North Texas Daily

Nicholas Friedman / Senior Staff Writer

With the technology and business community in Denton constantly expanding, leaders in the Denton startup scene recently came together to form TechMill, a group aimed at creating a collaborative community to foster new ideas and innovation.

Cofounder of TechMill and board member Kyle Taylor said the group is a non-profit organization that supports and cheerleads the community, but their real focus is “doing.” Part of this, Taylor said, is putting together events that give like-minded people a chance to share their ideas.

“We run events that bring together local entrepreneurs, students, freelancers, and creative talent,” Taylor said. “Events like LittleDOCC, OpenHack and Jelly seem to be growing in popularity every week.”

Board President Marshall Culpepper said these three events are where growth and enthusiasm have formed.

“Those were some things we were doing independently that made us realize we could do even more,” Culpepper said.

Culpepper said the group, which currently consists of six confirmed board members, is working on making it easier for startup companies to establish themselves in Denton.

“Our goal now is to improve the Denton economy by bringing new businesses and parts of existing businesses here,” Culpepper said. “Once that happens and we’re successful in building the community, the economy will follow in benefiting from that.”

Group logo courtesy of Clarissa Redwine

Currently in the works at TechMill is an event called Bootstrap Denton: A Denton Creatives Mixer, which will take place at 6:30 p.m on June 9 at EastSide.

“We’re bringing all of Denton’s major tech leaders to EastSide so they can show the Denton community what we have cooking,” TechMill Cofounder and Secretary Clarissa Redwine said.

Redwine also said TechMill is working to put together a major tech conference to showcase all of Denton’s technological creativity. Taylor said the group is hoping to have the conference up and running by Spring 2015, with more details being laid out at the Bootstrap event.

In terms of current startup plans, Taylor said the group is on step two or three of maybe 25 projects since officially forming in April of this year.

“A co-working space will be a key asset to any startup or incubator project,” Taylor said.

This co-working space is something Taylor is hoping to have live by the end of this summer.

Anyone who has an interest in technology or entrepreneurship, Taylor said, is the right kind of person to be a part of TechMill.

“I think our group is naturally attractive to those who feed on the energy of technology, innovation, civic growth and the art of ‘doing,’” Taylor said. “Plus, there’s usually beer at our meetings.”

Taylor said that the group is full of forward-thinking individuals and that things will only continue to improve and expand in the future.

“We have bigger plans for what we want to accomplish,” Taylor said. “As doers, we recognize that we need to go step by step and execute and effectively use the resources that are currently available to us. We all know Rome wasn’t built overnight, but we’re sure going to try.”

Featured Image: Board president and Mozilla employee Marshall Culpepper does remotework from inside Banter Coffee house every Friday as part of Denton Jelly, one of the events that led to the creation of TechMill. Photo by Nicholas Friedman, senior staff writer.