Global coworking trend gives birth to new class of organization designed for and by independent entrepreneurs
Conjunctured, an Austin based “co-company“ launches in time for Texas Entrepreneurs Week and SXSW as the evolution of global coworking trends
Social Media Release
February 27, 2008
About | News Facts | Manifesto | Quotes | Tags | Biographies | Links | Contact
About
Conjunctured is a member-based community in Austin, TX of free agents who collaborate under a common brand while maintaining their autonomy. For more information, visit http://conjunctured.com
Services provided include branding, web and software development, and consulting. Conjunctured is actively seeking new members.
Vision
For Our Clients
We want you to have a fun, personable experience. One that's open at all times. We will always do our best to communicate with you. If you want to know more, we'd be glad to sit down and have some coffee (or tea) with y'all.
For Our Members
Conjunctured provides a creative environment for entrepreneurs that encourages collaboration. Through a workflow, cursory needs are fulfilled, leaving you with the freedom to find or fuel your passions. Innovation occurs while collaborating with individuals with a shared purpose.
We figured out that Conjunctured is different things to different people. And that's what we love about what we're doing.
“I believe if talented, passionate people team up in a fair environment, we will transform the speed of innovation and the happiness of our members.” -Dusty
“As independents, we wanted a way to work for ourselves and still interact with others just like us. Since there was no way to do both before, we decided to create it.” -Cesar
“Conjunctured to me is about surrounding myself and collaborating with individuals passionate about their talents and personal freedoms.” -David
“The best thing we compete on is community. If you join, we get better.” -John
News Facts
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Founder and leader of Jelly in Austin coworking movement forms Conjunctured, a marketing and technology company with four other independent entrepreneurs befriended at Austin coworking meetups.
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Conjunctured, a collaborative company, or “co-company“ is a member-based community of free agents who collaborate under a common brand while maintaining their autonomy.
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The Conjunctured co-company model evolved from local coworking meetups known as Jelly—the largest network of independent coworkers worldwide. Coworking is "a cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents."
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Since its inception, the development of the co-company has been discussed on a public Google Group, prompting interested onlookers to participate in the discussion. The co-company will continue to develop as a transparent business model, so members and onlookers alike are partake of the group's evolution.
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The next step for Conjunctured is to build a membership-based and community-driven work environment in Austin.
Manifesto
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Transparency - Conjunctured members, clients, and society maintain trust by being completely open with one another.
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Fairness - It won't work if a few people are exploiting the community for their own personal gains.
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Self-Selected - Members choose the projects they want to work on by opting in or out.
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Communication - Clear communication in any channel facilitates work flow.
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Humanization - The co-company and its members should work on something that is compelling on a human level.
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Trust Construction - Trust in the community and its members to do what they do best.
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Monitoring - The community should call out members who aren't pulling their weight.
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Peer Review - Co-company participants review and rate each others' work in an open forum.
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Come & Go Policy - Members may contribute five minutes of work and leave or 200 hours. Either way, the end goal is enhanced respectively.
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Granular Work Loads - The workload must be and able to be distributed across the community.
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Sustainability - The company and its members should make money.
Quotes
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“Rather than working for someone else, I have the freedom to be selective about what I help promote.” - Cesar Torres, Co-Founder, Conjunctured
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“As an entrepreneur I have the natural tendency to try and accomplish everything on my own. The co-company model that we've created gives independent entrepreneurs like myself the opportunity to have others with my shared mentality help support one another in our respective projects.” - David H Walker, Co-Founder, Conjunctured
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“I'm thrilled to be a part of the newest Austin think tank.” - John Erik Metcalf, Co-Founder, Conjunctured
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“You guys have insight that others don't really see yet.” - Kevin Koym, CEO, Enterprise Teaming
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“Austin, being Austin, is going to do things its own way.” - The Butcher, http://notanmba.com
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“What can I say, it is beautiful!” - Andrew Jones, Principle, Aquifer Design
Tags
Founder Bios
Cesar Torres
Cesar Torres attended The University of Texas at Austin where he received a bachelor of science degree in advertising and was part of the famed Texas Creative portfolio program. After graduation, rather than leaving Austin to work for a large ad agency, he stuck around Austin and founded kumulus: art + direction, with a strict client list of fellow entrepreneurs, tech startups and local initiatives.
