Entrepreneur Jennifer Bell left a “very toxic relationship” in the middle of a December night in 2014, she said.
It was the first step on a path that led her to start SugarsGone, a name that reflects the healing that Bell experienced by reselling the high-end items she possessed from her previous personal relationship. The company offers an online marketplace that sells “gently used” luxury goods—items of clothing, bags, shoes or accessories that have been used a few times but appear as good as new.
SugarsGone was up and running within a few months in the Eureka Building—a 3-acre campus in Irvine that’s billed as a center of commerce designed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, to provide a network of support through mentorship relationships with its partner sponsors and through events hosted at the building.
Bell recently received an undisclosed investment from K5 Ventures, an early-stage venture fund in Newport Beach, which she will put toward growing SugarsGone for projects including redesigning her website and hitting milestones that will support her next financing raise.
She attributes a lot of the success of her company to the Eureka Building, as she started in a cubicle and has since grown to four desks. She met several former and current members of her team, as well as investors, through her interactions in the building. The investors include Grant Van Cleve, president of Tech Coast Angels, and Robin Pimentel, a partner with K5, Bell said.
“My company was born there and continues to grow every day,” she said. “I love the people at Eureka. They are encouraging, helpful and really create community.”
This is what’s fondly called “The Eureka effect,” according to Taylor Kirk, the building’s director.
“There’s so many resources and networking opportunities that it’s kind of like a fast track,” Kirk said.
She said she puts a premium on personal relationships, with an emphasis on maintaining synergy among the tenants.
“It’s like a relationship with me and these companies,” she said. “I ask them what they need, and then I’ll make the introduction (to make it happen).”
History
Peter Polydor officially opened the 41,000-square-foot Eureka Building at 1621 Alton Parkway in 2014. Polydor is director of ERGO Capital Partners, a venture capital fund in Santa Ana focused on high-growth tech companies. He has a proclivity for acceleration—he’s currently at Oxford University in England in an accelerated, one-year MBA program. Polydor designed the Eureka Building precisely to accelerate innovation.
He used to be an entrepreneur himself, starting a few companies ranging from Web development services to e-commerce before he got involved with venture capital in 2009. When he was working on the design of the Eureka Building, he traveled to tech centers in Canada, Germany and Greece to meet with companies and see what entrepreneurs liked and didn’t like, he said.
What tech companies did not want was traditional executive office space. Nor did they want to be in a “cool office space surrounded by mortgage brokers, bankers or ‘suits,’” he said.
“They wanted to be in a building where every floor had creative companies, startups, tech players or groups that added to an environment of creativity.”
That’s why Polydor bought the building, which was listed for $6.9 million, although he declined to say what he paid.
“If you are just a tenant, you aren’t in control of the environment outside your office suite door,” he said. “It gives more freedom to do things like put inspirational quotes in the hallways and add a cool café in the atrium.”
The atrium has a black-and-white motif with a black tile floor. There’s a large skylight in the roof to let in natural light. There are planter boxes that give it a homey feel. A café opened in October so tenants don’t have to leave the building to get a latte. There’s also a large open space for events.
Inspirational quotes line the walls and elevator— “Creativity is intelligence having fun” comes courtesy of Albert Einstein.
Another perk to taking up residence is the events, Kirk said. Companies pay an undisclosed annual fee to sponsor the building, which subsidizes the year-round events, Polydor said.
Sponsors include Irvine-based TriNet, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft and Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker LLP.
Polydor wanted to create a working environment that was like a gym, he said, where entrepreneurs could have the flexibility to come and go to different events.
There are eight commercial units in the building ranging from 1,100 to 8,500 square feet. One of the units is a 7,000-square-foot co-working space known as the Hub.
The Hub’s lowest tier is for a general membership, with a month-to-month commitment of $299 per month.
The next tier is a dedicated desk at $399 a month, with a three-month minimum.
Also in the Hub are what’s known as PODs, which serve as private offices for small teams with about eight members, with a minimum one-year commitment.
Good Culture LLC
The largest POD is occupied by a sustainable-food startup, Good Culture LLC, which just struck a deal for nationwide distribution with Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market.
The commercial spaces come with typical commercial leases and a minimum commitment of four years. They lease for about $2.50 per foot full-service gross, which means the landlord pays for most of the ancillary costs, like trash and maintenance.
The ninth commercial unit encompasses 4,000 square feet and is a blend of open work space and private space, with an executive suite and a media room that also can be used for additional office space. It’s currently vacant, with some interest, according to Kirk.
“Sometimes it can take longer to find the right company versus just any company,” she said. “We carefully consider and examine what a new tenant will contribute to the existing culture within the building, which is an important deciding factor for us.”
Eureka Events
The biggest event is EurekaFest, which takes place April 14. It will be the second annual festival. It’s put on with the intent of emulating the interactive part of South by Southwest, the popular entertainment and technology festival in Austin, Texas, Polydor said. This year he plans to make it even bigger, by adding more speakers and opening up the Startup Fast Pitch contest to companies in Europe, in addition to North America. The winner will receive prizes from Eureka, Microsoft, and other sponsors and community partners. The festival also will feature the presentation of the second annual Eureka Entrepreneur Award.
Another event is TechtoberfestOC, which takes place in October, the third annual event, and a chance for entrepreneurs, angel investors, venture capitalists and startup founders to connect in the “Eureka Park,” a fenced-off outdoor space behind the building with a large gazebo.
Also, one Friday a month, Andrew Bermudez, the chief executive and co-founder of Digsy, interviews a startup founder at an event called Digsy Founder’s Coffee. Digsy is an on-demand butler service that helps companies find office, warehouse and retail space. The company has a dedicated desk at the Eureka Building, but the entire team of seven employees works out of LaunchLabs at the Leatherby Center, Chapman University’s incubator.
