
The benefits of working underground in Durham, NC - javery
http://team.adzerk.com/post/6354206244/the-benefits-of-working-underground-in-durham
======
dh0913
Cool article. Our office is down the street from the American Underground and
I'm down there fairly regularly. The space is definitely starting to gain
quite a bit of traction and is getting to be a popular location for small
teams that need a starter office. The Underground's growth is probably due to
the growth of the Durham entrepreneurial community in general. There has been
a lot of startup activity in the area over the past couple of years and it
doesn't show any signs of slowing.

I'd love to see Durham get a co-working space of some sort (something I've
heard is in works), which might be a way for even smaller teams to meet other
people and work together.

~~~
aaron-nc
I can tell you with some certainty more co-working/collaborative space for
tech startups and tweeners is coming to downtown Durham :)

~~~
dh0913
Awesome. That's what I've heard. :)

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daviddavis
I worked in the adzerk office this past weekend during Triangle Startup
Weekend. At first I was a little bothered by the lack of natural light but I
quickly got used to it and actually enjoyed the environment/architecture
there.

Since moving to the triangle though, I think the best decision I've made is
moving to Durham. It's still affordable, has a lot of character, and offers
the same amenities that Raleigh and Chapel Hill offer. I think this why the
startup scene in Durham is taking off.

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dylanrw
It's awesome to see NC on the front page of HN and it not be related to how
backwards our new broadband laws are. :D

I was curious if anything similar to American Underground existed in the
state, glad to see it does. Thanks for writing!

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peterstjohn
Durham gets a bit of a bad rep from the rest of the state, but it's an awesome
little city on the quiet - in addition to the tech startup scene, it has a
blossoming food truck community, a big arts scene, tons of bars, and they
didn't bat an eyelid when my wife and I applied to get married by CCB Plaza in
Pac-Man outfits last year :).

(and on that note, when I finally get this damn visa, anybody in the area
interested in hiring somebody with sysadmin / JavaScript/Ruby development
experience? ;))

~~~
shantheman
We (Spring Metrics) are indeed interested in hiring Ruby devs.
<http://www.springmetrics.com/jobs.html> When does the visa arrive? Can you
bribe someone to get it faster? ;-)

~~~
peterstjohn
If only I knew! It should be relatively soon now (next month or so), but we've
managed to hit so many bumps along the way, including a period where the visa
application sat untouched in Texas for almost six months last year, that I
don't want to jinx it :).

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macrael
Durham's a great town putting a lot of effort into enticing startups to settle
there. Check out Bull City Forward <http://bullcityforward.org/> an incubator
backed in part by the city.

------
ericboggs
More about the Durham, NC start-up scene here:
<http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/>

~~~
mindcrime
And since we're on the subject, don't forget RTP Hackers & Founders:

<http://www.meetup.com/RTP-Hackers-Founders/>

And also, Triangle Tech Talk:

<http://triangletechtalk.com/>

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gordonbowman
I grew up in Durham, NC so it's great to see startups like Adzerk doing well.
It's clear that the startup scene in the Triangle (with all the tech talent,
access to universities, etc.) is blowing up. Keep it up!

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espadagroup
Durham is definitely one the fastest growing startup hubs in America.
ReverbNation.com, where I work is here and it's awesome, we're also hiring :)

~~~
gsaines
Hey espadagroup, I'm applying around for jobs in the Raleigh/Durham area. I
just got done with my first startup and moved to the area recently. I applied
to the PM position at Reverb but never heard back. If you guys are still
looking for someone to fill that role, drop me a line.

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mindcrime
For anybody "looking in from the outside" here's an article about the Startup
Weekend that was held here, just last weekend. It might help you get a feel
for what the startup scene here is like:

[http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/968...](http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/9687876/)

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dgunn
I noticed LaunchBox in the article and with all the Durham-ites replying to
this post, it's a perfect time to ask: Are they still a thing? Their website
shows no signs of having the program again this year and their last blog post
was in February.

~~~
javery
The rumor is that they won't be doing an incubator class anymore - they want
to move up stream and do more fund style investing.

~~~
dgunn
Thanks for the reply. That's interesting. Do you know if this was by choice or
if they just couldn't make their original model work in Durham?

~~~
javery
Pretty sure it is by choice - I know at least 4 of the last class have already
secured funding.

------
malandrew
How are the Ruby, Python, Javascript and Clojure communities in the area?

What startups in the area are in the consumer tech space?

I was given the names of a bunch of people in the startup community there by
Fred Hutchison, but I was very disappointed to find out that none of them were
on Quora. This left me with the impression that there isn't much of a
community or that the community lives in a bubble that is separate from
instead of networked with the tech communities in Silicon Valley, NYC,
Boulder, Austin and Boston.

~~~
mindcrime
_How are the Ruby, Python, Javascript and Clojure communities in the area?_

There's a very strong Ruby community here... Lots of companies using Ruby, and
a very active Ruby user's group with multiple hack-night events throughout the
month, at different parts of the Triangle.

The Clojure community is pretty strong as well, due to the presence of
Relevance, Inc. in Durham. Relevance seems to employ almost everybody that's
anybody in the Clojure world (ok, maybe a little bit of hyperbole, but it
feels that way sometimes) and there's an active Triangle Clojure Meetup. Not
sure what other companies in the area are using Clojure though.

