NextSpace Coworking + Innovation | The (r)evolution of Work.

Last month, NextSpace celebrated its first birthday.  I’m equal parts thrilled and humbled by what NextSpace and our community have accomplished in the last year.  We’ve created a community of over 150 members, we’ve helped stimulate the local economy, we’ve developed a strong relationship with UC Santa Cruz, and we’ve helped reshape the landscape of work.  Not bad for a year’s effort.  I’m grateful to the hundreds of members, supporters, evangelizers, mentors, investors, and teammates who have made our first year a huge success.

But given the current state of the economy, I think I’m most proud of this accomplishment: over the past year, NextSpace, Inc. has created five full- and part-time jobs.  And that number doesn’t take into account the jobs that our members and their companies have created.  At a time when the national unemployment rate is at its highest point in a generation and as the specter of a “jobless recovery” looms large, NextSpace and our members are doing something remarkable:  we’re creating jobs.

How?  By creating the infrastructure and the community that freelancers, independent consultants, and start-ups need to make their businesses successful.  The economic downturn has forced a lot of people into these employment categories and NextSpace has been there to provide a safe haven.  Even better, we’ve provided the networking and collaboration opportunities that many of them needed to land their first gigs, close their first deals, and connect with their first teammates.  And through our sponsorship of Freelance Camp (http://www NULL.freelancecamp NULL.org/), Hope Foundry (http://hopefoundry NULL.com/), Girls in Tech (http://girlsintech NULL.net/), and the UC Santa Cruz Business Plan Competition (http://bizplancontest NULL.soe NULL.ucsc NULL.edu/), we’re providing the training that these new entrepreneurs need to make their ideas fly.

Over the past year, we’ve noticed an interesting trend:  many of the people who have been forced into entrepreneurship (make no mistake, a freelancer is an entrepreneur and I’ve begun using the terms interchangeably) have no intention of ever getting another “real job.”  Sure, they’ve been able to make a living and pay the bills.  But they’re finding that entrepreneurship has a bunch of intangible benefits.  These entrepreneurs like their newfound professional flexibility as opposed to the daily grind.  Many have ditched their daily commutes.  And they’ve become more engaged with their communities and their families.

For many of our members at NextSpace, freelancing and entrepreneurship have ceased to be a stop-gap measure or a “career of last resort.”  Instead, they’re using freelancing to take control of their lives and their careers.  Our members work when and how they want, on projects that make the best use of their skills and passions, and in a way that allows them to more fully integrate work, family, and the environment.

Companies like NextSpace are providing the community and physical infrastructure these entrepreneurs need.  Companies like Elance (http://www NULL.elance NULL.com/) are creating new marketplaces that connect freelancers with clients and provide a virtual space to find, manage, and complete high-quality work.  And (slowly!) policymakers are beginning to consider revamping the outdated legal and regulatory infrastructure that governs the “old” way of working (check out this op-ed (http://www NULL.metrosantacruz NULL.com/metro-santa-cruz/09 NULL.16 NULL.09/news2-0937 NULL.html) that my co-founder Ryan Coonerty and I wrote on healthcare and entrepreneurism).  Collectively, we’re creating a new landscape that allows NextSpace members to choose entrepreneurism as their job, rather than instead of their job.

Which brings me back to job creation.  When Ryan and I were doing our business planning for NextSpace in the spring of 2008, we made a remarkable discovery.  More than 6,000 businesses are licensed to operate in the City of Santa Cruz and nearly two-thirds (dude, two-thirds!) of those businesses have exactly one employee.  So Santa Cruz is a town full of freelancers numbering nearly 4000.  And that number doesn’t count the hundreds of freelancers that haven’t bothered to get a business license.  As Ryan has brilliantly observed, if half of those businesses were able to bring on one more employee, it would be the largest job-creation phenomenon in the history of Santa Cruz.  Imagine replicating that phenomenon in hundreds of communities across the country.  We’d chase away the specter of a “jobless recovery” pretty quickly.

Posted in Jeremy's Blog

By now, almost everyone in the entire known universe has seen the Huffington Post’s mashup of Sarah Palin vs. That Crazy Santa Cruz Lady. (http://www NULL.huffingtonpost NULL.com/2009/07/27/sarah-palin-vs-that-crazy_n_245779 NULL.html) Whatever you may think of the former Veep candidate, the young Santa Cruzan in the video ranting to the city council about pesticides and slavery in an attempt to, um, participate in our local democracy doesn’t do much to dispel a popular stereotype of Santa Cruz: that ours is a quirky, un-serious town.

