Technically Philly » Alex Hillman

Independents Hall gets back to work, experiences growing pains

Sean Blanda — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:30:49 +0000

Independents Hall co-founders Geoff DiMasi (left) and Alex Hillman speak at the coworking space's Town Hall.

Independents Hall co-founders Geoff DiMasi and Alex Hillman just came right out and said it.

“We suck at putting these things on often enough,” said Hillman to a crowd of roughly 30 members of the coworking space that were crammed into the building’s northern wing.

Hillman and DiMasi where speaking at Indy Hall’s third town hall, an informal gathering where the coworking space updates its members and interested public on news pertaining to the space while providing an update of the plans of the Indy Hall leadership.

Yesterday evening, Hillman and DiMasi shared some new policies to help Indy Hall deal with its ballooning membership, new security protocols to address recent thefts and a pledge to return Indy Hall to a hub of social and professional events.

“I feel we haven’t done a great job in returning to the cultural aspects that made Indy Hall awesome,” said Hillman.

Though Indy Hall has been hosting less events than in the past, attendees were able to rattle over nearly a dozen that have taken place in the past few months such as a blood drive and Cocoa Heads, a Mac-focused programming meetup.

Hillman and DiMasi pledged to return more events to the space and encouraged members to develop more programming.

“Our default answer will always be ‘yes’,” said Hillman.

Trouble in the Hall

DiMasi and Hillman spent nearly half of the gathering revealing that one member had been caught stealing $2,000 worth of goods from the space, including the camera used to film popular video podcast Two Guys on Beer. The guilty party has since been caught, but the scare has forced Indy Hall to re-examine who should hold a key to the space.

Instead of spending money on cameras and other security equipment Hillman and DiMasi suggested that a return to more social events as well as becoming stricter with key privileges should help keep Indy Hall safe. DiMasi went as far to say that members be as friendly and conversational as if they were living in a small town.

“It’s an excuse to pretend you are in Minnesota,” said DiMasi after his suggestion that members work hard to know their coworkers. “Everyone says Philly is cool once you get past the shell, so let’s get past it quicker.”

New events and meetups will have to be “co-hosted” by a key-holding full time member. Any new key holders will have to be “signed off” by three existing key-holding members.

“We haven’t been going to the bar for lunch, we haven’t been hanging on the weekends,” said Hillman. “It’s that trust that allowed us to get away with some of the things other places couldn’t.”

As for the stolen goods, Indy Hall plans on selling t-shirts to make up for the smaller items. A local brewery and National Mechanics are partnering to sell a special brew where all proceeds will go to helping Two Guys in Beer purchase a new rig.

Disclosure: Hillman is a sponsor of Technically Philly.

Startup Roundup: American Society of Inventors event tonight, StarCite gets patent, VentureHacks teaches email

Brian James Kirk — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:34:04 +0000

Introducing Technically Philly’s Startup Roundup. Here, we’ll parse out the small pieces that make our greater Startup ecosystem thrive. We want to keep you in touch with the innovations that we can’t quite get to covering, but that deserve highlight. Follow along with the Startup Roundup’s dedicated RSS feed. If you’ve got news to share, get in touch.

DEFINITE READS

We’re not sure how we missed this one, but nearly a dozen local well-known groups have come together to host an event with the American Society of Inventors, tonight at the University City Science Center, to talk about how to launch a successful entrepreneurial venture. We’d list all the organizations here, but gosh that’s a lot of text. Trust us, you know about ‘em. And it’s free, people.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

Corporate event-planning and management system StarCite, which we’ve covered in the past, has announced in a press release that it has been awarded a patent for its suite of SAAS software, patent number 7,523,385. Rest easy, VP Kevin Young. After all, the previous 7,523,384 patents were all awarded to Apple.

GIVE A GLANCE

VentureHacks tells you how to land a meeting with an investor by way of email. Read: Don’t be an idiot.

Alex Hillman announced at SXSW last week that he, with financial help from Grasshoper—a virtual phone service and entrepreneur empowerment resource—has launched an online book curration initiative to pen The Coworking Book. [Full Disclosure: Hillman is a TP sponsor]

Chatroulette scares us to death. We’re of the mind that it truly does signify the end of the Internet. But rather than get all philosophical on you, let’s talk hard numbers. RJMetrics—who damn well knows how to ride a trend—has some great data about what you’re likely to see in the average random video encounter. You’ve got a one in eight chance to see some R-rated action and an 89 percent chance it’ll be a dude deciding what that action is. Good times.

Startup Roundup will post weekly on Wednesdays until there’s not a Philly startup story left to link to on the Internet. See others here.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Advertising — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:00:04 +0000

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog.

Nonprofit Technology Resources – Fairmount-based NTR refurbishes used computers and peripherals for families and individuals in Philadelphia who may not otherwise be able to afford to buy a computer. We urge you to donate to this great local cause.

