Coworking Makes A Splash Into San Marcos

By, Terra Rivers

San Marcos’s independent professionals discover a new community with the city’s first coworking space.

While the home office offers flexibility and freedom, it doesn’t always foster productivity, structure and community like a traditional corporate office does. Independent professionals have found that a decrease in their productivity and an increase in isolation.

But in 2005, a software developer from San Francisco, Brad Neuberg, took Bernie Dekoven’s term coworking and used it to describe “a physical space where independent and mobile workers came together to work in a casual environment.”

There are approximately 23 coworking spaces in Austin, 1 in New Braunfels and approximately 10 in San Antonio. Now San Marcos is joining the industry and opening their own coworking space.

Splash Coworking is San Marcos’ upcoming edition to downtown. The new business will provide freelancers, entrepreneurs and startup business with the community environment one gets from a traditional office setting.

“Co-working really blossomed in 2010,” Carina Boston Pinales, COO of Splash Coworking, said. “It was basically a husband and wife, who had space in their tiny apartment that they utilized as an office, and they realized how lonely and isolated it was. They started inviting friends and other people, who were working in their own offices, to come and join them.”

Pinales said the idea to introduce a coworking space to San Marcos came from her own need as a social impact consultant, who was working on her own.

“I couldn’t find an office space that made sense to me,” Pinales said. “It just wasn’t the right fit.”

While working with businesses and people in Austin, Pinales used coworking space to meet with clients and was approached by several people about the concept. She later reached out to coworking pioneers and started developing and asking what it would look like for San Marcos.

“In January, I wanted to see what it physically looked like so I started hosting popup coworking days,” Pinales said. “And those popup coworking days were a real hit. I was just hoping for one or two people to show up, but we had a successful fifteen people show.”

Pinales said she continued hosting popup days about once a week, which continuously brought in a diverse and different group.

But Splash isn’t just about office spaces. The coworking space will offer business workshops, continued education opportunities, financial literacy and advisement and programming and support. Pinales’s goal is to help startup businesses and entrepreneurs take the next step in their brand.

“A lot of people have a good concept or an idea or a hobby that they’re working on,” Pinales said. “And they want to take it to the next level, but they don’t know how. The small business association is a good resource, and there are others that are available that people don’t have access to. Or they don’t know what the first step is.”

Splash has partnered with Acion, a financial literacy organization, to help people find the resources they need. Acion and Splash hosted a webinar for local entrepreneurs and startups to help find solutions and resources that would most benefit the individual’s business. The event was part of the mermaid week.

Pinales said the reason Splash worked with Mermaid Society was because the vision of community and collaboration was very parallel to what the society was trying to cultivate in San Marcos.

“We very much purposely chose to partner with Acion,” Pinales said, “Because I wanted to know I had a dependable partner. But most importantly, they work with poverty level and minority business.”

Pinales said she felt it would be a good partnership going in; she believed Acion would be able to provide financial resources and understand clients who have different needs than other startups might.

Though Splash hasn’t held many popup days over the summer months, it doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten the interest. The group is currently looking for a permanent location to set up shop.

“What we’re looking at right now is roughly about 2500 sq. ft.,” Pinales said. “We would really be able to scale to a larger space, but we want to make sure we organically grow with our members.”

The space will include private offices, community desks and meeting rooms. Companies and independent professionals can join or pay a door fee for a single day.

Though there are many other options for coworking space available in New Braunfels, South Austin and San Antonio, Pinales said people have been knocking at their door for a permanent space. Splash seems to have a unique following, she says.

While the hunt continues, Splash may look for a temporary place to set up a coworking space. They’ve got a few places in mind and hope to announce their permanent location within the next few months. But no one is announcing anything just yet.

“I visually thought about how either businesses or certain industries come out of a town or a community,” Pinales said. “I also wanted to make sure we identified with the river in San Marcos because to me, it was the most important and vital resource that we have in our city. And just hearing the sound of splash and the visual and that reference to making a splash makes you think of San Marcos.”