Cesar feels the best messages say meaningful things and do it in such a way that's captivating and memorable. Ever the idealist and inspirer, he always tries to help people—professionally and personally—find their passions and tries to get them one step closer to changing the world.
When he's not working, Cesar loves technology, music, art, traveling and frequently likes to get away for some fresh air while camping or biking.
- Personal: http://ceezer.org
- Professional: http://kumul.us
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cesart
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Cesar_Torres/7901458
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/cesart
David H Walker
David H Walker is 25 years old and a 2006 graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Marketing and a concentration in Sociology. Born into a family of entrepreneurs, David has been exposed to and been interested in forging new trails since a child. Passionate and progressive-minded, he despises the phrase, "it's just business," and believes that instead of a means towards wealth creation, business should be about forming a symbiotic relationship with society, providing a method to bring us all together and promote meaning in our lives. David is the co-founder of 302designs (www.302designs.com), an eco-friendly, positive-minded clothing company.
- Personal: http://www.davidhwalker.com
- Professional: http://www.302designs.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/p/David_Walker/7901098
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidhwalker
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidhwalker
Dusty Reagan
Dusty Reagan is an entrepreneur, humanist, self-proclaimed "geek", and lover of computers. He strives to add value to his community and is a proponent of the arts and local small businesses. His deepest desire is to make a substantial positive impact on society.
Born and raised in Cleburne Texas, Dusty was resourceful and had a natural affinity for computers. Through high school, Dusty used his computer skills as a freelancer, providing design and technical support for local businesses. During his junior and senior years of high school Dusty fought a life-or-death battle against Ulcerative Colitis. Always the optimist, Dusty was thankful for the character he developed through his battle and for the insights he gained on life.
Dusty received a bachelor of science in computer science with a minor in business from Texas A&M University in 2003. After graduating, Dusty moved to Austin, where he briefly freelanced as a web developer before landing a full-time programmer position at Direct Impact, an Austin-based direct marketing agency. In early 2007, Dusty left his full-time position to create Floating Head Studios, a web application company. Shortly afterwards, Dusty founded the Austin spinoff of "Jelly," a community of freelancers and telecommuters who desire to work around other like-minded individuals.
You can find Dusty at any of the weekly Jelly in Austin meetups consulting, working on Conjunctured, or growing Floating Head Studios.
- Personal: http://www.dustyreagan.com
- Professional: http://www.floatingheadstudios.com
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=651761593
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dustyreagan
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/DustyReagan
John Erik Metcalf
John Erik Metcalf is a 24 year old entrepreneur and new venture enthusiast.
John is a Board Member and Co-Founder of Texas Ventures, a nonprofit focused on accelerating young businesses and entrepreneurs. Texas Ventures is under the guidance of Dr. John Sibley Butler, Director of The IC2 Institute and supported by the Herb Kelleher Center for Entrepreneurship.
He has served as a consultant to companies such as radar.net, qipit.com and Mr. Youth.
John holds an Advertising degree from The University of Texas at Austin, with a heavy concentration in Computer Science and a research emphasis in STS (Science, Technology and Society).
A maven/relater, John is most excited when connecting people and businesses to form mutually beneficial relationships. John practices and holds dearly the concepts of empathy, critical thinking and awareness.
Ever one for exploration and excitement, John is an avid mountain biker and a frequent skydiver.
- Personal: http://blog.think27.com
- Professional: http://think27.com
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/p/john_erik_metcalf/7913093
- LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/johnerikmetcalf
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/john_erik
Related Links
Coworking: Coworking Wiki
Jelly: Jelly In Austin
Austin Business Journal: "Out of the Office" [02/01/2008]
NotAnMBA article "Jelly Austin" [01/17/2008] and "Coworking as a Catalyst" [02/13/2008]
New York Times: "They're Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side" [02/20/2008]
del.icio.us page for more information: http://del.icio.us/conjunctured
Subscribe to del.icio.us Conjunctured RSS feed for on-going coverage, industry news and reaction: http://feeds.delicious.com/rss/Conjunctured
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Technorati Tags: Austin Texas Business Incubator Co-Company Coworking Conjunctured Freelance Social Media Startup Think Tank
Contact Info
John Erik Metcalf
Conjunctured
Phone: 512-524-9772
Email: press@conjunctured.com
Website: http://conjunctured.com