[hackerspaces] Rent?

[Ben Brown]

On 2/14/2013 5:24 PM, Nathaniel Bezanson wrote:

> So, rewinding to the very early days, getting started, the founders recognized something that I now realize was crucial: People will put money towards something they believe in, even if it hasn't happened yet. It's funny because it seems so obvious in the Kickstarter-as-household-word era, but at the time it wasn't obvious to me. So before that first space, the meetings in the coffee shop and the build sessions in SWiT's garage, there was cash collected in an envelope, and the more fun we had together, the faster it grew. That envelope paid for paperwork filing fees, insurance, deposit, rent, etc, until such time as we set up regular dues. Dues were a flat $100/mo in the early days, and I don't remember when we switched to the present split, two rates of $39 and $89.
>

This is exactly how we started Kwartzlab. We started meeting in coffee
shops, garages and at the local university showing projects. We made
sure we had critical mass before we pulled the trigger on a space (which
for us was 17 people contributing $100-300 each to get the ball
rolling). Took about four months (much of which was spent planning the
organization and what we wanted in a physical space).

Ben