The incubator · ideas stage
The desks pay the rent. This is the reason to come.
A coworking floor keeps the lights on, and people who only need a table to study at are welcome to it. What makes this an incubator is what sits beside the desks: tools to make a first physical thing, a shelf to learn from, and a room full of other people who are making something too.
Planned, not built. Nothing on this page is installed yet; it is the list we are taking to partners and to the interior designers.
01 · A tactile workshop
The Tactile Bench
A stationery and prototyping station by the commons. Print it, cut it, hold it. Most products start as something on paper long before they are on a shelf, and this is where that first version gets made without a trip across town.
The sign above the bench, draft
Make it with your hands.
Going tactile slows you down, and slowing down is how you notice things. You see your work from a different angle, and the problem you were lost in often looks different on paper than it did on a screen.
- PrinterFirst
- A proper printer for physical copies: flashcards, price sheets, label proofs, packaging mock-ups, a page you can write on. Paper and card stock on hand.
- 3D printerFirst
- Small prototypes: a cap, a clip, a handle, a stand. Enough to hold a shape in your hand before paying a manufacturer for a tool.
- Vinyl cutterFirst
- A Cricut for labels, stickers and stencils, so a member can try five versions of their own label in an afternoon.
- Heat pressLater
- Iron-on transfers for custom shirts and tote bags: the first run of merch, one at a time, before anyone commits to a minimum order.
02 · A library
The Shelf
One good bookcase in the commons, stocked with real copies. A shelf of business books you can pick up, borrow for the week and argue about at the next Pastries & products. Clockwork comes first because it is the founder’s favourite.
Where we start
Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself
Mike Michalowicz
Building a business that does not need you in the room for everything. The founder’s all-time favourite, so it goes at eye level.
How you think
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman
Why we trust our first instinct too much, and what slowing down buys you. It sits well beside the sign over the bench.
Starting
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries
Build the smallest version, put it in front of someone, learn, repeat. The case for the print bench.
Starting
The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick
How to ask people about your idea without getting polite lies. Useful before spending anything.
Money
Profit First
Mike Michalowicz
A plain method for small businesses to take profit before the expenses eat it.
Operating
The E-Myth Revisited
Michael E. Gerber
Why a good craftsperson is not automatically a good business owner, and what to do about it.
Things you can hold
The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman
Why some objects are obvious to use and some are not. Required reading for anyone about to 3D print a handle.
Things you can hold
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight
A memoir of building a physical-goods company out of a trunk and a lot of borrowed money.
Selling
Traction
Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
Nineteen ways to find customers, and how to pick the one that fits you.
Selling
Purple Cow
Seth Godin
Being remarkable is cheaper than being loud. A short read for anyone with a label to design.
Selling
Never Split the Difference
Chris Voss
Negotiation for people dealing with suppliers, landlords and wholesale buyers.
Scaling
Built to Sell
John Warrillow
Make a business that someone else would want to buy, which also means one that works without you.
A starting list, to be argued over. Members will be asked to add and borrow, and anyone who wants a book on the shelf can leave it. The goal is physical copies you can pick up, which is the point of the shelf.
03 · The monthly ritual
Pastries & products
The first Thursday of the month, a local bakery brings pastries and everybody brings one thing they make and puts it on the table. Nobody gives a talk and there are no name tags. It is the one event that already behaves like an incubator: people leave with a supplier, a customer or a reason to carry on.
See the dates- First Thursday, 8 to 9:30 am, in the commons and the kitchen.
- Open to everyone: you do not need a desk to come for a croissant.
- Bring one thing you make; the table is the agenda.
- The only rule is that nobody pitches.
04 · The small things
The rest of what makes a floor feel lived in.
A vending machine with Red Bull
Red Bull in the vending machine. No further explanation needed.
Sitting corners
Real armchairs and a small coffee table in the corners of the floor, for a conversation or ten minutes away from the screen. Somewhere to sit that is not a desk.
Lamps, not just ceiling panels
Floor and table lamps as accent lighting, so the room is not lit only by flat overhead office light. We are deliberately not doubling down on the corporate look.
Plants on the west sills
The west windows have a deep sill, roughly 20 cm, enough for a row of potted plants the whole length of the wall.
Prints on the walls
Photographs by one of the founders, framed and hung along the commons and the corridors, so the floor looks like somewhere a person chose to be. Members can ask to hang their own.
Tell us what you would want to make here.
This list is a draft and the people who use the floor will shape it. If there is a tool or a book you would come for, say so.