Old City coworking stalwart Independents Hall is celebrating its fourth anniversary today.
Co-founder Alex Hillman shares the process on his blog here.
Look for our Q&A with Hillman tomorrow. Tonight, if you thought ahead and reserved your spot, hit up the community’s celebration party at Frankford Hall in Fishtown. Details here.
Updated, Fri., Aug. 26, 3:10 p.m.: Added detail that Indy Hall’s Alex Hillman is a partner in Dynamic Wear.
Before the sun rises on North Third Street, just south of Liberty Lands Park, one can spot delivery trucks in front of a local bakery.
It’s a scene reminiscent of Philadelphia’s past, and a reminder of industry that was active before white collar jobs began taking root in places other than Center City, like Old City and Northern Liberties.
One of those companies is Jarv.us Innovations, a small, private web development firm that has been renting office space at a rehabbed, former glass-blowing studio just down the street from the bakery, and it’s contributing to a growing movement of young workers that is interested in changing how business works.
The firm is the anchor tenant of the space, which it rents to partner companies and freelancers under branding that represents its collaborative workspace: “Devnuts.” What Devnuts means literally is that they’re nuts about web development. Figuratively, Devnuts is the mission of the collaborative inhabitants: actionably trying to change business and workplace culture.
The Devnuts model is not unfamiliar to coworking facilities like Old City’s Independents Hall: by making desks available to anyone — for a fee, of course — minds can meld and talents combine.
We’ve written about the organizations in the past — Jarvus and Devnuts — but it’s worth another look to see how the organizations are growing. Can this culture shift support strong commerce?
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Old City coworking space Independents Hall has released its first research project called IndyViews, what co-founder Alex Hillman calls “a compilation of experience and worldview personas from within our membership.”
Download the report here [PDF].
Hillman describes the motivation behind project, which was conducted by Valerie Wilcox:
We’re always introspective, but we do it most when we’re thinking about growth. The house project put us into that mode, and the original goal was to produce something to help with the house. What we ended up with was some reinforcement of goals and values, which are the tools we use for hard decision making around growth efforts. Especially with the complexities of the house, I see this as an extremely valuable set of tools to have freshly renewed.
Also, we’re headed into a redesign of our branding and our website, putting a heavy heavy focus on “member stories” as the primary method of communicating Indy Hall. This research project reinforced that the stories members tell are the most compelling, and they’re so consistant with our “planned” marketing message that we want them to take center stage. It’s a complicated and kinda risky project to pull off, but I think the result is going to be fantastic.
Finally, I personally think that more coworking spaces should be conducting their own research. We’re going to publish our research framework to try to spur more things like this from other coworking crews.
A rendering of the common area facade, facing West on Howard St.
The principles of collaboration and shared place that helped launch Old City coworking space Independents Hall are planned to be used in a new co-housing venture in Kensington, announced one of the founder’s at a Philly Tech Week event.
Junto: Rethinking Shelter Philly Tech Week event
How technology will shape the ways and where we live was the focus of a Philly Tech Week installment of the Junto, an informal conversation around a subject put together by web development shop P’unk Ave.
At the event, Alex Hillman, with his Indy Hall co-founder and P’unk Ave chief Geoff DiMasi, fittingly announced their co-housing partnership with Postgreen.
Though an open conversation among two dozen mostly 20 and 30-somethings sitting on the ground, DiMasi moderated something of a panel on the subject, featuring three relevant thought leaders on a couch: architecture and design Brian Phillips, Postgreen co-founder Nic Darling and ‘extreme minimalist’ Andrew Hyde.
Some take aways:
Indy Hall and Postgreem Homes, the sustainably-minded development company noted for its 100k House project, will build a multi-residency unit on a currently unused lot on the 1700-block of Howard Street near Front Street in East Kensington. Planned for six independent units of 500-600 square feet, the structure will feature 2,500 square feet of common space, like the one visualized above, that will be a place for collaboration.
“This is about bringing the ideas behind coworking and continuing to introduce them to new people, in new ways and in new environments,” says Indy Hall co-founder Alex Hillman. He announced the initiative publicly with his co-founder Geoff DiMasi at Monday night’s Junto on Rethinking Shelter, a Philly Tech Week event.
Find more details here. Currently, the coalition is seeking those interested in renting, buying, investing and getting involved otherwise. If interested, get connected here.
Though units will be available for purchase in a condominium-like style, Indy Hall plans to own at least one unit for short-term rentals to feature the flow of individuals that its coworking space features.
Details are still being configured but, like other Postgreen projects, this will have a sustainable focus and Postgreen and Indy Hall will have some longer-term partnership. The initial residents will be ‘cultivated,’ says Hillman, who is one confirmed resident, though “the goal is not for us to design and build this in a bubble.”
“We want to be a part of building a broader community,” Hillman says. “We think this is a great way to do this now and more in the future.”
When businessman Paul Amess and litigator Laurence Banville describe how they arrived in Philadelphia, they often have to whip out a globe.
Amess, a 25 year-old Englishman, and Banville, a 25 year-old Irishman, have traveled extensively around the world including stops in Brussels, Dublin and Alabama before finally meeting in Philadelphia and founding Alliance Equals.
Launching this month, Alliance Equals is a hybrid of a coworking space – where members can pay a fee for a desk or even a large room to serve as a home office – and an incubator – where Amess and Banville will receive an equity in return for office space and business help. The duo says they look to provide an “outsourced CEO” role to young companies who need marketing and legal help, especially in regards to international affairs.
