Hub of Awesome | Interview With Ann Le Managing Director of Hub LA
One month old Hub LA already has over 100 members! They didn’t use any magic, its just what they offer and an awesome community of friends, press and members.
TechZulu caught up with Ann Le, MD of Hub LA and we learned about their business acceleration services, social/civic events, and cultural/arts and above all programming sessions!
How unique is Hub LA?
The Hub is unique because it is the first membership club structured for impact professionals in Los Angeles. We are creating a community and look to serve as a catalyst for our members to further their positive impact in the world and reinforce their social entrepreneurial missions. We are not just focused on Start-Ups nor do we refer to ourselves as a co-working space. What we offer is much more curated, thoughtful and mission driven.
We are purposely not sector specific, but encourage diversity of sector and skill-set in order to spur collaboration that leads to social innovation. We have members at all phases of development from an idea to an established company with a few million in revenue. All members have the expectation of giving back to one another and further each other’s success. As a team, we host members, facilitate collaboration, introductions, and produce programs and formats for members to engage and plug in.
We are not open to the public. Our membership application process is focused on the individual and the action they are taking to make the world a better place; that is the threshold to entry, versus whether they have a start-up that is VC ready or they just need workspace; it’s based on values-alignment; we also work with small companies and start-up teams and have custom team-based membership packages. The packages are monthly and can flex up or down as needed.
What are your affiliations/partners?
Hub LA is based on a global brand started out of London. We’re the second North American Hub to go online behind Hub Bay Area (SOMA and Berkeley). Hub Seattle recently has opened and there are 7 more Hubs expected to come online in the next 15 months.
Our partners include: Take Part/Participant, GOOD, Proprietors LLC, Seso, IdeaMensch, Root, Haworth Furniture, to name a few and of course, our network of Hubs.
What do users gain if they choose Hub LA?
Part of our membership club includes access to programming and experiences designed to connect people, build relationships, and unleash creative thinking including an emphasis of integrating personal and professional development. We believe physical environments matter when trying to create, collaborate, and innovate, and we have put an emphasis on the design of the space, and materials used trying to be as sustainable as possible in our build-out and operations. For example, we have an upcoming workshop with VC expert Jon Funk of Ocean Road Partners and Fran Seegull (also Hub LA advisors) specifically on raising social enterprise capital and investor presentations.
How big is the space?
Approximately 4,000 square feet of creative industrial space in the up and coming Arts District of DT Los Angeles.
How do you make money?
The underpinnings of the revenue model is crowdsourced, membership/subscriber model.
We have different membership packages depending if you are looking to be involved and access programming and events; use the space to take meetings and socialize; or need a place to be productive.
Any amazing outcomes i.e entrepreneurs/venture out of the hub yet?
At just a little over a month old, we already have almost 120 members! Our biggest outcome to date is that we are growing and doing so rapidly. We see our outcomes everyday on a variety of scales – members from different sectors exchanging ideas for the first time, to meaningful press, collaborations and thought-leadership coming from our members. We are just about to launch programming that is Hub LA and member-driven that combines business acceleration services, social/civic events, and cultural/arts programming.