Chariot Solutions – Long-time Technically Philly advertiser Chariot Solutions is host of the annual Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference. This month, the developer and training partner is promoting the popular conference, which takes place April 8-9.

Springboard Media – Springboard Media is a certified Apple Specialist and retailer based in Center City and now, in Exton. They’ve got a ton of accessories and a great trade-in program that can score you up to $1,500 when you’re ready to upgrade.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact our Ad Sales Manager. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Advertising — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:25:05 +0000

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog.

Interested in joining these organizations and individuals in supporting Technically Philly? Check out our ad packages and contact Ad Sales Manager Tara Levin. Can’t find something that fits? We’ll customize a package for you.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Advertising — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:00:57 +0000

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog.

Thanks to our weekly sponsors

Brian James Kirk — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:00:49 +0000

Technically Philly is made possible by advertisers and sponsors that are important to Philadelphia’s technology community. This week we’d like to thank:

Alex Hillman – IndyHall‘s Alex Hillman has signed on as Technically Philly’s first “Philanthropist” sponsor. Be sure to check out his blog.

Two IndyHall software projects featured in MacUpdate bundle

Brian James Kirk — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:07:57 +0000

Does anyone get a little nostalgic when it comes to bundled software?

In the 90s it meant getting 25,000 games packed onto a CD or a complete reference library from researchers you never heard of: Mayo Clinique? Not so much.

But last night at midnight when MacUpdate announced its $49.99 Mac OS X spring promo bundle, it meant being able to grab licenses for two local Macintosh development projects along with nine other professional applications on the cheap.

Like, a $470 discount.

Included in the package, alongside well-known apps like Parallels Desktop 4 and Tech Tool Pro 5, is Old City’s own Multiplex and RipIt applications. By themselves, the companion DVD applications cost $53.

Both products were born and raised in IndyHall, and one is a product of software incubator IndyHall Labs. As sweet a deal as it may seem for consumers, maybe the developers are the ones most hyped about the opportunity.

“It’s a massive vote of confidence for the quality of apps that Labs is producing,” IndyHall co-founder and Labs co-organizer Alex Hillman said in a telephone interview.

Still, that $470 is coming out of someone’s pocket, right?

As members of the two development teams (which borrow members from one another) passed a phone around the co-working facility answering questions – and as downloads skyrocketed on the bundle’s sales ticker – Multiplex’s Co-Lead Developer David Martorana hesitated on answering how his team can afford to offer such a deep discount.

“It is a promotional opportunity to get a large audience through an established institution,” he said after a long pause. “It all pans out as a great promotional opportunity for us. We all agreed to do it because we believe in the longevity of IndyHall Labs.”

A Twitter search for the promotion reveals 25 pages of conversation concerning the discount after 13 hours of being available. Since noon, 2,000 bundles sold.

Jason Allum, who leads development on RipIt and co-leads alongside Martorana on Multiplex said that though the decision to include the products in the bundle was mulled over, it was worth the risk.

“We’ve been getting crushed. [MacUpdate] did 25,000 units last year. It’s safe to say we’re going to blow that out this year,” he said.

Video walk-through of the new IndyHall coworking facility

Brian James Kirk — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:33:17 +0000

A crew of Independents Hall workers constructing the new coworking facility before it opened. Photo courtesy of Alex Hillman.

Don’t mind the mess at IndyHall.

On Friday, May 1, co-founders Alex Hillman and Geoff DiMasi moved the dedicated coworking community into a spacious new office on Third and Church in Old City.

There are still a few more screws to tighten, that’s for sure. But while it might not be ready for white-glove treatment, you gotta give ‘em props for pulling off a complicated move in little more than a month.

Since announcing their decision to move from Strawberry Street, members have increased significantly, the community launched and sold out its first class as part of an education initiative planned for the old location, and everyone involved surely has some stories to tell.

We stopped by IndyHall on Friday to see how the move is going and toured the new spot-on video after the jump.

A special thanks to Drew Lazor of Philadelphia City Paper in assisting with this video. Be sure to check out Drew’s coverage of the IndyHall walk-thru at the Clog.

IndyHall anticipates signing lease after membership drive

Brian James Kirk — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:30:55 +0000

: Photo: City Paper photographer

This article originally appeared in the April 9, 2009 issue of Philadelphia City Paper and is reprinted here with permission. Photo Credit: Neal Santos.

Picture Old City overwhelmed by a procession of independent workers carrying desks, chairs and laptops up Third Street. Add a lively marching band ushering them along and the evening news to document it.

�Can you imagine if Channel 6 had a helicopter in the sky?� Alex Hillman asks Geoff DiMasi, joking with his business partner in a conference room.

�It would be insane. We�d stop traffic,� he says, laughing chirpily.

