Asked via email how Independents Hall–better known as IndyHall among Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial set–came to be, co-founder Alex Hillman provided a series of answers from IndyHall members listed chat-style in his reply. It was fitting, considering that IndyHall, like the actual historic Independence Hall a few blocks away, is built on the idea of community.
IndyHall is, in a basic sense, about co-working. It’s a shared, 4,400 square-foot workspace in Old City for techies, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, marketers and videographers, among others. Members, who pay anywhere from $25 to $275 monthly, have access to workstations, audio/visual equipment and other standard office features (coffee anyone?). IndyHall also holds about a dozen monthly member events, like late-night work sessions.
Members also have access to the large, swirling community of ideas and all the minds and characters that shape them inside IndyHall, which has led to some pretty interesting products in just a few short years from IndyHallLabs–a loosely-aligned collaboration that has the benefits of an incubator without any of the formality.
“Like IndyHall, IndyHallLabs is a support structure for reaching goals and lowering barriers to entry,” says Hillman. “With smart people sharing space, and a community of trust, idea sharing becomes inevitable.”
IndyHallLabs is responsible for Multiplex, best described as iTunes for your movie collection, and Twistori Desktop, which personalizes Twitter exploration, to name a few. Hillman says more than 100,000 people have consumed products built in the “Labs,” and he’s hoping to recruit more members to encourage even more idea development.
“Not only are ideas being built into things more often, but those things are being sold for money,” says Hillman. “We help people realize the value of their contributions.”
Source: Alex Hillman, IndyHall
Writer: Joe Petrucci