I won’t try to deny that Santa Cruz is a quirky place. In fact, I wouldn’t want it any other way. What the rest of the world may see as quirky, most of us Santa Cruzans see as tolerant, welcoming, creative, and innovative. Still, I’m troubled by the possibility that the viral spread of the Huffington Post video is giving our fair seaside town a bad rap. So in the interest of providing a more complete version of the character of Santa Cruz, please take a spin through the following few items:

–In this short video (http://www NULL.cruzbusiness NULL.com/the-economic-report-cnn), Greg Gumble (yep, THE Greg Gumble) from The Economic Report shows why Santa Cruz is a unique ecosystem that boasts a balanced lifestyle, a history of innovation, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and a highly educated workforce. These are the exact ingredients for a strong, vibrant economy and we’ve got more than our fair share of those ingredients in Santa Cruz.

–Santa Cruz is loaded with creative designers, scrappy entrepreneurs, and savvy business people. This video (http://dustynelson NULL.com/index5 NULL.html), produced and directed by NextSpace member Dusty Nelson, features a who’s who of local educators, engineers, bankers, designers, government officials, and CEOs, all offering their pitch on why Santa Cruz is a great place to work, live, and play. Take 10 minutes and watch the whole thing. It’s an awfully damn impressive piece of filmmaking and showcases some of the world-class talent in this town.

–Speaking of world-class talent, check out this Business Week article (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/01/plantronics_alt NULL.html)about Santa Cruz-based Plantronics (http://plantronics NULL.com) and Altec Lansing (http://alteclansing NULL.com/).  Together, these companies racked up six innovation awards at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.  Tens of millions of people all over the world use their award-winning products and every one of those products was designed right here in Santa Cruz.

–What about the money? You need a pile of it to build great companies, not an easy task in these cash-strapped times. But local social networking start-up UserVoice (http://uservoice NULL.com) recently landed $800,000 in seed stage capital. AlgaeOMEGA (http://www NULL.nytimes NULL.com/gwire/2009/05/12/12greenwire-nasa-bags-algae-wastewater-in-bid-for-aviation-12208 NULL.html), a bio-fuels company spun out of research at NASA and UC Santa Cruz, received another $800,000. NextSpace member Carmen Kubas led her company, Lightfoot Industries (http://www NULL.lightfootind NULL.com/), to a third place finish in a regional venture capital competition.  And local heroes 12seconds.tv (http://12seconds NULL.tv/) are luring investors with their new iPhone app and their huge community of users. Want to invest in some of the hottest new companies across a range of industries? Look no further than quirky Santa Cruz.

Like any city, Santa Cruz has lots of faces. We’re a surfing town, a tourist town, and a university town. Despite our depiction in the Huffington Post Santa Cruz is a town that’s building an enviable ecosystem of business, lifestyle, and innovation. What’s our secret? We take ourselves seriously, just not too seriously.

Posted in Jeremy's Blog

As you probably know by now, our mission at NextSpace is (wait for it!) to catalyze local talent, local ideas, and local capital in Santa Cruz to create products, services, and solutions for the global marketplace.  A hugely important repository of talent and ideas and, indirectly, capital is right in our backyard and is, in my humble little opinion, completely underutilized as a community resource:  the University of California Santa Cruz (http://ucsc NULL.edu/public/).

I won’t go into all of the recent and longstanding town-gown issues between the city and UCSC.  Instead, I’ll simply assert that NextSpace cannot reach its full potential as an entrepreneurial catalyst and Santa Cruz cannot claim its rightful place as a world-class innovative community unless we take positive steps to access the wealth of talent and ideas resident in the faculty, students, and staff at UCSC.  So, here are a few examples of what NextSpace and UCSC have done together to build some bridges:

UCSC Business Plan Competition

Last month, UCSC held its first-ever business plan competition (http://bizplancontest NULL.soe NULL.ucsc NULL.edu/).  The inspiration of Steve Bourdow from the Baskin School of Engineering and a group of entrepreneurial undergrads, the competition was a huge success.  Mostly, the competition proved that there is a nascent spirit of entrepreneurship at UCSC.  I served on the competition’s advisory board and helped screen the semi-finalists. And NextSpace was proud to host the semi-final event.  The energy at NextSpace shot up on the day of that event as we were flooded with enthusiastic, eager competitors.  I’m not shy to say that I was incredibly impressed and deeply moved by the passion and the smarts that these kids displayed.  A few of the finalists will be pitching for capital at an event at NextSpace next week, and a couple of the competitors have joined us a members.  It’s safe to say that the competition exceeded everyone’s expectations, marking the beginning of a new era of entrepreneurship at UCSC.  Yeah, that sounds kind of lofty.  But I think it’s true.