There are active user groups for both Javascript and Python as well, in
addition to .Net, PHP, Java, a "JVM Languages" hack-night group (for Scala,
JRuby, Jython, Groovy, etc. folks), and a number more than I'm sure I'm
forgetting.

We also have a very active Lean Startup group.

 _What startups in the area are in the consumer tech space?_

For a list of area startups, see:

[http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/startup+direct...](http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/content/startup+directory/8880)

 _I was given the names of a bunch of people in the startup community there by
Fred Hutchison, but I was very disappointed to find out that none of them were
on Quora._

Hmm... there are definitely some Triangle area startup folks on Quora. I know
a few of them offhand:

<http://www.quora.com/Phillip-Rhodes> (that's me)

<http://www.quora.com/Nathaniel-Talbott> (runs Spreedly and organizes the Lean
Startup Circle and the Ruby Meetup)

<http://www.quora.com/Jimmy-Thrasher> (another Ruby guy)

<http://www.quora.com/James-Avery> (founder of AdZerk, is posting on this
thread, I believe)

<http://www.quora.com/Chris-Redinger> (organizes the Clojure Meetup)

<http://www.quora.com/Kacy-Fortner-1> (works for AdZerk)

<http://www.quora.com/Wayne-Sutton> (co-founder of TriOut)

<http://www.quora.com/Daniel-Chalef>

<http://www.quora.com/Glen-Caplan-1>

<http://www.quora.com/Eric-Martindale>

<http://www.quora.com/Anthony-Joaquin-Raphael-Deloso>

<http://www.quora.com/Ryan-Allis>

etc., etc...

~~~
malandrew
The disappointing thing is that the only person on that list with any real
activity was you and many of the others only have activity related to their
startup. Which RTP startup people are active HNers besides you and javery?

What about interface and ux design talent in the area? Anyone notable?

When is the next decent event between now and the 21st? I'll be in Raleigh
until then before I fly back to São Paulo and then move to SF in August. I'd
like to get an idea of what is going on here before I go.

~~~
mindcrime
_Which RTP startup people are active HNers besides you and javery?_

I know there are more of us here, but I don't know everyone's HN username.
Offhand I can think of kacyf (works with javery at AdZerk)
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kacy>

and Corey from Blinkness: <http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Cblinks>

I know there are others, I just can't tell you who they are on here, from
memory.

 _What about interface and ux design talent in the area? Anyone notable?_

A lot of the folks that work at Viget Labs are pretty sharp on UI and UX. We
had a great UX team assembled at Lulu.com at one time, but unfortunately that
team got broken up, some people moved away, some people went to other
companies, and some people I just plain lost touch with. But yeah, there are
some UI/UX people here who do some nice work.

<http://www.viget.com/>

 _When is the next decent event between now and the 21st?_

Hmmm... we've had a flurry of stuff just in the last few days, so I'm not sure
what else is going on this month. Let me glance at some calendars and I'll
post an update later. Or maybe somebody else will have something "on the tip
of their tongue" so to speak.

------
tundro
I second what everyone's saying about the the underground. My company scoped
out an office down there, but we opted for the Snow Building on Main Street. I
think not having natural light would have bothered me, but the trade off is
having good companies very near by. Either way, there's lots of affordable
office space in Durham and the business community (particularly the start-up
community) is strong and getting stronger.

~~~
covati
I hear you man, snow building is where it's at.

~~~
mindcrime
The Snow Building is extra cool, just because of the presence of
SplatSpace![1]

[1]: <http://www.splatspace.org>

------
snikolic
I'm happy to see NC even mentioned in the startup world. I'm tired of people
raising an eyebrow at the 919 area code on my business cards. D-TOWN, STAY
DOWN.

------
pstinnett
American Underground is very nice. I was there for the first time a week or so
ago for the Triangle Cocoaheads meet up and was very impressed with the space!

------
DanielBMarkham
I live a couple of hours away from Durham and might be interested in coming
down and staying in some temporary housing while trying out the startup scene
there. But what's the deal with Underground? Is it an incubator? An office? I
went to the site and I was unable to determine if I was looking at office
space or applying to be accepted somewhere.

~~~
kacy
For the most part, it's more of a fraternity for geeks. You get to know other
companies and their employees a lot more than a traditional office park. Every
office has a huge glass wall that faces the hallway, so you get to see the
same people every day as they pass by your office. You'll often find local
angels and VC's in the hallways and conference rooms. The space is designed
for startups. Small spaces for early stage companies, at a decent rate, with
short lease terms.

As far as housing goes, I /think/ West Village in downtown Durham does 3 month
leases, but I would check on that. Of few of my friends from the last
Launchbox class stayed there. It's a bit expensive relative to the area
though, so I would look around if you're on a budget.

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rrwhite
Wait a sec, weren't you the same guys that told me you started to go stir
crazy working in an office with no natural light? :)

It's a really cool place. I love a dark room to work in but I worry about the
long term effect of working in a basement (bunker).

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aninteger
The title of this link is confusing. The place referenced is the American
Underground. It's not actually subterranean or below ground. Confusing to an
outsider.

~~~
mindcrime
It's in the basement of the building, I think that's where they derived the
name.

