 I am fortunate to have been raised by a strong independent woman and had the opportunity to grow up alongside 3 other strong independent women (and If you don’t believe us, just ask our husbands). I get to connect and collaborate with amazing women in my workspace and have had the opportunity to launch some great initiatives in Richmond with women to create projects like Ready To Work: Girl Ambassador Program with Girls for A Change, Unreasonable Labs RVA, CostartersRVA, VCU Pre Accelerator, RVAMakerfest, Artisan Pickles, and #RVAVdayLOVE. When thinking about what one single woman I wanted to give a huge shout out today, I paused. My hesitation was obviously not because of a lack of connections to great women, but it was a deeper thought around the idea of showcasing and celebrating women and wondering what are the next steps. What is the impact of putting one woman on a pedestal for the day when we can be creating calls to action to our fellow brothers and sisters? A good friend and founder of Girls for A Change, Angela Patton, recently told me that she purposefully doesn’t smile on her business card photo because she is serious about her work and doing work to bring up black girls and other girls of color is incredibly hard work. This sat with me in a deep way because I know Angela and we smile all of the time when we are together, but I also know her work and I know her truth. I also know that there are many people who don’t know this work or understand the work and may never understand why she wouldn’t smile. Today, on International Women’s Day, I want to smile and be celebrated and celebrate all of the great women around me, but we need more. Depending on the type of work you do, it is still nonstop hustle as a white woman and nearly impossible as a woman of color. There are still hundreds of conversations where we walk out of the room and we know we are not understood. There are still thousands of rooms that we are not invited into and we have to hustle to be there to have a seat at the table. Women are under resourced, we have our ideas taken, we are misunderstood, we receive less pay and we oftentimes become competitive because we have to learn how to fight to survive when our default nature is to bring everyone together. Fighting to survive is not the way to create change. It is not about women overthrowing men to create the new future— that is simply history repeating itself. Change comes when we are all sitting at the table together and that is why today, I want to highlight Paulo Gregory Harris's work because he uses his privilege as a man to tell this story and realize that female leadership is what can bring everyone together. When I heard him speak about this for the first time, I was sitting in a room full of 500 people at the Kauffman Eship Summit and it brought me to tears. It brought me to tears because it was the first time I actually heard a man truly understand this work and offer a solution. Fortunately, the Kauffman Foundation recorded the story of Paulo’s work and I can share it with you. Today, I have a very simple ask for International Women’s Day:
For men: listen to Paulo’s story, share it, and tell your story of how you are embracing and supporting women by sitting at their table, funding them, and inviting them into their network. For women: listen to Paulo’s story, share it, and tell your story of the brave men that are embracing and supporting you by sitting at your table, funding you, and inviting you into their network.
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 I work with all types of startup founders ranging from local bakers to technologists that are hoping to change the world through their software solutions. More often than not, I find that many entrepreneurs that are just getting started or are launching a new product spend a lot of time worrying about perfecting their product or adding more features, tweaking their logo, or focusing too much on their business plan before they ever get in front of customers. It is nearly impossible to build a business where customers are not at the center of what you do.
In our recent Co.StartersRVA program, there was a specific instance where one of the founders had her breakthrough moment. We were talking about a series of products she was going to launch and she spent a lot of time thoroughly researching product combinations but was getting stuck in the cycle of too much ideation and not enough feedback from customers because everything was still on paper. I challenged her to bring a prototype of her product combinations to class the next week and not worry about it being perfect. The goal was to get it in front of her peers to see what they would buy and to take it from being an idea into a successful sale. Over the course of the next five days, she sourced products and was able to bring a first version of her prototype to class. She immediately was able to get feedback about what people would and would not buy once she got these in front of potential customers. Within a few weeks, she attended a pop up market and launched her website and sold nearly 90 units in her first month. I'm certain that the products she is selling today and the website she just launched will likely look different over the course of the next year or two, but all of her decisions will be based on what her customers are buying from her (or not buying from her) and she can refine her product offerings. One of my favorite questions to ask in scenarios like this is what does an 8 year selling lemonade know about entrepreneurship that we forget about as adults? The 8 year old is willing to sell lemonade in paper cups with a poster board sign and a folding card table to make money and not overthink their prototype. They are not worried about how many different types of lemonade they could offer or what color glitter glue to use on their poster board sign or if they should have a fancy awning on their lemonade stand. A fancy awning, a variety of lemonade offerings or a sparkly sign doesn't matter if no customers walk by the lemonade stand. The 8 year old can keep moving their card table setup until they find a busy intersection where customers will drive by or walk up to them and buy lemonade. Once they find enough regular customers, they can improve their setup by adding an awning or testing lemonade flavor options or recipe combinations. My goal is to get every entrepreneur to the point where they can sell like an 8 year old at a lemonade stand and get their first customers to pay for their products or services (while accepting that the first batch of lemonade will not be perfect nor will the location or the setup).  We're honored to be listed as a top 100 coworking space in the US! After 4 years of coworking with amazing people, we're proud to have nearly 80 members who call 804RVA their home away from home. We are more than a workspace, we are a family of entrepreneurs, freelancers, and remote workers. On any given day, you can find a member reaching out to someone else in the community for feedback, support, or to hire someone for a contract or full time position. The people in our community are what have helped us grow to the point that we have been recognized as a top coworking space. Here's to many more amazing years of coworking!
