Startup incubator created from modular offices

Office space is a perennial challenge for young startups and entrepreneurs, which is why we’ve seen the emergence of solutions ranging from stand-alone garden offices to rentals by the desk. Taking a page from all the examples of modular architecture we’ve seen over the years — including, just recently, the FlexNatür condo design — Indianapolis software firm DeveloperTown recently designed a wood-frame modular office that will soon be used to convert a local warehouse into a startup incubator. Each “house,” as DeveloperTown calls them, is an 8-by-10-foot fully enclosed space on wheels with a door, windows and a custom-designed desk. Every employee at the company gets one, and it can be decorated however they wish. The company already has about 16 such modules set up for its own offices in a warehouse on the Northwest side of Indianapolis, according to a report on IndyStar.com, but it needs a bigger space to expand further. With that in mind, it’s reportedly spent USD 1 million on the city’s 35,000-square-foot Broad Ripple warehouse and plans to outfit it with enough modular offices to support the needs of other startups as well. In particular, DeveloperTown — which serves primarily startups — hopes that some of its clients will also move into the building’s modular community, IndyStar.com reports. DeveloperTown’s modular offices are compelling in their own right as a solution for small businesses, but its decision to outfit and rent out space in a new building — to its target customers, no less — is perhaps the ultimate in brand butler initiatives. Entrepreneurs around the globe: be inspired! Spotted by: Howard Vaughn