Senior Design Competition

Twice a year, seniors in the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programs at UCSC participate in a Senior Design (http://www NULL.soe NULL.ucsc NULL.edu/news/event?ID=1662)capstone course.  Students work in cross-disciplinary teams to complete a significant interdisciplinary design project.  At the end of the course they compete for cash prizes and street cred.  This year, NextSpace and the Soquel Group have partnered to offer a prize for the Most Commercializable project.  You can read our fancy press release here (http://www NULL.nextspace NULL.us/files/NS-SG Most Commerical Prize_PR NULL.pdf).  Last week, I spent some time with David Munday, who was the winner in 2007.  He’s now a Ph.D. candidate and the TA for the Senior Design course.  He gave me a quick rundown of the projects that the students are working on this year.  I was blown away.  The competition is tomorrow, June 12th, so stay tuned for results.  I’m prepared to be amazed.  So should you.

Pilot Project for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Now almost a year old, PPIE (http://www NULL.cruzbusiness NULL.com/category/programs/ppie) is a collaboration between the City of Santa Cruz and UCSC.  And from what I can tell, it was one of the first positive steps between the two entities after the settlement of their mega-lawsuit.  PPIE gives undergraduates an opportunity to put their classroom training in business and economics to practical use by working on projects in fields such as alternative energy, medical devices, and transportation systems.  Many of the PPIE students also served as interns for companies at NextSpace such as Quiddities and Open Spectrum.  And I had the honor of speaking to the students at their end-of-year wrap up.  Make no mistake:  the undergraduates at UCSC are smart, serious, and ready to contribute to the Santa Cruz economy.

NextSpace and Shakespeare Santa Cruz

We’ve had a special relationship with Shakespeare Santa Cruz (http://shakespearesantacruz NULL.org/) a world-class reparatory theater company resident at UCSC for a while now.  A couple of SSC board members were among our very first NextSpace members and we’ve supported the organization by providing space for some of their staff and board meetings.  But we’re most proud of the fact that SSC chose NextSpace to host the kickoff of their emergency fundraising campaign.  At that event, I had the pleasure of meeting Marco Barricelli (http://www NULL.shakespearesantacruz NULL.org/about/marco_barricelli NULL.php), SSCs artistic director, who gave the simplest, most impassioned, most articulate defense of the arts and why the arts are a critical part of any community.  Tonight, Marco will be our special guest at a roundtable discussion about the intersection of the arts and technology and how those two sectors overlap.  Along the way, we hope the conversation will broaden into a discussion of the essential ingredients of a world-class creative and innovative community.  But I’m sure of this:  the world-class talent at SSC is an absolutely essential part of the creativity and innovation in Santa Cruz.

So that’s a quick snapshot of what NextSpace and UCSC have done together.  What do you think?  What opportunities might be ahead?  I’ll say it again:  NextSpace in specific, and Santa Cruz in general, cannot reach its full potential unless we work together to unleash the talent, ideas, and capital resident at UCSC.  I’d love to hear your ideas.

Posted in Jeremy's Blog

Holy cow, raise the roof, and batten down the hatches! There has been a veritable deluge of press lately about NextSpace members. If you need any further proof that NextSpace is full talented people with amazing ideas who are committed to putting Santa Cruz on the map as a hub for innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship, well, read on:

The boys from 12seconds.tv (http://12seconds NULL.tv) graced the cover of last week’s Good Times (http://www NULL.gtweekly NULL.com/20090520426926/good-times/covers/the-war-on-solitude) magazine. The article focuses on the meteoric rise of 12seconds. But it also tells the story of how this homegrown Santa Cruz company has relied on community, collaboration, and a ton of hard work to create the world’s coolest social media company.

UserVoice (http://uservoice NULL.com) got some great press in the Wall Street Journal (http://blogs NULL.wsj NULL.com/venturecapital/2009/05/19/newly-funded-uservoice-makes-sense-of-beta-feedback/) recently. Why? Because they just closed an $800,000 angel investment round. ‘Nuff said.

As you may have heard, the economy isn’t doing so hot these days. Small cities like Santa Cruz are getting especially hard hit, leaving our fair seaside town with an $8 million budget shortfall. Literally overnight, NextSpace members Shane and Peter, Inc (http://shaneandpeter NULL.com)., put together an interactive website (http://budget NULL.santacruzcityca NULL.gov/) (with the help of the newly-funded guys from UserVoice (http://uservoice NULL.com)) to help local citizens understand the scope of the crisis. But here’s the cool part: citizens can use the site to suggest ways to close the gap, giving elected leaders immediate, aggregated feedback on what their constituents think. Check out the Sentinel article here (http://www NULL.santacruzsentinel NULL.com/ci_12440194). Attention governments of all sizes: small, agile innovators might be your best bet for solving our current financial mess.

Economy got you down? NextSpace members Sean Tario and Nick Sobrak-Seaton are here to cheer you up. Sean and Nick with the help of fellow ‘spacers Ryan Coonerty and the team at Parachute Creative (http://parachutecreative NULL.com/) just launched a campaign called Santa Cruz Makes Me Happy (http://happysantacruz NULL.com/). You can read the press here (http://www NULL.santacruzsentinel NULL.com/ci_12450509). Sure, this site might sound a little fluffy. But attitude is everything in life. And with so many amazing attributes and so many talented people, it’s hard not to feel just a little cheerful here in Surf City.

