The Hacker Dojo's Growing Pains

If Hacker Dojo could help it, the days of founding your own start-up company without loads of capital, a building and a sizable staff, would be over. But what happens when the helper needs help?

"We have equipment here that would be too expensive for one person to have in their basement," said Katy Levinson, co-director of the Mountain View organization. "So we pool our resources and make it available for everyone."

A year and a half after being founded by several private donors, "The Dojo," a nonprofit membership community of technology hobbyists and innovators, faced its first big issue. Its 8,000-square-foot building near the entrance to East Highway 237 at 140 South Whisman Road—fully stocked with technical gear and equipment—had no heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) system for climate control.

"The back half of the Dojo was unusable during the summer and winter months," said Levinson. "We had to do something about it."

The directors started an online pledge drive and raised 50 percent of the money. They paid for the new system from their general fund and almost exhausted the fund used to purchase equipment. All of furniture and amenities at the 180-member Hacker Dojo have been donated.

On a typical evening at the facility, groups of people work in the various rooms that the Dojo features. The rooms are first-come, first-served and are often occupied with groups of people who run their own start-up companies.

In one room last Friday, Jason Reynolds, creator of Applications Unlimited and a virtual short-term memory application called "Hindsight," sat with fellow member Larry Maloney, creator of Kiputers, an operating system for computers that allows the technology to develop appropriate user information as children grow in age. These two met through the Dojo and have combined talents to work together on projects.

"This is the greatest place on Earth," Reynolds said with a laugh.

Travis Hoover, Shaya Fidel and Chris Haase—three creators of YourVersion, a company that tailors Web content to personal interests—gathered in another room. They won the People's Choice Award at TechCrunch 50 in 2009 and often work out of the Dojo.

In other rooms, Skydera—a cloud automation platform for IT services that works almost exclusively out of the Dojo—and MicroMobs, an online sharing program for intimate groups of people, were busy at work.

The Hacker Dojo contributes open source software and information to the community and often holds conferences for philanthropic groups, like Random Hacks of Kindness. They have developed code to help relief programs and crisis workers, and are active members of the larger community.

"This is a community of makers," Levinson said of the program. "It doesn't matter what you do, but as long as you have something to create, you are welcome here."

With this community of innovators and creators, Levinson said, it is important to keep the Hacker Dojo alive.

"The c has been incredible to us, but there are standards and codes that simply have to be met," Levinson said.

Already bursting at the seams with members, the Dojo looks to expand. The members have a second building in mind near the current one, but first they need to raise back the money that they've spent.

"Through member donations and the external donations through the pledge drive, we managed to stay in the black," Levinson said. "But we want more financial security before we expand, so we are keeping the pledge drive going to pay for the other half of the HVAC."

Hacker Dojo has raised $17,429, about 49.8 percent of its goal, and needs $17, 571 to go. Fifty-one private donors have contributed.

"I have no doubt that we will make it," Levinson said.