20Fathoms Dives Deeper

How millions in grant funding have transformed the startup incubator

By Art Bukowski | Dec. 14, 2024

It’s been a big year for Traverse City’s homegrown startup incubator and coworking space, and 2025 promises even more action as key staff and new initiatives are in place.

20Fathoms (named for the 120 feet that Grand Traverse Bay is clear to a depth of) has been helping local technology entrepreneurs since opening its doors in 2018. But major grant funding in 2024 allowed the organization to substantially expand staff, programming, and its geographic footprint throughout northern Michigan. The group also has a new executive director.

Northern Express checked in with 20Fathoms leaders (and clients) to hear about what’s new and what’s next as the revamped organization looks forward.

New Leadership

In November, 20Fathoms announced the hiring of Craig Wesley as executive director. He replaces Eric Roberts, who led the organization since 2021.

Wesley is a Michigan native who spent more than two decades in Silicon Valley in a variety of roles, beginning with sales before moving into management at various levels.

“I was just a regular guy from the Midwest, and the place [Silicon Valley] to me was just nuts. People thought so differently, and the pace was so wild, and it was really quite invigorating,” he says. “I had the opportunity to work with lots of different teams and businesses because of the density of opportunities out there—sometimes startups work, and sometimes they don’t.”

He recalls the wild times of the late 1990s dot-com boom (and eventual bust).

“We felt that this is probably what Florence was like during the Renaissance: Everything is happening right here, and we’re going to change the world, and it’s all because of what we’re doing on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “Well, we all know how that turned out.”

Even though he eventually transitioned to a management role at an established, non-startup company, Wesley and his wife made a conscious decision to slow things down and spend more time with their young children. They moved to Traverse City in 2013, and Wesley took on consulting roles.

He was familiar with 20Fathoms since its inception and got excited about it being a place where he can “plug in and serve the community” in a way that’s not possible working for only one or two companies. Significant grant funding and new staff made the opportunity extra enticing, he says.

“I thought that the organization was at a level of maturity and at a time where I could really come in and add some value,” he says.

The organization is thrilled to have Wesley at the helm.

“We conducted a nationwide search to find the right person, and we found him right in our own backyard,” Lowell Gruman, 20Fathoms’ board chair, said in a statement.

New Team

Though it was founded in 2018, about $7.3 million in state and federal economic development grant funding announced in late 2023 and received in 2024 has transformed the organization almost completely. It went from six full-time staffers a year ago to 15 now, with a variety of titles that include director of regional ecosystem, manager of startup capital, manager of startup education, and more.

“This team is new, and they’re learning how to work together,” Wesley says. “We’re at the beginning stage of really trying to build something that we think is going to be really great, not only for local entrepreneurs, but for the community and for the ability for companies to actually grow here and create jobs.”

Keri Amlotte is head of outreach and strategic programming for 20Fathoms. She says the new staff brings a very broad and deep range of expertise that will better help local entrepreneurs.

“When you look at the nature of what we do, it’s not cookie cutter. Every entrepreneur needs something different, and we need to have people at the table who can really walk hand-in-hand with them,” she says.

Beyond that, the depth of the team overall means the ability to work with more people in more areas, Amlotte says, something the grant funding was specifically intended to facilitate.

“We’re not new. We have been here since 2018, and since that time, we’ve had a really healthy coworking space and have been providing an opportunity for entrepreneurs to come together and network and meet one another through our events,” she says. “But what we're able to do now is just go much deeper and be much more intentional and hands-on with that programming because we now have the team members and expertise.”

New Programming

Among the many new programs recently launched and continuing into 2025 are drop-in startup coaching in Benzie County, Manistee County, and Traverse City.

“You can drop in and talk to a member of our startup team about what your challenges are right now,” Amlotte says. “Anything from how do you file your business with LARA (Licensing and Regulatory Affairs) to how you find new customers. Whatever is keeping you up at night.”

Starting in 2025, the organization will also start rotating weekly workshops on a variety of topics like marketing, customer discovery, funding a business, and more.

“You’ll come and there will be a learning piece to it, but there will also literally be workshopping,” Amlotte says. “It will be heavily hands-on, and you’ll be able to work with somebody one-on-one to talk through your particular business problems.”

Along a similar vein, 20Fathoms recently launched four-day boot camps that offer more in-depth solutions to common obstacles.

“These are very specifically for people who have an idea for how to start a business. They’re really excited about it, they’re all in, but they need help figuring out how to turn that idea into a business,” Amlotte says. “So you come to this very intensive boot camp session, and you’re surrounded by peers, and you really dig into things over a four-day period. You walk out of it with a business plan and steps on what to do next.”

Among these bootcamps is one specifically for indigenous entrepreneurs, a focused effort designed to give indigenous people training on all things related to launching a business. The first was held in September.

“That boot camp [filled up], and we have enough people on the waiting list to run two more,” Amlotte says. “There’s a very high demand for that one.”

Finally, 20Fathoms in early 2024 absorbed TCNewTech, a group founded in 2015 to connect local tech professionals with one another and with funding sources. TCNewTech is well known for its monthly pitch competitions, and this acquisition merged the two most prominent tech organizations in the community.

Most of 20Fathoms’ programs are available to non-tech entrepreneurs, but tech is likely to remain its bread and butter for the foreseeable future.

“We offer specialized services to help meet the unique needs of scalable startups because launching and growing a technology company, for instance, is different in some key ways—like funding—than opening a traditional type of small business,” Amlotte says. “Those services include access to capital programs for scalable startups, specialized coaching, and pitch opportunities at TCNewTech.”

New Impact

In the past year alone, 20Fathoms has served 26 local tech companies who reported more than $5 million in combined growth through secured capital investment, Amlotte says.

Amlotte and Wesley are quick to point out that the work of 20Fathoms shouldn’t just be judged on startups incubated or assisted. Many people who attend 20Fathoms programs who don’t successfully start a company may take useful skills out into the community and apply them at other companies or organizations, for instance.

“What we’re talking about is a regional transformation to support a really vibrant, strong economy that supports and lifts up everybody,” Amlotte says. “That takes time.”

“There’s some risk here, as a lot of these [startups] may not turn into anything,” Wesley adds. “But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t bring some life into people and communities in a way that hasn’t been there before.”

Also of note are the more than 100 individuals or companies that use the organization’s well-appointed coworking space at the aptly named Bayview Professional Centre at the corner of M-72 and M-22. One of those is Jim Millar of Atterx Biotherapeutics, a virtual company that has its headquarters in a designated office in the 20Fathoms space.

“Even with the dedicated office, what I really enjoy is just the whole entrepreneurial culture. The vibe and the energy here is amazing,” Millar says. “To be able to come talk to other entrepreneurs over the coffee bar and share stories, kind of see what people are going up to is [enjoyable]…it’s a great way for me to plug in, to not just come in and shut my office door and get to work, but to interact with the ecosystem that’s here.”

Millar and Atterx have taken advantage of not only that vibe, but of coaching from 20Fathoms staff and funding connections provided by Boomerang Catapult and other 20Fathoms affiliated organizations.

Erin Eatough started off in a coworking space at 20Fathoms with a former company before taking the plunge and starting a new company, Fractional Insights. 20Fathoms staff and programming helped “demystify the idea of entrepreneurship,” she says.

“I give a lot of credit to 20Fathoms for helping me transition and build up my self-confidence, motivation, and self-reliance,” she says. “I feel like I had a community to go to get resources, to get connections, to get education. And that made it feel much more possible to really take what is a gigantic leap of faith to walk away from an executive level salary and start my own thing.”