NextSpace member Sun McNamee was profiled in a recent article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel (http://www NULL.santacruzsentinel NULL.com/ci_12286963). A filmmaker, editor, and designer, Sun is a part of Awake Media (http://awakemedia NULL.net). Most impressive is her affiliation with Youth Empowering Youth, where she mentors high school girls in the making of short documentary films and teaches them the power of media.

The Sentinel also profiled (http://www NULL.santacruzsentinel NULL.com/ci_12450508) NextSpace member Rich Mundell from Udutu (http://udutu NULL.com). An e-learning company based in British Columbia and Santa Cruz, Udutu boasts some big clients like Microsoft and the United Nations. Which means Udutu does a nice job of validating the NextSpace mission of making Santa Cruz a hub for providing products, services, and solutions for the global marketplace.

Then there’s the heartbreakingly wonderful story of NextSpace member Dave Wardle and his daughter Sofia. Dave took a sabbatical from Critical Networks to create the Sofia Maze (http://www NULL.sofiamaze NULL.com/), an interactive game to honor the memory of his daughter, who recently passed away from a rare disease called histiocytosis. Dave’s efforts garnered plenty of press and attention. This clip (http://www NULL.ksbw NULL.com/news/19275421/detail NULL.html) from local NBC affiliate KSBW does a nice job of telling Dave and Sofia’s touching story.

Last, but certainly not least, is a profile of the Q-Mamas from Quiddities (http://quiddities NULL.com/). The headline of the article (http://www NULL.santacruzsentinel NULL.com/ci_12080200) in the Sentinel perfectly captures the spirit of Quiddities, the spirit of NextSpace, and the spirit of this community: Santa Cruz Tech Company Thrives on Collaboration. That just about sums it up.

Whew, okay, that’s quite a round-up. Whenever people ask us about the early success of NextSpace, we’re always quick to give the credit back to our members. They’re the ones on the front lines of innovation and entrepreneurship. And this deluge of press is proof of their hard work and effort. Things are happening in Santa Cruz, folks. Come on down, check it out, and get on board.

Posted in Jeremy's Blog

At NextSpace, our mission is to catalyze local talent, local ideas, and local capital in Santa Cruz to create products, service, and solutions for the global marketplace.  One way we accomplish that mission is by producing our quarterly NextSpace Investors Forum.  Tonight, five great local companies will be pitching to a group of two dozen local angel investors.  We’re proud to say that all five companies fall under the broad umbrella of clean, green, sustainable, and local.  Here’s the low-down:

1) ZoomPool (http://zoompool NULL.com/) will be presenting their platform for a safer, more reliable rideshare/carpool matching service.

2) Studio Cruz (http://studiocruz NULL.com/), an industrial design company, will be presenting a prototype for their disruptive innovation: a continuously variable gear system for bicycles.

3) RideSpring (http://ridespring NULL.com/)will be presenting their web-based service that make alternative commuting easier, more convenient, and more rewarding.

4) Verdafero (http://www NULL.verdafero NULL.com/), an enterprise software company, will be presenting their enterprise-based SaaS product for managing your company’s triple bottom line.

5) Neighborsville (http://neighborsville NULL.com/), a Web 2.0 company, will be presenting their hyper-local social networking platform.

What about the angel investors?  Here’s a flavor of who will be there: current and former CEO’s of publicly-traded companies; current and former senior managers at big companies like Intel and eBay; serial entrepreneurs who have founded and led companies to seven-, eight-, and nine-figure exits; attorneys with plenty of experience with start-up deal flow; former hedge fund managers and private equity managers; serial angel investors who have made early placements in companies like Google and Sun Microsystems; and former statewide office-holders (these guys might not write checks, but I bet they know people who will….!).

So, local talent? Check. Local ideas? Check. Local capital? Check. Product, services, and solutions for the global marketplace? Check, check, and….check.

Something very special is happening in Santa Cruz around entrepreneurship and sustainability.  Thanks to all five of tonight’s companies for having the brains and the guts to be a part of it.  And thanks to the NextSpace community–and all the entrepreneurs, geeks, and innovators in Santa Cruz–for creating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in this amazing little seaside city.

Meanwhile, if you’re an entrepreneur looking for a chance to pitch, or if you’re an investor looking for a chance to help build the Santa Cruz economy, please drop us a line (nextspace null@null nextspace NULL.us).  I’ll say it again: Something very special is happening in Santa Cruz around entrepreneurship and sustainability.  Get on board.

Posted in Jeremy's Blog