“In house we’ll do a lot of the preparation and search work and that will help reduce the cost of lawyers billing $500-1000 an hour, “ says Banville.
After the jump, the duo tells us how they use the space’s giant television projector and see how their company compares to Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Indy Hall.
At the coIN loft in Wilmington, Delaware, founding member Wes Garnet says that sometimes the sell of coworking—independent workers sharing space in a collaborative environment—isn’t a sell at all.
“For some people, [collaboration] is cool, for some people it’s a turnoff,” Garnet says.
So earlier this year, when he had the opportunity to market the work space to a broader audience in traditional industries, he came across a Philadelphia startup, which is helping businesses like Garnet’s market space to folks who need a desk.
OpenDesks, led by founding partner Chris DiFonzo, is an online software platform that allows businesses to sell their free space to independent workers looking for a place to do business outside their home. [Full Disclosure: OpenDesks is a Technically Philly advertiser.]
Within 24 hours of listing coIN loft in the OpenDesks directory, Garnet says that a customer from the service reserved a desk.
“Our space was perfect for what [she] needed,” Garnet says, “and in terms of keeping bodies in the door, [OpenDesks] helps us market our raw space and raw facilities.”
It seems that the facility rental market for independent workers is growing recently, with at least one major competitor, LiquidSpace, receiving national press during South by Southwest. The company raised $1.3 million in February. DiFonzo says that though OpenDesks is still seeking funding, it’s a step ahead of competitors.
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Indy Hall isn’t supposed to be about technology for its own sake, but rather about collaboration.
So, now three and a half years old, it is fitting that during the semi-regular Town Hall event Wednesday night, during which co-founders Alex Hillman and Geoff DiMassi debrief on the biggest and smallest of trends of the coworking space, a lasting take away was about pushing into new industries.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of who should be at Indy Hall,” Hillman said.
One of the clearest trends is bringing together “art geeks and tech geeks,” Hillman said, adding that Indy Hall members who have learned to run businesses could perhaps teach artists about sustainability.
“Our values is about being human and that should be more collaborative and develop more relationships with different people, and the art community is a sensible place to start,”said DiMassi, who himself went to art school.
The Old City space has moved on stabilizing a night shift, so later workers and, yes, perhaps even people with day jobs could start taking place in the collaborative work environment that has so far been dominated by designers, developers, coders and their ilk.
“All of our growth has been into new industries and interests, and we’re embracing that with a push into the arts and student life,” Hillman told Technically Philly. “We’re going to have lots of focus on community crossover and linking.”
The Town Hall also some discussion around the Knight Arts Grant proposal
we’re laying the groundwork for that as part of that growth approach as well.
At the last Town Hall, in July, DiMassi and Hillman focused on growth and growing pains.
“If you spent any time here at Indy Hall in the last couple months, you’d know things are good,” Hillman said. “The industries we have here have spread.”
Hillman also talked about a shared general practice doctor, event bartender and other services that a shared community — regardless of industry — could use together. A grad student is devoting her work to changing work place environments, focusing on Indy Hall, and Hillman shared their interest in welcoming more students and faculty into their collaborative space. Indy Hall is developing a partnership with Campus Philly, Hillman added.
New arrivals and JavaScript big shots Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs worked with others to provide some new comforts to the building, including new tables and other items that will make the space “more comfy,” Hoy said.
Toward the end, Hillman and DiMassi discussed more about plans for their Knight Art Challenge project, which fits into these projects, he said. Their project, which is a finalist, was focused on building an ‘Indy Hall village,’ Hillman said. They have talked about partnering with the 100k house and other projects about buying a future iteration of the coworking space to also house coworkers.
Those coworkers will be, Hillman noted, as varied in their work and passions as possible.
Below, listen to the meeting, as recorded by Indy Hall member and P’unk Ave staffer Dana Vachon
The two dozen 20-somethings behind Devnuts are organizing.
The Northern Liberties collaborative workspace is aiming at being seen as a more comprehensive collection of professionals.
Announced with a sleek new website launch yesterday, the Devnuts crew is abutting its form of co-working with a heavier focus on incubation and selling its pooled talent.
“Devnuts does three things,” says John Fazio, one of the co-founders. “First, it’s a co-working space that you can apply for a desk space to rent. Second, it’s an incubator [for young startups]. Third, because we’ve built a talent pool around us, we’re selling development talent.”
With a contractor circle of 22, including seven employees and at least that many interns, in addition to others on the periphery, relationships with Drexel University and the Science Leadership Academy to bring in new startups to house and testimonials for building homepages for the Roots and TEDxPhilly to name just two , the Devnuts crew seems to be doing well with all three.
The minds behind coworking often laud it for its organic and authentic growth.
That’s how the country’s more respected communities of shared, collaborative workplaces, like Independents Hall in Old City, differentiate themselves from a growing commercial extension of the concept.
But as those communities continue to grow and its members number in the thousands, there has been something of a push to create a more national — and, indeed, international — cohesion.
Last week, the Coworking Database initiative launched, hoping to, as the site suggests, create “a simple, neutral, extensible database for coworking spaces around the world.”
It was the latest in a series of projects that connected coworking outposts that had, in recent years, focused on building their own local communities.
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.
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