Hillman and DiMasi run Independents Hall, a shared office space that rents desks to self-employed workers � though they�d cringe to hear it described so antiseptically. To them, the space is an environment for a �coworking� community, and the inevitable collaboration that comes from putting freelancers in close proximity.

In the two years since its inception, the number of freelancers interested in IndyHall (as it is popularly known) has grown dramatically, prompting Hillman and DiMasi to consider relocating from their current digs on Strawberry Street. They hope to make the move in May. If they pull it off, they�ll not only put Philly on the coworking map � they�ll be in the vanguard of the coworking movement.

It was late 2006 when Hillman first heard of �coworking,� a work-culture experiment in San Francisco. He was beginning a career as a freelance Web developer and experiencing the isolation of working from home � he missed hanging out with the �cool, smart people� that were part of most of his office gigs. But he had no intention of going back to a company. He�d made more money moonlighting in his free time than in his last day job.

He spent some time networking, trying to sell the concept. In March 2007, his idea reached 38-year-old Web designer and University of the Arts professor DiMasi.
�I had a lot of experience with shared spaces in the artist world,� DiMasi says, stretching his lanky frame as he leans back in his chair. �When Alex was explaining it to me, I�m like, �I�ve been in this model for many, many years. Let�s talk.��

After persuading two dozen colleagues to share the space, the partners opened for business.

IndyHall offers three membership options: $25 per month for a basic membership, which gives you a desk once a month; $175 a month for a desk three days per week; and $275 a month for full-time members, who have 24-hour access. When the space opened, there were two full-timers and 27 others. A year later, the business had quadrupled its full-time memberships to eight. This March, full-time membership could have doubled again, but fell short because space ran out.

�In January, our reservation system � which had rarely been used � started blowing up,� Hillman says. �I asked other space owners, �Did you get a big influx, too? Is the economy helping you guys?��

It�s too early to know whether self-employment has been trending upward in Philly since the recession hit (between 2002 and 2005 � the last time data on entrepreneurship was collected � it rose from 13.5 percent to 15 percent). Meg Shope-Koppel, director of research at the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, says that �as recessions begin, some industries start using more contractual workers,� though �it�s not going to be a huge spike, because in some areas, businesses are failing.�

In March, Hillman and DiMasi held a meeting to discuss the influx. In front of a crowd of about 40, the partners unveiled their plan to lease a 4,400-square-foot space, more than double the size of the current office.

They admitted that the decision to move would be risky, since the company had just signed a 12-month lease on the Strawberry Street location. They could transform the smaller space into an �education center,� where members could teach or take classes. But even then, IndyHall would need the community�s full support before it could consider relocating.

As Hillman played a video walk-through of the new space at Third and Church streets, members whistled. They nodded at the idea of being able to earn additional income from teaching classes. One member waved a wallet above her head, promising to write a check as soon as she could.

By the following weekend, 17 people had upgraded their commitment or signed on as new members. In the three weeks since, total membership has increased 30 percent � to 68 members from 53. Even some non-members have offered to lend or give money.

According to Tony Bacigalupo, co-author of I�m Outta Here! How Coworking Is Making the Office Obsolete (Not an MBA Press), there are currently 70 coworking spaces in 30 cities globally. But Philadelphia�s venture is making strides beyond its peers.

�There was a perfect storm of circumstances that made it possible for IndyHall to be this far ahead of the curve,� Bacigalupo says.

Part of that storm includes the partners� willingness to reinvest in the space, he says. Neither Hillman nor DiMasi profit from the venture � �every penny� goes back into the business, for amenities and upgrades requested by the community.

Bacigalupo also credits the synergy of Hillman�s �millennial, change-the-world attitude� and DiMasi�s behind-the-scenes wisdom for much of IndyHall�s success.

The partners would tell you credit is owed to the community.

�The community pushes and it gets to the point where they�re pushing so much that we have to listen,� DiMasi says.

This �community� is comprised of workers from a variety of vocations � from computer programmers to PR consultants, designers to market researchers. Some came to escape isolation. Others came for networking opportunities. But for everyone, collaboration is inevitable: Full-time member Bart Mroz, for instance, runs a creative agency focused on e-commerce with other members. Gloria Bell runs a consulting firm for entrepreneurs, some of whom she finds at IndyHall.

Above the desks and laptops at IndyHall, a half-dozen starfish tear apart Philadelphia landmarks in a painting created by office manager Dana Vachon. The painting is inspired by The Starfish and the Spider (Portfolio) by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, a manifesto on community-driven organizations and the impetus for Hillman and DiMasi�s vision of coworking.

The book posits that a unique evolutionary quality of the echinoderm represents a new way to organize business. Spider organizations, with top-down, centralized leadership and long, pluckable legs, can�t scurry far with their heads cut off. But sever a starfish�s arm and not only will it regenerate a replacement, but the mutilated limb becomes a new starfish.