If you want to check out our workspace, drop in for a free day! Congratulations to #804rvawolfpack members Andrea Goulet and Tony Landreth (and unborn baby, Ada) of Corgibytes for being a RichTech finalist. They were featured at the #RichTechGala this evening (RichTech is also a member of 804RVA). We love our members!   Describe more in depth what you work on while at 804RVA.
I have two lines of work currently -- I'm a software developer and sysadmin at Sea Island Software, a small company that provides live hurricane data maps and visualizations to emergency managers working for local governments in tropical storm-prone areas. Currently, I'm re-writing the central data feed code to make it more flexible and to add some GIS features to it. At the same time, I still provide some consulting services through my personal company, Sorrel Tree, which mostly has been in system administration and devops. My focus there is mostly helping small companies work towards getting their systems (primarily Linux) running in a more sane and manageable way. I've also worked on projects involving code analysis, geoinformatics, and some plain old desktop tech support. I've particularly enjoy working for fellow 804RVA members Richmond Analytics. So, most of the time when I'm at 804, I either have my head in Python code or I'm bashing away on a Terminal window. How did you find out about 804RVA, or who introduced you? Google. I wanted a coworking space in Richmond with a good vibe. Found it! What challenges you most about your industry or craft? On of the most simultaneously rewarding and challenging things about the kind of work I do is how much continuous exploration it requires to keep an understanding of how the tools I use work and when to use them. It's rewarding because it means that there's a lot of value in trying out new tools and reading about new ways of doing things, which I really enjoy. The downside of that is that sometimes I'm on a limited schedule and a budget, and I really need to get a problem solved, but I'll end up spending weeks trying to make one solution work and end up having to throw all of that away and start over. In the long run, I find that time always ends up being worth it, when that experience means that I can solve a major problem in under an hour with some technique I've learned, but it makes it very hard to accurately estimate how long things will take. It's also a blow to my sense of work ethic, productivity, and accomplishment when I spend weeks on a task and have nothing to show for it. However, given the rate at which technology changes and the complexity inherent in solving complex computing problems, I don't know of any better way to stay current. Seminars, talks, and meetups are good, but nothing beats hands-on tinkering. What do you enjoy most about being a member of the Wolfpack? (As I always note, a lifelong UNC Tar Heels fan cannot in good conscience call himself a member of a "Wolfpack," but that aside...) For both Sorrel Tree and Sea Island Software, I spend a lot of time working by myself trying to solve problems. It is an enormous help to have other developers and Linux users both in person at the coworking space and on the Slack channels to bounce ideas off of and vent frustrations. Beyond that, the general industriousness and atmosphere of productivity always helps an attention deficit-stricken brain like mine stay on task and push through tough projects. What's one interesting, funny or weird fact no one knows about you? A year after I was born, the hospital I was born in closed and was converted to a public, statewide, residential magnet school called the North Carolina School of Science in Mathematics, which I attended and graduated from. I had biology classes on the floor where the maternity ward used to be. Go Unicorns! (Yes, that's actually our mascot.)  by: Trevor Dickerson
What is the name of your company, project, or hobby? Nyoo Co. & EXP CULTURE LLC Describe more in depth what you work on while at 804RVA. I am a wearer of many hats, who may seem utterly confused about what he should be doing more often than not, especially at 804RVA. As the founder of Nyoo Co., I work as a freelance Photographer/Videographer and Event Producer, utilizing underground culture to promote the immense talent that our artistic communities have to offer. My projects aim to utilize technology and visual content to promote local artists, and expose them to a larger audience. As a dancer myself, I teach various styles of urban and funk dances such as Breaking, Locking, Waacking, Popping, and House. With our newest startup, EXP CULTURE LLC, my team and I are attempting to graduate a whole community of college age dancers and artists into a self-sustainable market. At this early stage in the company, our team is ambitiously hoping to offer services that include events production, content production, fashion apparel, as well as talent management