Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Rosillo.
Andy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
What began as a gentrification project, also gave us the opportunity of taking on the challenge of promoting DTLA. We can honestly say that we have seen the changes in DTLA as good as anybody else, from seeing the diversity of our members, to the residential growth in the area and the sprouting of new business that have become part of the DTLA identity. We wanted to further that conduit via coworking.
A spin-off of INDIE PRINTING, Indie Desk set out to provide freelancers in any industry, a space to work from. We set out to create a vibrant community and creative hub for tech, creative and freelance entrepreneurs, with the hope that they would someday graduate from our space to one they can call their own, while providing an infusion of quality job opportunities and expendable income that will fuel our local economy.
Thanks to Brookfield properties, Indie Desk gets to continue that work from its new location in the towers of Bunker Hill. With millions of available square feet – The financial district in Bunker Hill is poised to become a tech, creative innovative business hub for years to come.
Has it been a smooth road?
Originally, the idea was to cater to creative types. Graphic designers, illustrators, photoshop and photographers as well as writers, bloggers and influencers. We felt confident in reaching out to those type of freelancers, because we had a base of about 10,000 customers from Indie Printing we could tap into.
Then Garcetti got elected and immediately went on a national tour promoting the city of LA and its appeal to tech and innovation. What he really meant to say was, hey we have silicon beach and Venice, Santa Monica. What people heard, was DTLA. Our phone began to ring. Within months, we were sold out.
The shift was made, from creative types primarily to tech and innovation. Their needs were team based, more than 2-3 members, rather than the individual freelancer.
Soon enough, we would need more space to take on the demand.
Brookfield to the rescue! Brookfield has been very supportive of Indie Desk providing us with amazing opportunities in their Class A towers in Bunker Hill. For the last since 2016, Indie Desk has been a tenant at the Wells Fargo tower in DTLA.
The towers of DTLA are going through a renaissance in positioning themselves as the destination points for tomorrows tech, entertainment and innovation startups. As owners of 6 towers, Brookfield properties has supported efforts such as Indie Desk to further the rebranding of DTLA as a tech destination and a hub for innovation.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Indie Desk – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We provide a desk, private office, meeting/team rooms and conference rooms. More importantly a community of fellow entrepreneurs which have a common goals and challenges. We are latinX centric as well as other minorities.
We are known for offering an option of considerable value, compared to other spaces. We are also known for being the home for some notable startups born out of Indie Desk, such as Loot Crate, VRLA, Visionary VR, MindShow, Burner, and others.
We are proud of being in a position in the market place to be able to draw amazing kinds with very good ideas, but lacking the financial backing and support of more well to do entrepreneurs.
We are in the process of expanding our offerings by launching our own Incubator and Accelerator called Acelera.LA with the mission of helping Latino startups.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
The city of Los Angeles is unique in that it is also the home for the entertainment capital of the world. It has been fairly easy to recreate the magic of Silicon Valley in other parts of the world, bring venture capital near universities, tap into the students from these schools, promote entrepreneurship and have the echo-system evolve so that it allows for coworking, incubators and accelerators to emerge and drive the industry.
What has not been easy or almost impossible to recreate, is Hollywood. Creativity is difficult to amass, nurture and bundle into an enterprise of the magnitude found in the cities of Hollywood and the City of Los Angeles.
What will the next 5 or 10 years of innovation look like? We are poised to find out. With various pockets within the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area of convergence of capital, tech, innovation, education and grass roots tech movements, we are just now starting to see companies such as Mitu, Snapchat, E-gaming, gaming and other tech industries benefit from the convergence of what is best about our city.
What we like least is the lack of public transportation. We need to mature not only the infrastructure but the access and education to what is existing already.
Pricing:
- Shared Desk – $150 a month – No contracts
- Dedicated Desk – $275 a month – No contracts
- Dedicated office – $900 a month – no contracts.
Contact Info:
- Address: 333 S. Grand Ave 33
- Website: www.indiedesk.com
- Phone: (213) 221-2836
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiedesk/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indiedesk
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/indiedesk
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/indie-desk-los-angeles-6
Image Credit:
Indie Desk
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