�There is no centralized entity for coworking. You can�t kill it. There is no head to chop off,� Hillman says.

Perhaps that�s why Hillman and DiMasi are so confident about signing the lease on the new space. They admit the move is aggressive. But they believe it�s sustainable, too.

�At this point, the project has taken on a life of its own,� Hillman says.

Indy Hall to expand, add educational element

Sean Blanda — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:00:29 +0000

It’s been just over two-and-a-half years, and things seem to be working out for Independents Hall: the community is thriving, the success of the business model has made Philadelphia a cornerstone for the coworking movement, and the Strawberry Street office is frequently packed with workers.

However, it is that runaway success that has forced Indy Hall to make some tough choices about its future. The coworking company has filled membership to capacity and there are eight more people on the waiting list. In an effort to take the next step, owners Alex Hillman and Geoff DiMasi called a “Town Meeting” last night to propose their plans to 40+ members of the community packed tight into the Old City office space.

In short, Indy Hall will likely expand into a space that is two-and-a-half times larger than the current offices, and there will be an effort to create an alternative education system powered by the community. See all of the details of the new plan, including the exact location of the new offices, after the jump.

After brief introductions, Hillman displayed a presentation slide detailing membership statistics (see right). Hillman and DiMasi quickly moved to the next slide and asked the community for two things they enjoyed about Indy Hall and two things that they disliked. While most complaints, like dirty coffee mugs in the kitchen, were commonplace for any office, most members echoed the membership numbers presented by Hillman: The space is becoming too crowded and members are having trouble even having a private phone conversation. One audience member detailed the troubles he goes through to find a quiet spot to chat as listeners nodded silently in agreement.

Hillman confessed that he “sucks at saying no” to new members and after announcing new branding for Indy Hall, he began playing a video walk though of a proposed new location. The potential new office space will be located on the second floor of the Daniel Building at 3rd and Church street (Google street view). The space is two parallel 130 ft. hallways with a thin dividing wall in between them.

When the camera panned through the room, several audience members let out impressed whistles; the new space is two-and-a-half times the size of the current offices. Hillman said the plan is to knock down part of the wall to create an “H” shaped office. There were four bathrooms, three conference rooms, and plans for two kitchen areas. At end of the video, a simple slide with the word “discuss” was displayed, and Hillman and DiMasi took questions from the audience.

Indy Hall needs to come up with $18,000 that would cover the first and last month’s rent and a security deposit. While the current business can comfortably sustain the current space’s rent of $2,000 a month, DiMasi stressed that in order to move into a larger space, the duo needs to see support from the community. If no current members drop out and every member of the waiting list signed up for membership, Indy Hall would come close to covering rent for the new office, but additional cash would be needed for things like utilities and cleaning services. Hillman and DiMasi discounted any source of outside funding, expressing a desire to keep funding “inside the family” and to continue to contribute to the tax revenue of the city, not take away from it.

In an added set of complications, Indy Hall just renewed its current lease for the Strawberry Street offices in January for one more year. If their proposed timeline is accurate and every component works out, the business would move into the new offices in early May. Unwilling to fracture the Indy Hall community across two offices, DiMasi and Hillman proposed making the old offices a space for events and education while moving all members to the new location on Church St.

Details were scarce, but the duo imagined a new educational structure where members could teach classes on their areas of expertise and charge small fees that would pay for the space and the instructor’s time. DiMasi, a former professor at the University of the Arts expressed a desire to fix what he saw as a broken system of higher education, and envisioned that a class at Indy Hall would be a fraction of the cost of a traditional university. While an example of a recent Cocoa class was given, no other specific examples were detailed. They emphasized a standard of quality for events and classes promising only to use the Indy Hall space for events and classed that they would attend themselves.

The community did not need to be sold on the educational component. Instead, there were requests for specific plans of action as nearly everyone that voiced an opinion seemed ready to do whatever they could to move the expansion forward with. One member of the crowd shouted “I don’t have my checkbook, otherwise I’d write one.”

Hillman then asked members to help promote the coworking community to their personal and professional contacts and re-emphasized their reliance on an expansion of membership to make the new plans economically feasible. Moving forward, Indy Hall will meet with the owners of the office while continuing to gauge the level of community support, although no deadlines or timetables were set. Hillman mentioned that City Councilman Bill Green had been in attendance and has previously offered support to the organization.

In closing, Hillman confessed that “We are at a growth point that not many other spaces have had a chance to experience.” He wants to become one of the first coworking spaces to undergo this kind of expansion and offer Indy Hall as a model to future coworking efforts. The community seemed supportive, but wanted a plan of action moving forward, which Hillman and DiMasi said they would provide in the days to come.

After the buzz of the crowd died down, Hillman adjourned the meeting to National Mechanics for a beer. The community had reasons to celebrate.