and representation. We believe that a strong community at the foundation of a group of people makes the difference between a passing trend and a healthy market. Additional projects that I'm working on at 804RVA include web design, graphic design, and web development, especially because I increasingly feel left out and un-hip midst a room full of web developers. I also teach Tae Kwon Do on rare occasions... How did you find out about 804RVA, or who introduced you? Google! ...Seriously. What challenges you most about your industry or craft? When entering into a relatively young market demographic, there is no precedence that you can base your business model on. Whereas some industries have remained the same over decades, artists and the communities that form around them are incredibly difficult to win over, especially over a long period of time. The urban dance and music culture seems to be in constant flux, and so far, there hasn't been a clear business model that prove to be successful while maintaining the integrity of the communities that are involved. What gets me up in the morning (or at least most mornings) is the challenge of coming up with a business model that is profitable, and at the same time, strengthens the market and culture over time. At the same time, this is what also keeps me up every night. With that said, if anybody disagrees with the above statement, please tell me so! What do you enjoy most about being a member of the Wolfpack? What I found at 804RVA from talking to and learning from the members of the Wolfpack is what I had been missing for years. For someone who has just taken the plunge into the world of freelance, startups, and small business all at once, the knowledge and advice that is graciously and freely given is invaluable! I can't thank you guys enough for helping me get to where I am now! I can't believe how thoughtful and caring everyone is at 804RVA. I only hope that I can pay it all back... and/or forward! What's one interesting, funny or weird fact no one knows about you? I carry around a metal bat almost everywhere I go because I feel like it helps me think, and also because I found it at a Goodwill for $4. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to come up with a better reason to why I carry around a metal bat with me wherever I go. So, now you know. Learn more about Ben's work >> by: Trevor Dickerson  What is the name of your company, project, or hobby?
VANCE. Describe more in depth what you work on while at 804RVA. I'm the head honcho and lead communications strategist at VANCE, a local PR outfit. PR isn't just about getting ink. We marry the art of storytelling with the science of digital strategy, helping brands delight and captivate their audiences, wherever they happen to be. I've been in the business for 15 years and haven't had a dull moment yet. How did you find out about 804RVA, or who introduced you? Trevor Dickerson. What challenges you most about your industry or craft? Albert Einstein said it best: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." PR people must become fluent in the industries they represent. Even if it's not rocket science, every practitioner faces a learning curve when trying to understand the jargon and dynamics of a given industry. I spend a lot of time researching and asking questions, not only in the beginning phase of a project, but throughout the client relationship. It also means I get a lot of "behind-the-scenes" experience, from nuclear power plant tours to backstage antics. While research is among the most challenging aspects of my job, it's what I love most about it. What do you enjoy most about being a member of the Wolfpack? The camaraderie and creativity. After two years at 804RVA, I still get a friendly invitation to Tea Time every morning. I meet some of the smartest, most interesting people here. There is always a discussion about how to improve our city and I love being part of that. Plus, they make good coffee. What's one interesting, funny or weird fact no one knows about you? I'm a good travel companion. I can make small talk and get directions in 6 languages. Learn more about Kelly's work >> by: Scott Ford Looking to introduce your friends and family to the wonderful world of computing? In the honor of Hour of Code and Computer Science Education Week, here are some great resources for students of all ages and skill levels: Scratch Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu) is a great environment for learning to make the computer do things. Fun things, like move a monkey around on the screen. I made a small project to celebrate Computer Science Education Week, and to think the teachers that got me started. (http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/15283467/). Scratch's drag and drop interface helps create an intimate relationship with the different operations that it provides. It reminds me a lot of playing with Lego. 
