Stories · First Room and Room #2 · June 18, 2026
Joshua Price, looking around the first room
From screens and local programs to founders in the same room. First Room, June 18 — then Room #2.
Joshua Price · Prove It · First Room
Prove It
Joshua Price showed up to the First Room with Prove It — identity-based accountability built by a student who had been teaching himself how companies get made. Before that night, most of the map lived somewhere else.
“When I first became interested in entrepreneurship, most of what I learned came from YouTube, podcasts, books, and local programs like Madison Area CEO. Building a company felt like something people did somewhere else.”
The First Room changed the distance.
“Now, I'm learning from founders right here in Huntsville.”
He wrote about the night the way people write when something finally looks like the thing they had only read about.
“Last night was the first DevHouse meetup, and it was one of those events that makes you excited about where our city is headed. There wasn't a sense of competition. Everyone genuinely wanted to help each other build. Looking around the room, it hit me that this is what an entrepreneurial ecosystem actually looks like. It's not just startups. It's founders, mentors, students, organizations, and people investing in one another.”
In that same post he named the room as he saw it: Samuel Meinshausen (Praxis), Hunter Wittenborn (Riff Labs), Victoria Ross, Evan Brock (Ape Outfitters), Nathan Stewart (gener8tor), Ashley Borges (UAH Entrepreneurship Club), and hosts Ben Tankersley and Joanna White of Apollo Coalition. The list is his way of saying the ecosystem was already standing in the room.
“We're not just watching Huntsville's startup ecosystem grow. We're helping build it.”
He closed looking forward — not as a spectator.
“A year from now, I can't wait to look back and see how much this community has grown!”
“Here's to building companies, building community, and helping shape what's next for Huntsville.”
“Now, I'm learning from founders right here in Huntsville.”
What happened next
On July 30 he was back. Prove It is on the Room #2 project list. Joshua is on the digital check-in list. And a photograph from that night names him with Nathan Stewart and Ben Tankersley — still in the room, still building.
Sources
From his LinkedIn post, June 19, 2026.
Related
- Larry Nicholas wrote it down the next day
After the First Room, the CEO of ELS-Tec Group posted about why the conversations mattered — and why a room like this belongs in Huntsville.
- Evan Brock · Ape Outfitters
A sewing machine on the First Room floor. Live apparel while the night was happening. By Room #2, Ape Outfitters was on the project list again — with Evan still in it.
- Neville Simpson and Claire found each other at DevHouse Room #2.
They found each other at Room #2. Afterward, Neville made a photograph of Claire — Strings for Light — that was selected for Hear to Be Seen 3.