Latitudes Staunton - Photo Credit: Millpond Photography

Entrepreneurship in the Valley

Mountain Scape

Latitudes Staunton - Photo Credit: Millpond Photography

Entrepreneurship in the Valley

The Shenandoah Valley is known for sweeping mountain ranges, a rich history, thriving downtowns, cultural offerings, and over 3,000 farms in the 11 counties that stretch along I-81 from Winchester all the way to Buena Vista. Family farms and independent vineyards dot the scenery as you travel through the Valley, and charming downtowns invite visitors to stay, stroll, shop, and dine locally. At the heart of these bustling towns are hundreds of local businesses – the makers, dreamers, doers, and tinkerers that make the Shenandoah Valley unique.

Starting, managing, and growing a business is a daunting endeavor for any entrepreneur. Support organizations, champions, and advocates have rolled up their sleeves to make the Shenandoah Valley a thriving interconnected ecosystem to help these local businesses succeed. 

The Valley Business Compass is an interactive platform to help dreamers and doers navigate their entrepreneurial journey, and making it accessible to find news and upcoming events, as well as resource and service providers that serve entrepreneurs in the Shenandoah Valley:

Valley Business Compass

Each quarter, we shine a spotlight on a different aspect of entrepreneurship in the Shenandoah Valley. We tell the stories of our visionaries, innovators, and entrepreneurs who are making it happen for themselves and their communities in the Shenandoah Valley.

Caffeine, Connections & Coworking

When Jenna Cauchi first started out as an entrepreneur, she figured things out on her own. As a mother of two, she resold clothes online that her children had outgrown. Over time, she also resold other families’ kid’s wardrobes until she eventually participated in in-person resale events. It was at a pop-up market in Harrisonburg that she met Nick Koger, community liaison for the Shenandoah Community Capital Fund (SCCF), who encouraged her to join SCCF’s Business Bootcamp. While learning some local business 101 in a cohort with other small business owners, she attended a networking event to mix and mingle with entrepreneurs from the Central Valley. Jenna was starting to look for a brick-and-mortar location and – unbeknownst to her – in the room was Kirsten Moore who was building out a space looking for small business tenants. Nick Koger recognized the opportunity and introduced the two. Asdelia Mae is scheduled to open its doors at Liberty St. Mercantile in early summer 2023. 

Such is the magic of serendipity.

The essence of an entrepreneurial ecosystem is its people and the culture of trust and collaboration that allows them to interact successfully. An ecosystem that allows for the fast flow of talent, information, and resources helps entrepreneurs quickly find what they need at each stage of growth. As a result, the whole is greater than the sum of its separate parts. ESHIP Playbook 2019

When it comes to growing and nurturing thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems, serendipity is key. The best – and easiest – way to move relevant information and resources from those who have them to those who need them is by having conversations with the right people at the right time. It’s collisions like the one between Jenna Cauchi, Nick Koger, and Kirsten Moore that move an entrepreneur from what-could-be to what-is. 

These types of collisions are hard to plan for and occur naturally in mature ecosystems where entrepreneurs run into each other at coffee shops, co-working spaces, at after-hours networking, and other events. In emerging and less centralized entrepreneurial communities – such as the Shenandoah Valley – a little intentionality goes a long way in creating serendipity and fruitful collisions. Where are entrepreneurs and innovators in the Shenandoah Valley most likely to run into each other and where do they gather to ideate and co-create? 

Hosting entrepreneurial events and creating spaces that invite conversations and collaboration is a key investment in an entrepreneurial ecosystem. 

Take a tour of the Shenandoah Valley’s best spaces to meet innovators and entrepreneurs, see creative collisions happen, and witness the power of serendipity.

Southern Shenandoah Valley   Central Shenandoah Valley    Northern Shenandoah Valley

Southern Shenandoah Valley

Virginia Innovation Accelerator

Nestled by the banks of the Maury River in Buena Vista, the south end of the Shenandoah Valley, sits the Mundet-Hermetite building, a former cigarette paper factory dating back to the 1950s.
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Central Shenandoah Valley

Heavy Metal Meets Firewood: Broadway Coworking

What do a heavy metal Youtube Show and an innovative product made from red oak trees have in common? They both have a home base at Broadway Coworking, located in the small town of Broadway in Rockingham county. Read More

Connections Over Coffee: Grow Waynesboro

If you stumble into Waynesboro’s Farmhaus Coffee on the first Thursday of the month looking for your caffeine fix, you’ll be greeted by busy chatter, laughter and the exchange of business cards in their upstairs event space.
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JMU Innovation and Entrepreneurial Spaces

With over 22,000 students James Madison University covers a large footprint. Where do the university’s creative and entrepreneurial minds get to work? Where do they brainstorm, collaborate and prototype?
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Staunton Innovation Hub

In downtown Staunton, nestled between Augusta Avenue and Central Avenue, the Staunton Innovation Hub (SIH) spreads over the length of a block offering 30,000 square feet to foster innovation in the Shenandoah Valley.
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The Perch at Magpie

What’s better than a light-filled coworking space with conference rooms, phone booths and strong coffee, roasted-on-site? Having that co-working space upstairs from one of Harrisonburg’s culinary institutions: – Magpie Diner.
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Libraries of Virginia

With 27 locations throughout the Shenandoah Valley, no other organization offers entrepreneurs space and resources free of charge like the libraries of Virginia. Gone are the days when libraries were stuffed with dusty books…
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Northern Shenandoah Valley

At The Hub

When you pull into West Cecil Street in Winchester, VA, you can’t miss a large building painted in shades of pink proudly proclaiming “Love”. Welcome, you have arrived at At The Hub, a co-working space for entrepreneurs…
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Libraries of Virginia

With 27 locations throughout the Shenandoah Valley, no other organization offers entrepreneurs space and resources free of charge like the libraries of Virginia. Gone are the days when libraries were stuffed with dusty books…
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