Make San Antonio Membership Drive Update

A big thank you to all those who have supported us, gave us feedback, suggestions and well wishes. We appreciate all the help during this membership drive. As our membership drive comes to a close, we're well aware that we will not be reaching our 100 member sign-up goal. Therefore we will not be charging the members who did support us. Although this is a huge set-back for us we are going to take what we've learned through this process, make any necessary changes to what we had originally envisioned, discuss with our team how to proceed and continue to update you on our progress.

What's Next for Make San Antonio?

• We are going to bundle all our progress and set-backs to this point and present that to prospective investors to gauge interest. There are several avenues we can pursue beyond this investment but we would love to have a local investor mentoring and backing us in this endeavor before we move forward.
• Our January Second Saturday event was postponed due to inclement weather but we have committed to participating in an upcoming Second Saturday so we will be curating an art show at the Lullwood Group on April 11. Mark your calendar! 

Here's a recap of what we accomplished during our short push to our membership drive and the all of the lessons learned.

Lessons Learned:
The concept of a comprehensive makerspace (that doesn't actually exist yet) is a hard sell. What we had envisioned was to sign up people who were already familiar with the makerspace model and were excited about this type of space coming to San Antonio. Instead we came across many people who were not familiar with what a makerspace is and the benefits that this type of space would bring to the San Antonio community. We were eager to share our knowledge and enthusiasm of makerspaces with all those willing to hear us out. Many people suggested that if we already had a space where they could visit, see our vision and use some of the tools they would be more willing to back us.

Pricing was a question that most prospective members had which relates quite heavily to the above. Asking for a signup of $55 without seeing the value returned in that investment was what many people had difficulties with. Our pricing for our membership drive was set based on comparable makerspaces around Texas and the nation but we have since decided to work on different methods of membership as an initial option. We want our pricing to be customizable so that as members grow into the space they can add or remove certain areas of their membership and grow their skill set accordingly.

November 2014 | Progress Report

We are making amazing strides with Make San Antonio. We've been chatting with community members, and meeting various leaders who support our plans to build a makerspace in San Antonio. We thank you for venturing along with us as we take the appropriate steps needed to get this idea from a dream to a reality.

Here's a quick rundown of where we're at:

• We have over 100 contacts on our e-mail list and we're generating buzz on social media every day. If you haven’t signed up on our e-mail list, or would like to follow us on social media, please visit makesanantonio.com. 
• We kicked off our first Make San Antonio survey on Reddit in October and have received several responses. If you’d like to participate, please find the survey here. 
• On November 5, we pitched Make San Antonio during Café Commerce’s 1 Million Cups event and received some great feedback which we are currently implementing into our business pitch and model. 
• We recently hosted our first event, Makevember, which was held on Saturday, November 22 at Lone Star Studio.

Makevember
Although this was our first event we had over 100 people attend Makevember and had plenty of surveys filled out, including several new email list signups. We've read through the surveys and the overall consensus was a desire for a larger event and more hands-on activities. We will put your suggestions into action for our next event and try our best to hit both points.

What’s Next for Make San Antonio?

• We are actively seeking venues that could possibly house Make San Antonio. Our filtered list is any space between 5,000–10,000 sq./ft., but we will pursue any and all reasonable options.
• We are scheduling meetings with successful entrepreneurs and venture capitalists who can mentor us and help us refine our business pitch, provide advice from their own experience and help us refine our current business path.
• We are going to be pitching our business at several local events. As we've already pitched at Cafe Commerce’s 1 Million Cups event and received some amazing feedback we hope to replicate that in future pitches.
• We are starting to toss ideas around for some events in early 2015. As we are in the initial stages, thinking of possible participants, event locations and themes, any suggestions are appreciated.
• We are planning to kick off a membership crowd funding event in early 2015. We believe this will be the cornerstone that will allow Make San Antonio to receive full funding. We’re working to offer discounted membership rates for our initial contributors so keep an eye out for additional updates so you won’t miss out on some amazing deals.

In the meantime, what can you do? Support us by following us on social media, and reading our e-newsletters. Chat with your friends about us, and ask us questions. Once again, we thank you for your support so early on in this venture. We value your support in us to create a makerspace in San Antonio. We're on it!

Go Team Go! Go Make San Antonio!