Logo If you'd like to try typing out commands, then I highly recommend taking a peek at Logo (http://el.media.mit.edu/logo-foundation/logo/turtle.html). To see Logo in action, visit http://www.calormen.com/jslogo/, click on an example in the sidebar and then click on the "Run" button. 
LittleBits If you'd like to take a stab at making the world around you light up and move, then I suggest taking a peek at littleBits (http://littleBits.cc). These little devices make creating hardware computing projects dead simple. No wiring. No soldering. Just magnets and fun! 
Lego Mindstorms Interesting in trying to mix software and hardware together? Then check out Lego Mindstorms (http://mindstorms.lego.com). Lego Mindstorms centers around a smart Lego brick, that you can program (with Logo!) and make your creations move. There are even some school teams that compete with each other to build little bots that perform specific tasks (http://www.firstlegoleague.org). So go forth! Have fun! And make your computer and other devices around you do things. It's fun and rewarding. 
Scott is a Code Whisperer at Corgibytes (http://corgibytes.com). There he works hard to breath new life into old software projects. by Andrea Goulet Ford  The wolves are out at 804RVA in celebration of Wolf Shirt Wednesday. We’ve all had a blast sporting our lupine pride, but we thought we’d let those of you who couldn’t join us in person in on the fun. A (Very) Brief History of Wolf Shirt Wednesday In 2008, Brian Govern, a law student at Rutgers University, noticed an advertisement for the “Three Wolf Moon” shirt while he was shopping for textbooks on Amazon.com and posted a parody review: Pros: Fits my girthy frame, has wolves on it, attracts women Since he posted this original comment, over 2,600 similar reviews have appeared, clearly creating a buzzworthy trend. The first instance of Wolf Shirt Wednesday we could find comes from Urban Dictionary in 2010: The one day in the week where mere mortals can wear an alpha garment that symbolizes, you, much like the predator adorned on your chest, are a mysterious lone wolf who knows how to howl at the moon from time to time and are infact born to roam. Today, the trend continues with proud wolf shirt wearers tweeting and instagramming about their wardrobe choices using the hashtag #wolfshirtwednesday. Why Celebrate? Larkin Garbee, 804RVA Chief Imagination Officer, began the tradition in 2012 as a way to get members to know each other. As she explains, “People get to identify with a community and express themselves as individuals. It’s fun. Kind of like Halloween. You know you look silly, but that’s okay because everyone else does too.” The first 804RVA Wolf Shirt Wednesday took place on September 12th, 2012. “It was a really memorable event,” says Dan Kanatch, 804RVA member and owner of One Duck Creative. “After work we all went to Hardywood and I knew who was an 804RVA member because of the shirts. It really helped break the ice. In fact, some of the people who I hang out with all the time now were people that I first met on wolf shirt Wednesday.” Some members even credit their productivity to their wolf shirts. “I never miss a wolf shirt Wednesday,” says Zach Sisisky with Richmond Autism Connection. “It really helps me feel productive and like I’m part of the community. I haven’t been in [the physical space] in weeks, so when I saw there was a wolf shirt Wednesday, I cleared my calendar so I could make it.” Growing the Wolfpack As with any trend, a good thing is bound to catch on. This year, 804RVA teamed up with Blanchards Coffee, brewing their special EagleWolf blend for the occasion. And, after work, both organizations agreed to celebrate their wolf shirt wearing by going to nearby Hardywood Brewery. “Wolves are the 804RVA mascot,” Garbee explained. “It’s a common misconception that self-starters, like wolves, are solitary animals. In fact, they are extremely social, gregarious, and loyal to their pack. I hope other self-starters start wearing wolf shirts as a reminder that even though they’re working on individual projects, there is a vibrant community here to support them.” Where to Get Your Wolf Shirt If you’re interested in joining the wolfpack, here are some vendors that you’ll want to check out:
As for our community, we’ve decided that activities like Wolf Shirt Wednesday are a reflection of why we all enjoy being a member. As M. Scott Ford of Corgibytes, LLC put it, “Wolf shirts are great. But at the end of the day, it’s a way to really get to know someone… and that leads to real business.” Ford attributes more than 75% of his clients to referrals through the 804RVA network and says he can’t wait for the next quirky event that 804RVA dreams up. |
Larkin Garbee
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