At startup hub, entrepreneurs get office space, yoga — and beer
The Cannon marks broader effort across city to build network for technology sector
A movie theater with 37 reclining chairs, a meditation and yoga room, and graffiti-inspired murals will be among the offerings to keep entrepreneurs charged up at the Cannon startup hub, scheduled to open mid-July in west Houston.
The Cannon, now in a 20,000square-foot-building at 1336 Brittmoore Road, has spent 18 months renovating and expanding a former pipeline manufacturing warehouse into its new location. The 120,000-square-foot facility, at 1334 Brittmoore Road, has more than 140 companies committed to moving there.
“The Cannon is building a community,” said CEO Lawson Gow, “and it’s building a network of resources.”
The Cannon, which first launched in November 2017, is part of a broader effort across the city to build a technology sector and innovation ecosystem. Rice University later this month is holding a groundbreaking ceremony at the former Midtown Sears building, which it’s renovating into another center for tech and entrepreneurial activity, called the Ion. Among its tenants will be a startup hub called Station Houston.
The Cannon will open its renovated building with 131 private offices and an additional 300 open and dedicated desks for entrepreneurs to grab a chair and get to work. The for-profit organization aims to make money by charging startups membership fees for workspace and for accessing resources in the community that the Cannon is working to create.
A lounge will feature video games and maybe a massage chair. A library for entrepreneurial literature is decorated with book wallpaper and pictures of Catherine the Great of Russia and King George V of the United Kingdom. And the movie theater will silently play news, sports channels and movies, allowing workers with Bluetooth headphones to access the sound.
An icehouse, called the Powder Keg and open to the public, is being constructed next door and should start serving beer in the coming months. The Cannon is even considering a dog day care service, Gow said.
“We are still exploring different things to put on the campus,” he said, “and we want the entrepreneurial community to dictate what those things are based on their needs.”
But it’s not just about amenities. DigitalCrafts will be training a future workforce at its coding boot camp, and the Houston location of Austin-based startup hub Capital Factory will help companies grow through its accelerator program.
An additional 40,000 square feet will be reserved for venture capitalists, lawyers, bankers, accountants and others who can provide money and services that help startups get off the ground. Growing startups with more employees could work from this area, too.
“Oftentimes the challenges startups face aren’t a market problem or a development problem,” Gow said. “They’re an ‘access to capital’ problem or an ‘access to customer’ problem or an ‘access to talent’ and other strategic resources problem.”
Having entrepreneurs in one place and surrounding them with sources of capital, mentorship and education could help alleviate such challenges, Gow said.
Ultimately, the Cannon plans to be in the center of a work-live-play concept called the Founders District. This 32-acre district is being funded by Mark Toon, co-founder of Houston venture capital firm Work America Capital, which invested in the Cannon, and some of Toon’s business partners.
It is slated to have multifamily housing, retail, entertainment and even a chapter of the local Bayou City Fellowship church.