While we're on the subject of coworking, I got a Twit re: another Austin coworking space yesterday… this one is launching in the next month or two.  From their web site, they are

"working hard out at the ranch to make it the darn tootinest place in Austin for entrepreneurs, co-workers, startups and growing tech firms to hang their hats."

While I have no idea how this thing will compare to Conjunctured, I do know that it's one of at least 3 more rumored coworking facilities that will dot the Austin tech landscape say a year from now.  All of them are aiming to be "the center" of local entrepreneurial activity.

I asked myself the other day… "how does this happen?"  Does Austin really need multiple coworking facilities?  Can they all succeed?

I think the answer lies in Austin's many "entrepreneur tribes"… distinct groups of people that work together/collaborate based on some commonality.  Here goes… I have identified no less than 8 such communities here in Austin:

Bootstrap Austin — active members of the Bootstrap Austin mailing list & attendees at Bootstrap events,

Old Hands — have spent time primarily in large enterprises or enterprise software startups,

Austin Ventures — alums of AV-funded companies and the venture capitalists who made bets on them,

Young Guns –- people in the Conjuncutred halo who do most of their work on the Web,

Trilogy — insanely intelligent alums of (insert Top 10 undergraduate school) who worked for Austin's hottest startup of the late 1990s,

ATI/IC2 –- ATI portfolio company entrepreneurs and support staff,

Acton — grad students and alumni of Jeff Sandefer's entrepreneurship MBA program, and entrepreneurs who took classes from Acton professors when they were at the University of Texas,

"Lurkers" — folks who don't spend a lot of time promoting themselves, but do spend a lot of time plugging away on big deals that you'll ultimately want to be involved with.

Most folks will identify with multiple tribes… I, for instance, just came from Microsoft after 3 1/2 years, I took a class from Jack Long while at UT, I hang out at Conjunctured occasionally (although I am by no means young), and I'm married to a Trilogy alum (though that one is a bit of a stretch).  My most trusted advisors probably fall in the "Lurker" category.

My point in bringing this up is that there are a lot of disparate communities here in Austin.  All of them have a different take on promoting entrepreneurship, starting businesses, and growing them.  We can all learn from just about all of these.  Just engage with people in each of these communities, pick out the best from each, and use the best ideas for the growth of our startups.  Diversity of opinion is a real strength here in Austin… find a way to use it and you'll be better for it.