About the Hacker Dojo
Hacker Dojo Mission
Hacker Dojo, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2009, provides space to bring together entrepreneurs, programmers, creators, and other hackers in Mountain View, California. We embrace the term “hacker” in the positive sense as describing someone who likes to understand how things work and produce new creations.
Hacker Dojo's mission is to provide the tech community and other communities in Silicon Valley an affordable place to learn, collaborate and innovate so that anyone from any circumstance and background with an idea can build their dream.
Part of Hacker Dojo’s mission consists in:
- Providing the tech community and other communities in Silicon Valley an affordable place to learn, collaborate and innovate so that anyone from any circumstance and background with an idea can build their dream.
- Spreading entrepreneurial vision.
- Nurturing disruption and innovation.
- Being a gathering space for technology leaders and contributors.
- Providing educational, collaborative, or social endeavors which enable communities to create, learn, and teach each other.
Quick Rules - Recommendations
- Be flexible.
- Be excellent to each other.
- Clean Dojo is a great Dojo.
- Offer to help before seeking help.
- Introduce yourself to three people if it is your first day here.
- Take a pic by the Mural.
- Check out other events if this is your first time here.
- Spread the word about Hacker Dojo on Social Media.
Hacker Dojo History
In 2009, several people came together with a similar vision for starting a non-profit community center for geeks. David Weekly had a vision for a community center called "Hacker Dojo" where people could teach each other in the art of computer programming (he even had a signed burned into wood in 2002 to capture the idea)! Jeff had been inspired by SuperHappyDevHouse, and wanted a physical manifestation of that spirit. Brian Klug had wanted to lease a space on Castro St. in 2008 for his own hippie vision but was unable to finance the operation along. Like minds started talking and a ridiculous snowball of momentum began.
The Founding Directors and several others (including Dean Mao, Nathan Schmidt, and Zonker) were noted as having a particular passion for the vision. The group (varied in size between 10-30 people) started meeting regularly, usually at PBworks HQ in San Mateo. The mailing list was crucial in keeping the group organized and communicating often. They started looking for spaces, figuring out corporate structure (the infamous LLC vs Corporation question), and eventually deciding between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6).