Incubator grows firms via geek service swaps

Computerworld - Drawn with colored markers, the large sales chart is handsomely done. But it's drawn on the window. Carlos Maestas, occupant of one of the three desks in the office, has no idea what it represents. He assumes the occupants of the other two desks drew it. He hasn't met them; they come in at other hours.

Down the hall -- past the ping pong tables, an arcade video game, the kitchen, material used to teach robotics to middle school students and home brewing equipment (off-limits to the middle schoolers) -- Phil Mercer, owner of a design firm called Roughneck Graphics, also has a desk in an office with people who are not in his firm. But he has met them. In fact, they were put in the same room in hopes they would be of use to each other. And that has happened, he says.

"We send each other work, and trade services," he notes. "Here, I can walk down the hall if I need a mobile apps developer."

Computerworld - Drawn with colored markers, the large sales chart is handsomely done. But it's drawn on the window. Carlos Maestas, who occupies of one of the three desks in the office, has no idea what it represents. He assumes the occupants of the other two desks drew it. He hasn't met them; they come in at other times.

Down the hall -- past ping-pong tables, an arcade style video game, a kitchen, a space filled with materials used to teach robotics to middle school students and an area with pieces of home brewing equipment (off-limits to the middle schoolers) -- Phil Mercer, owner of a design firm called Roughneck Graphics, also has a desk in an office that he shares with people who don't work in his firm. But he has met them. In fact, the individuals were put in the same room in the hope that they would be of use to one another. And that has happened, he says.

"We send each other work and trade services," he notes. "I can walk down the hall if I need a mobile apps developer."

We send each other work and trade services.

Phil Mercer, owner, Roughneck Graphics

"It's like the skids have been greased," says Frederick Mendler, an occupant of another shared office. "People here know things that we don't know, and that knowledge can come together. And you get inspiration from the others." His startup, TrueAbility, offers cloud-based skills testing for tech job applicants.

The rooms are labeled with letters, followed by a binary number that any geek would recognize as the ASCII value of that letter. (D is 01000100, for instance.)

Welcome to Geekdom. Yes, that's the name of the place.

Co-working space, incubator and more

Combining the growing co-working phenomenon with elements of a business incubator, a business accelerator, a business matchmaker, a public school and a club for geeks, Geekdom is an effort by San Antonio technology entrepreneurs to help their city catch up with other metropolitan tech centers. The results of the interactions among Geekdom's members may be unique, but they're also representative of trends at work in the business incubator and co-working fields.

Maestas, a video producer, feels that it works. "I have been in business 10 years, and over time you lose that startup mentality," he says. "Being here helps revitalize that. Plus, I have gotten business from members," he says.

Geekdom outwardly resembles one of the growing number of co-working spaces springing up around the world; it's a place where anyone with a mobile device can rent a desk (or an office with a door) and get an instant office with Internet, mail, printing and, possibly, phone services.

The difference, explains Nick Longo, Geekdom's administrator, is that people who are interested in being part of Geekdom have to apply for membership as if to a club, showing tech credentials (and affirming that they aren't computer criminals). And they have to agree to, basically, share their skills with their fellow members.

Non-techies like attorneys, publicists and marketers have been admitted, because they have skills that geeks and entrepreneurs need, Longo explains. "I don't turn down that many applicants, to be honest -- maybe 5%," he adds. "I find that most people applying for Geekdom are fully engaged and bring skills that we need."

   

The cafeteria-style seating available for members of Geekdom who do not pay for an enclosed office. Other areas are furnished with couches and oversized chairs.

To fulfill their commitment to sharing, members are expected to provide an hour of service to another member each week, or lead a workshop once a month. Longo says that most give far more than an hour, and the workshop schedule is filled months in advance.

Those who are admitted pay $50 a month for cafeteria-style seating in common areas, or $150 a month for a dedicated desk in a shared office space with a door, parking included. Longo says he tries to play matchmaker with the office assignments. "I will put a developer, a designer, and an marketer together in an office where they will end up creating an ad hoc team," he says.

With or without any pro-geek or pro-collaboration policy, co-working spaces are growing more common. Carsten Foertsch, founder of Deskmag, a Berlin-based magazine, estimates that there are about 1,950 co-working spaces worldwide, with the number growing at an annual rate of about 90%.

Foertsch links the growth of the phenomenon to knowledge workers' reliance on increasingly powerful portable devices, which lets them take their offices with them. Many co-working tenants are involved in startups, and many co-working spaces offer services useful to startups, if only an instant office, he says. But entrepreneurs usually need more than an office: "Many of them also need a supportive network for social and psychological needs," he says.

But Geekdom also has attributes of a business accelerator and a business incubator. Accelerators are privately owned for-profit investment vehicles, offering a startup several months of intense help in return for an equity position, explains Tracy Kitts, head of the National Business Incubation Association in Athens, Ohio. Better-known incubators include TechStars of Boulder, Colo., and Y-Combinator of Mountain View, Calif., he says.

Geekdom fits the business accelerator model because it is actually used as a remote campus by TechStars and is the result of a partnership between Rackspace Hosting of San Antonio (two of whose executives helped found Geekdom) and TechStars, explains David Cohen, founder and CEO of TechStars. Several startups being mentored by TechStars were operating out of Geekdom during the spring, and one -- CloudAbility Inc. of Portland, Ore.-- has since gotten nearly $9 million in funding, says Louis Pacilli, Geekdom's director of education.

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