Clubhouse celebrating a decade of helping startups
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - The Clubhouse is a nonprofit group that fosters innovation and collaboration in midsized and rural communities, and it’s about to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
It was founded by Eric Parker.
“It’s called the Clubhouse for a reason, because it really is just like ing a club there. And we’re really focused on how everybody in our community can really thrive and participate in the innovation economy.”
The focus is on helping people start businesses and learn how to code, Parker said.
“The first step is just go on our website and you can sign up to be a member. It’s free to initially if you want to come and work out of the space,” he said. “And we have different rates if you want to come and work for the day or if you want to get your own private office and be there for the month.”
Participants get a free workshop on how to start their own business.
The 10th anniversary is coming up on Dec. 2.
What we really want to do is just highlight the impact that the organization has made over the last 10 years,” Parker said. “It’s astounding to look back at because when you’re running this thing, you’re sort of in the weeds of it every day.” But when he looks back and sees how many people have been helped, he’s amazed.
“We did everything from, like, TEDx Augusta to an event that was called Super Happy Block Party. And so we do all sorts of crazy things that are just designed to get people together. And we’re going to kind of treat our birthday party like its own crazy thing to help celebrate that.”
Just like every other business or group, COVID affected the Clubhouse.
“We were fortunate in a way that we had been built as an innovation lab for the community,” Parker said. “And so we actually leaned into that role during the pandemic.”
It designed and produced reusable masks for first responders in the community.
“We actually ended up patenting our own process for how to make the filtration piece because none of that material was available in the community,” Parker said.
Looking to the future, he said, “we’re kind of looking at it through two lenses in Augusta.”
They’re trying to automate some things so people can take classes on demand from their living room whenever they want to, “so that we can meet you where you are, and then also when you complete the program.”
He also wants to automate the ability for participants get capital and start a company.
And then ultimately, we’re taking that entire model and we’ve been growing it across the country,” he said. “We’re already in four states, so we’re not just here in Georgia and statewide in Georgia, but we’re in Colorado, North Carolina and South Carolina.”
Over the next few years, his hope is to grow to all 50 states “and demonstrate that we can make a billion dollars of economic impact through ing startups in small communities.”
He was an architect before he started the Clubhouse.
“We were all recovering from the financial crisis from when Lehman Brothers collapsed,” he said, “and you can imagine that hit the architecture and real estate industry tremendously.”
That situation allowed him to see how he could use his skill sets to help the community grow.
“And it’s taken me to the White House,” he said. “I’ve testified in front of Congress. It’s been an amazing journey, and those are the types of things that, when I was just an architect, no matter how much I loved my buildings, I didn’t have those types of opportunities.”
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