The Luckiest 2,000 Square Feet In Austin

There are four kinds of luck that can help you in your business:

Blind luck; Luck from awareness (where the belief that you’re lucky helps you spot more opportunities); Luck that comes from having a unique background; And luck from movement – e.g., exposing yourself to new people and situations.

“A lot of those, you can’t do anything about,” local founder, Chris Taylor, told me in a recent chat. But one (luck from movement) you can.

That’s the idea behind his most recent endeavor, The Red Fridge Society – a private community, club, and workspace for experienced founders and investors here in Austin.

Based in a 1920’s Craftsman house tucked just off West 6th Street, the building itself has something of a lucky past entrepreneurs will appreciate.

In 2009, Chris bought it to serve as HQ for his software company, Square Root.

For fifteen years, they innovated here, and as the company grew, he rented more and more houses along the street, building a kind of neighborhood campus, and a very unique culture to fit.

So unique that in 2015, when Fortune named them the second-best SMB in the country to work for, it was Chris and his team who got the feature story, rather than the first-place winners.

The campus was too good a story to pass up.

Each house had its own purpose. There was a quiet house for focused work, another that was all conference rooms, a third with amenities like craft brew and a dart board, and of course, the original red Craftsman that served as homebase.

“The theme was movement,” Chris told me. The goal was to make sure teammates never got siloed, so the houses were set up to get people mixing, and ideally moving between three or more every day.

Creating luck from movement before he even knew the term.

When he sold the company, he got the original Craftsman back, and found himself nearing the end of his earn-out pondering what to do with both it and his upcoming free time.

Whatever he chose, it had to satisfy three requirements: Cashflow, yes (all exited founders will understand this), it also had to be something he loved, and it had to offer total control and flexibility over his time.

That last one was the most important. His daughters, then thirteen and fourteen, only had a few more years at home, and he wanted to make the most of them.

“There’s this whole thing where I’ll see them more that last year of high school than I probably will the rest of my life,” he said. He wasn’t willing to sacrifice that time to the demands of another tech startup.

Then, during a late-night conversation with his family and particularly his eldest daughter, the idea struck.

He was already spending a lot of free time mentoring founders, going to business happy hours, or hanging out with entrepreneurial friends around town.

Why not turn the house into a hub for all that? A place for founders, by founders.

“You hear that thing where, if it’s not a ‘hell yes,’ it’s a ‘hell no,’” he told me. This was immediate “hell yes” territory.

He floated the concept on LinkedIn, where it was extremely well-received, then got to work hand-picking the first few members from his personal network, and coming up with a name.

From his experience building Square Root, he knew the first members would set the culture for the entire group. So he was careful to lay the vision out clearly.

“Part co-working, part hangout--it will be a space to take meetings and entertain downtown,” his email to them said. 

“Probably isn’t ideal if you want a coworking space to hammer zoom calls for 8 hours… But if you want a quiet place to grab a desk or a couch to crank, and then have inspiring conversations over coffee or wine with other entrepreneurs, it’s perfect!”

He really wanted it to feel like it belonged to members. “Want to come in at midnight to host someone for a drink after going out.... go for it!”

The name would be important in setting the culture too.

“I wanted something serious, but not too serious,” he told me in our interview.

Brainstorming the brand, he and his daughter found that most of the simple, descriptive options – The Craftsman, Bungalow, etc. – were already taken by bars downtown.

So they harkened back to the building’s past with The Red Fridge Society (or “The Fridge” for short).

It’s a nod to both the secret societies that were popular when the house was built, and also to the big, red, custom-made vintage-style fridge that you see immediately upon entering – the first piece of furniture Chris ever bought for Square Root HQ.

Almost a year in, The Fridge has already drawn a wide array of members from the startup ecosystem.

From serial entrepreneurs working on a new company, like A.T. Fouty of Nibbles, to founders with decades in the same business and tens of millions in ARR, like Steve Rafferty of Active Prospect.

Investors too. Everyone from emerging seed-focused VCs like Zaz Floreani of FirstMile Ventures, to growth equity investors like Jim Curry, who held leadership roles at Dell and Rackspace, and co-founded BuildGroup. 

Even CS Freeland, who you may recognize as the co-founder of the Texas Venture Alliance and Texas Venture Fest, and Robyn Siers, partner at JonesSpross with more than 25 years personal M&A experience.

Membership is not cheap. But it does come with a guarantee – that you will have a conversation within your first six months that more than pays for your first two years.

The sheer calibre of the members means these “$30,000 conversations” are happening all the time.

As a personal example, I’ve only been to The Fridge as a guest, but once ran into Geoff Woods, author of The AI-Driven Leader, on a random Thursday.

We talked books on his way out the door, and before he hit the street, he’d text-introduced me to one of the most successful book marketers in the world. So the luck factor is palpable.

Chris also takes it upon himself to help make sure these conversations happen.

Whether by curating intro’s between members and his personal connections, or by hosting creative events that bring people together.

Poker nights, private wine tastings, even fireside chats with icons like Bob Metcalfe, one of the original architects of the internet – they’re all on the calendar regularly.

The Fridge also occasionally opens its doors to host events for other founder communities.

But he isn’t trying to fill the space up fast. In fact, the goal here is fundamentally different from most co-working models.

“They want you to come and get a floating desk, then pay for a fixed desk, and then get a fixed office, and then build your team,” he said. “I don’t.”

At just 2,000 square feet, he’s thoughtful about making sure no single team dominates the space or the culture. He doesn’t even allow two co-founders from the same company to join.

“What I want is as broad a group of excellent entrepreneurs and sophisticated investors as possible,” he continued. “You can bring your team over – once, twice a week, that’s fine. You can use the space… [But] this is your safe space.”

As a former solo-founder with no board, Chris knows firsthand how difficult that experience can be. He leaned on groups like EO, YPO, and Tiger21 to help navigate it over the years.

“I really came to love that sense of community and that sense of a safe place that you can only get when you’re around other people that are going through similar situations as you.”

That’s what the Fridge aspires to be – a refuge for members. A place to escape the fray of the office, and connect with peers.

And of course, a broader member-base means more surface area for serendipity too.

That was the whole concept behind this community, he told me. “If you build the right culture, and you get the right people in that culture, then you can create your own luck.”