Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
On a muggy spring morning, TechArtista Collaborative Working Environment is buzzing with activity. A group meets in an office suite with a floor-to-ceiling glass wall. Natural light fills the space, where two giant pyramids rise above the lobby. Elsewhere, it has kitchens, a gym, showers, and a ping-pong table, plus all of the typical work apparatus: printers, conference rooms, high-speed Internet…
On the third floor, Eric Hamblett paces back and forth, talking on the phone. When the call wraps up, he strides over to his desk; adjusts his shirt; and sits down, upright as a sequoia, in front of a large desktop computer. TechArtista’s co-founder and managing partner, Hamblett can appreciate the shared workspace, where entrepreneurs network with like-minded individuals. It provides self-employed freelancers and independent business owners with offices and services at a fraction of the typical costs. It’s a need that Hamblett knows firsthand.
While attending Washington University, he and business partner Chris Holt developed Bazaarboy, an online event-ticketing company. After graduating last year, they went searching for affordable office space. They considered other co-working spaces, but hoped to stay close to the Central West End. That’s when they met longtime CWE residents Jim and Nicki Dwyer, who owned what was then a vacant building at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Washington Boulevard. “They have a strong vision for what the Central West End could be in the future and what it is,” Hamblett says. “They saw that we had a similar vision that can make that happen.”
TechArtista was born.
Less than a month after its May 1 grand opening, the building’s 25-plus private offices were almost entirely filled. And plans call for more offices on the 13,500-square-foot building’s second and third floors.
“We want to be known as the ultimate professional, flexible space,” says Hamblett.
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St. Louis’ co-working scene has evolved quickly in recent years. Different from a business incubator, which funds and mentors a company for a set time, co-working spaces give companies room to grow from an idea into an actual business at their own pace.Today, there are co-working spaces downtown (Lab1500) and in South County (The Hive@44), spaces devoted to tech companies (T-REX) and writers (STL Writers’ Room). Prices go from $25 for one visit a month at The Hive@44 to several hundred dollars for a private office at T-REX.
Cambridge Innovation Center, a property-management powerhouse for startups based in Massachusetts, plans to open its first branch outside Cambridge in the Central West End’s Cortex district, which is currently home to about 60 startups. This summer, Cortex announced a $5 million renovation of its Center for Emerging Technologies, with construction expected to begin in September and the Cambridge Innovation Center overseeing operations for at least the next three years. In addition to a new name—CIC@CET—the center will soon have an overhauled reception area, offices with short-term leases, and (what else?) a new co-working space.
Given the rapid growth of co-working spaces in St. Louis, it’s hard to believe that the first such collaborative space here got its start just four years ago.
When Nebula Coworking opened in July 2010, Cara Spencer set up shop there. At the time, she was a programmer for a pharmaceutical market-research startup. She recalls the space’s humble beginnings: “It was me; Jason [Deem, Nebula’s owner]; Eleven magazine; a nun; and some other dude. That was it.” Located in a former probation office at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street, Nebula got started at a time when the Cherokee Station Business District’s rebirth was still in its infancy; Spencer recalls emailing her co-workers to escort her to her car after work.
“Now, I walk around with my 3-year-old at night without a care,” she says. “I’ve watched Cherokee Street evolve into something very safe and fun. I really wanted to be on the team, on the side that was making that happen.”
Today, Spencer is Nebula’s director of business development. She greets others there by their first names. “I think that collaborating—just talking with somebody who does something totally different than you—is so incredibly important to the creative process,” she says. “Everything we do is inherently creative.”
T-REX is another popular destination for tech startups that has experienced rapid growth. The co-working space/tech incubator was founded in 2011 as a joint venture between the St. Louis Regional Chamber, the Downtown Community Improvement District, and the city of St. Louis. After only a few years, T-REX outgrew its original home at the Railway Exchange Building and bought the Lammert Building in the Washington Avenue Loft District. It has inhabited the sixth, seventh, and eighth floors there for months. And with a growing number of companies looking for space, it’s still expanding.
On our visit, the fifth floor is stripped to its bones. Kevin Farrell, a co-founder of T-REX and senior director of economic and housing development at The Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, walks through the site and outlines the ambitious construction plans. “The idea is to demo the space and renovate it,” he says, “make it a cool open space that will serve both our co-working members and their public component.” Among the planned amenities are new classrooms, a conference center, and a café lounge. By the time you read this sentence, the floor may already be a bustling colony of commerce.
T-REX houses an impressive list of organizations. Arch Grants, iTen, Cultivation Capital, and SixThirty are among its anchor tenants. Then there’s Capital Innovators. This year’s U.S. Seed Accelerator Rankings named it the seventh-best business accelerator in the nation. Companies in Capital Innovators’ portfolio have raised more than $75 million in follow-on funding and include recognizable names like aisle411, Bonfyre, and Click With Me Now.
Biannually, Capital Innovators takes five companies under its wing that receive $50,000 in seed money in return for equity. They then undergo an intensive 12-week entrepreneur-ship program, working with mentors at companies like Energizer and Sigma-Aldrich. “In our model, we try to help you accomplish in three months what might have otherwise taken you a year to do,” says director of operations Scott Bernstein, who oversees Capital Innovators’ portfolio of 34 tech companies. “We have the system of pure accountability, project management, mentorship, and learning sessions that allow you to accomplish so much.”
Many entrepreneurs quickly realize the value of working in such a hotbed of activity. “They’re surrounded by a lot of innovative people who have encountered many of the challenges that some of these unrelated tenants might have faced or are going to face,” Bernstein says. “That wisdom could easily benefit a company, and the connections are extremely important. I think it’s one of our greatest strengths, the ability to connect one another and leverage those connections to help people.”
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Work isn’t the only key to St. Louis’ startup scene, though. “People are running a nine-to-five,” says Hamblett. “What they’re talking about is that five-to-nine.”
In other words, he’s concerned with keeping young professionals in St. Louis, even after they start their companies. To that end, TechArtista is launching Keeping Young Talent Engaged. The program will pair St. Louis college students and young professionals with local business opportunities. Hamblett refers to it as a “matching program” to retain talent. He hopes to enroll 20 to 30 participants by next summer. In addition to its own efforts, Keeping Young Talent Engaged will support other programs, including a summer program at Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies that takes students on tours of the regionand its co-working spaces.
It’s a mission that hits close to home for both Hamblett and his business partner, who grew up elsewhere before attending Wash. U. Holt was raised in Hong Kong, and Hamblett spent time in seven countries: Belgium, Cameroon, France, Gambia, Ghana, Greece, and Morocco. But while both partners grew up overseas, they’ve now firmly planted their flags in the Gateway City.
“St. Louis bleeds like an entrepreneur, with its small-business mindset,” says Hamblett. “It made sense for us to stay.”
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COMING TOGETHER
In case you’re looking to set up shop in a collaborative work environment, there is no shortage of options across the region.
Claim St. Louis: 515 Olive, Ste. 600, 630-614-1123, workatclaim.com
Cortex Innovation Community: 4320 Forest Park, Ste. 201, 314-531-4500, cortexstl.com
The Hive@44: 1710 Fenpark, Fenton, 636-405-3130, thehive44.com
Lab1500: 1500 Washington, 314-329-8755, lab1500.com
Nebula Coworking: 3407 S. Jefferson, 314-632-6488, nebulastl.com
STL Writers’ Room: 2101 N. Locust, 314-669-1872, stlwritersroom.com
TechArtista Collaborative Working Environment: 4818 Washington, techartista.org
T-REX: 911 Washington, 314-399-8739, downtowntrex.com
