Dear Hub LA members, investors, supporters, advisors, and friends,
It is with such great joy that we write this letter to you today to announce that in September Hub Los Angeles will move into its new home at 830 Traction Avenue, Ste. 3A in the Arts District in Downtown LA. This moment is a testament to all of you who are the visionaries, the optimists, and the re-solutionaries - the individuals who know the power of ideas and have labored to bring them to life. It is you who have held the collective vision of what the place and community of Hub Los Angeles and in the days and weeks to come we will see it come to life together. We are honored to be on this journey with you.
It has been a long road since Nick and I first toured Downtown LA with Jonathan Robinson, the founder of The Hub in London in 2008. We were in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the great depression, about to elect the “hope” president and watching the pillars of our economic system shift from under our feet. As young professionals who had built our short careers around making positive impact, Nick and I knew that we were not alone in our desire to meet and collaborate with other values-aligned professionals who knew it was going to be up to us to create the change we wanted to see in the world.
As we walked the fourth street bridge and looked at the Downtown skyline, we envisioned what Hub LA could be in a culturally diverse city filled with millions of people and with the greatest rate of entrepreneurship of any city in the U.S. For many, achieving the “American Dream” means living in our City of Angels with perfect weather, palm trees, high mountains, the ocean, and perfect sunsets. For Nick, being a third generation Angeleno, dreaming and being entrepreneurial was part of his family’s DNA. This pioneering spirit and creativity, is also what drew me from Milwaukee over 13 years ago. We believe there is no lack of creative, inspired professionals in this city that we love, but there is a lack of connective infrastructure, access to resources, and relationships, that diminishes the potential of this great place. So, we began the journey of creating Hub Los Angeles – a place of possibility where a community that believes in the power of people to create positive change; in our ability to work together, to resource one another; in our maturity to figure out how to journey together; in the power of collective wisdom and in the hard work it takes to bring ideas to life, can grow and thrive.
We could not have done our part to make Hub LA a reality without a community who helped breath life into the idea. We’ve been very fortunate. And even with the support, it was a very hard, long road. Over the last several years, Nick and I have gone through what most entrepreneurs experience: we’ve lived off savings, worked other jobs, cut expenses to a bare minimum, and relied on family to get us to this point. We know there are so many more people like us - people who have great ideas on how to create change that benefits people and planet, willing to sacrifice and work hard, and use enterprising means to bring their ideas to life, yet who are less fortunate in terms of access to make their ideas a reality. That is what this journey to create Hub Los Angeles is all about.
So today, Nick and I are taking a step back from the day-to-day work of physically building Hub LA to be reminded of the love we have for this city, and see what an incredible community has come together to make Hub Los Angeles a reality. This love letter is for you, the community that believes in the entrepreneur, the risk-taker, the change-maker, the one who questions, disrupts, and forges new roads - you have inspired Hub Los Angeles. You are Hub Los Angeles. Help us make this the community that we envision and all desire. Please share the news of Hub Los Angeles with your friends and colleagues. We look forward to seeing you at Hub LA in September!
With love and gratitude,
Elizabeth and Nick
Co-founders
Jen Uner – August 9th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Congrats on the endeavor and welcome to the neighborhood! We’re just around the corner, at 923 E Third St #111. With a few creative firms, we’ve been doing a monthly Arts District Mixer for the past few months and look forward to more reasons to gather. We look forward to getting together some time!
Cheers,
jen
Chance Barnett – September 7th, 2012 at 9:53 am
Elizabeth and Nick,
I’m really excited about what you’re doing and the community already sprouted around Hub LA.
Love your work….
Chance