Sandbox is very excited to announce the opening of our San Francisco office and the expansion of our foundry team to the bay area.  

• TechCrunch: Sandbox Brings Its Startup Foundry to San Francisco
• WSJ VentureWire: Sandbox Industries Plays in San Francisco, Raises Funds
• Portfolio: Sandbox Industries Opens San Francisco Office

Sandbox Industries, a leading venture capital firm and startup foundry based in Chicago, announced today the opening of a new San Francisco location in the popular SoMa neighborhood in downtown San Francisco.

Lead by Northern California native and Sandbox Managing Director Millie Tadewaldt, the strategic expansion will further develop Sandbox’s unique “Startup Foundry” entrepreneurial environment, which builds startups from the ground up using an internal team of founders-in-residence, developers, designers, and other specialists. Unlike the more common startup incubator approach where external founders and teams develop their existing ideas, Sandbox's Foundry brings together talented people and generates ideas internally.

Sandbox Industries’ Startup Foundry is one of the company’s core initiatives, which focuses on transforming web- and mobile-based business ideas into prototypes, launches, and ultimately operational businesses. By brainstorming multiple ideas and industries and systematically testing the best concepts, the Startup Foundry is able to accelerate growth by quickly incorporating customer feedback and market analytics.

“Success for startups requires the ability to test multiple hypotheses about how to find customers and identify what they want, and then quickly pivot based on the data” said Tadewaldt. “We are excited to expand our platform for innovation to San Francisco.”

The Sandbox approach is a new type of emerging business environment that is much more than an incubator. As a Startup Foundry, the company brings together versatile, brilliant minds to identify opportunities in the market, test and refine various business models, and ultimately launch start-ups to begin to gauge customer reactions. Sandbox anticipates the development of some market-moving ideas from both the San Francisco and Chicago locations, as both offices are already actively collaborating and leveraging each other’s expertise and unique perspectives.

Notable startups coming out of the Foundry include a private sale site for dog owners called doggyloot; a social media market research firm called Lab42; CakeStyle, a personal styling service for women; and Marbles: The Brain Store, a retailer that creates and sells games focused on brain fitness for adults.

The new San Francisco office is located at 444 Townsend and will house ten staff members by mid-summer.