Jeff’s Austin Blues

Informative session on co-working, shared workspaces: coffeehouse groups, incubators, labs, studio spaces, etc.  One thing that came up repeatedly is people looking for the business model.  A very useful model I found for many things is a metaphor from Fritz Lieber’s sword and sorcery fantasy series.  In the main city there is a street that runs from a city gate all the way to the main temple at the center of the city.  Someone comes in from the desert with a vision and begins preaching.  If he/she attracts a crowd he/she stays and expands the vision and the crowd/congregation.  If not, back to the desert for a better vision.  Congregations and the preacher may expand until they move into a building.  There is continual movement of congregations moving up and down the street as their size/wealth/etc. increase and decrease.

I’ve found this a useful business model, a fine grained spectrum of niches.  None of the “You Must Be This Tall For This Ride”.  In Austin, someone may start selling tamales out of their truck, progress to a taco trailer where you can touch all four walls without moving, then a taco truck, a bigger taco truck, then a permanent location while building a restaurant on the other end of the property.  One big stumbling block is downsizing as gracefully.

If tacos are your thing, BBQ.  Start selling the meat and meals out of the back of a truck, then a BBQ pit on a trailer, etc.