Benefits of the Hacker Dojo

What is the Hacker Dojo, and why is it so great?

The Hacker Dojo is a place where you can work and sometimes play, away from the distractions of home or the office.  A place where you can collaborate with others, and focus on what is important.  Unlike a coffee shop, at the Dojo you can, and are expected to interact with other people at the Dojo.

To fully utilize the Hacker Dojo, you should be aware of all the benefits of membership.

Becoming a "member" of the Hacker Dojo means you will have access to benefits that non-members do not.  So, to clarify all the benefits we have made this document.

List of Benefits

• Space: 8,300/sqft of work space:  Offices, cubicles and public desks for you and your invited guests
• Time: Open almost 20 hours per day.  Early birds & Night owls welcome.
• Lab:  Well equipped electronics lab, for the 'Maker' in you. 
• Internet access:  Wireless and wired internet, password is "hackerdojo"
• Power:  Plug in your laptop, or devices anywhere in the Dojo.
• Kitchen:  Free coffee, Tea, Water and sometimes beer
• Events:  Attend any event free of charge. 
• Events:  Create an event and invite whomever you wish,  no charge
• Meetings:  Come early, and secure a private room for meetings
• Classes:  Attend and participate in classes, no charge
• Social:  Technical Social Collaboration.  Talk, meet and learn from other members about technical subjects.
• Library:  Access to our growing library of technical, business, science, engineering and philosophy books.
• Fun:  Juggling Class, Movie nights, LAN Parties or socialize in the Lobby
• Jobs:  Plenty of startups looking for employees on our Jobs board.  Be the first to score a job from the Dojo.
• Sponsorships:  Learn about cool new hi-tech companies in the valley, and their special deals they offer @ the Dojo.

Membership also has these virtual benefits:

• Email: Your.Name@HackerDojo.com e-mail address.  You get your own personal vanity Hacker Dojo email address.

• Wiki:  Edit access to the wiki, to make or change content on our website
• Contacts:  Connect with other members by one simple e-mail address, or write  them directly
• Groups:  Participate in group discussions publicly on Google Groups
• LinkedIn:  Connect with members,  review jobs,  or participate in private discussions.

All of this for the ridiculously low price of $100 per month.  You just can't beat that. 

Sign up here at: http://signup.hackerdojo.com

Why not just work at a coffee shop?

Lots of side benefits working at the Dojo compared to coffee shops.  Having
worked at a coffee shop for the last 1.5 years doing various startups, I've
experienced all the downsides.

Coffee shops have limited seating.  Every time you need to hit the bathroom,
you give up your potentially good seat near a power plug.  Not all coffee
shops have power plugs either.  You can chain your laptop, but you'll still
ask the guy next to you to "watch your stuff".

Coffee shops have bad internet.  Most of the time their wifi access is
pretty poor since everyone is there at the coffee shop surfing facebook.  If
you go to a coffee shop in one of the downtown locations, you'll probably
have to move your car every 2 hours or risk getting a ticket (or parking far
far away).

Coffee shops are expensive. Everything costs money at a coffee shop -- want
a small snack?  That's $4 for a tiny pastry, 800% more expensive than
Safeway.  A small cup of juice is $2.50.  Certain coffee shops will even
require you to buy something before you can use their bathrooms.

Coffee shops don't have security.  I've also gotten my bicycle stolen once,
right outside the coffee shop.  I was only maybe 20 feet from it, but it was
stolen when I wasn't looking.  Had a huge U-lock that used one of those
flat-style locks (generally unpickable).  The lock probably cost as much as
the bike did.

Coffee shops close early.  Sometimes you'd arrive at the coffee shop around
6pm and you'd only get 4 hours of work done because they close at 10pm.
 Some shops close as late as 1am.  The Dojo closes when it feels like it.

Coffee shops are noisy.  Unless you have noise canceling earbuds, you
probably won't get much work done from 3pm to 10pm because kids get out of
school and find places to hang out.  You can't talk on a phone inside a
coffee shop during these noisy periods, so you'll have to lock up your
laptop and walk outside.

Coffee shops are anti-social.  There's lots of people there, but you rarely
see people talk to each other.  If you're stuck on a python bug, nobody
there can help you.

Coffee shops have uncomfortable seating.  Most coffee shops use pretty
standard wooden chairs that will make your butt numb after an hour of
sitting on it.  Most tables are pretty small as well, they're not in the
business of making your work easier.

Coffee shops have bad coffee.  There are exceptions, but most coffee shops
are there to make money and may serve lower quality coffee for higher profit
margins.  Our coffee is home roasted, and never a week old.

Consider this: if you spent 9 hours in a coffee shop working on your code
and bought a $3.50 cup of coffee every 3 hours or so to be polite and
prevent the staff from glaring at you...you'd still come out above 10
dollars a day.  Even if you consider Hacker Dojo to be no better than a
coffee shop to get your work done in, you're still saving money, but coffee

shops don't have stocked labs of electronics parts, CNC machines, offices,

quiet spaces, free bread, beanbag chairs, etc etc.