been great, it is the friendships that have evolved that are the most rewarding aspect of my new connectivity. I now have several people I consider close friends that I can share the ups and downs of entrepreneurship with over coffee and that is priceless. I am very grateful for everyone involved and I hope to be able to incorporate an element of OOPs in the longevity communities we are building in Traverse City and beyond.”
Bruce Thompson | Founder & CEO, Urbaneer