Tulsa Group Helping Others Grow Their Businesses

A group is celebrating seven years of helping industrial manufacturing companies learn how to start and grow their businesses.

The group has helped dozens of local businesses get off the ground.

Have you ever had an idea for an invention but didn't know how or where to start? Hemphill Create provides the space for people to turn their goals and plans into a business.

Before moving into the create space at Hemphill, Gerren Depoy and his family business, Grip Kitchen, operated out of his home.

"So Cliff, my wife, her grandfather, the idea came to him in a dream,” Depoy said. “He was considering how he could help his father-in-law who just had a stroke and how he could open things again."

It's taken a lot of effort, but now, Gerren goes to Hemphill to manufacture the Grip jar openers.

The space is provided by Kristen Bennett. Her family knows what it's like to run a business and wants to give others that opportunity.

“We have a family business ourselves and had excess real estate, and so my family started out like entrepreneurs, and so we have sixty-plus years on this campus, and it's exciting to be alongside other entrepreneurs just starting out and watch them and help them and give them advice and give them access to the space in flexible terms," she said.

That flexibility means owners don't have to sign a year lease, and they have access to equipment that's already in the space.

The incubator has been open since 2017.

Kristen says in that time, they've helped 25 businesses like Grip, and she hopes they will help more as they continue to expand.

"It's a family business, and I was just so excited to see the big machine go through our doors. It's so exciting and gratifying," she said.

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