Today marks the opening of Hub Bay Area, a member-based work and event space for social innovators to work, meet, connect and inspire. Located at the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Calif., Hub Bay Area offers social entrepreneurs, freelance professionals, artists, funders, students, mentors, and community leaders a dynamic space to access market opportunities and capital, build community and scale ideas.
Hub Members receive a set of tools and services from a community of professional hosts, mentors and local enterprises who are passionate about building and scaling innovative ideas. From donated legal services, to mentor office hours, to unlimited coffee and tea, Hub Members gain valuable support in a nourishing environment. Prospective members should e-mail [email protected] for more information.
The concept of The Hub borrows from a member’s club, business incubator, idea lab, and inviting coffee shop, to create a work habitat for social innovators. The Hub began four years ago in London and quickly spread to 18 cities and across four continents. Today, there are nearly 4,000 Members of The Hub, interconnected by a place-based and online network.
Hub Bay Area, the first Hub location in the United States, was started in partnership with Hub Global by a San Francisco-based team who founded Good Capital and The Social Capital Markets Conference (SoCap). “We are thrilled to be working with the people from Good Capital and SoCap, and the stellar team they’ve put together,” said Jonathan Robinson, co-founder of The Hub Global. “We have known them for years and are impressed at what they have accomplished at the forefront of a new kind of investing, and at the way they have been able to convene and build strong community.”
Hub Bay Area was designed by a team of architects, Hub Members, IDEO and MBA students at UC Berkeley’s Haas Business School. The space at the David Brower Center features collaborative workspaces, meeting rooms, private phones booths, kitchen and cafe, and lounge areas that reflect the dynamic working needs of its members.
A primary vehicle for supporting Hub Members is The Hub’s Innovation Series, which began July 27 with Money, Mobs, and Media – a dialogue between the founders of Kiva, Virgance, and Change.org, about creating and scaling community-driven non-profit and for-profit social enterprises. The Hub Innovation Series will regularly produce interactive events focused on inspiration, aspiration and operation of social change.
“We are providing a home, inspiring community and support structure for those who are building solutions for people and planet. By connecting change-makers, sharing resources, and cultivating new ideas, we can massively increase the scale the impact of our collective work,” says Alex Michel, Managing Director of Hub Bay Area.
Hub Bay Area will open its doors September 1 in conjunction with the start of SoCap09, which will feature the world’s leading social innovators and impact investors. SoCap09 will be keynoted by Sonal Shah, director of social innovation at the White House. The Hub will also be at SoCap, providing a Hub Lounge to connect attendees, while also hosting an evening with IDEO, Kiva, Acumen, Full Circle Fund, and other leading, local social enterprises.
Plans are in place to extend Hub Bay Area to the Mission District in San Francisco in early 2010, and into the South Bay in 2011. “Bringing the Hub concept to the Bay Area and beyond is a natural extension of what we are already doing,” says Kevin Jones, a founder of both Good Capital and SoCap. “We convene many of the people who are making the social capital market happen in an annual conference, but The Hub is where the rubber meets the road every day of the year.”
For more about The Hub, SoCap09, or Good Capital, please contact 415.624.5881 or email [email protected].