Meet Sierra & Adam, Co-creating Your Community

The idea for Maeve House originally stemmed from the experience that co-founder and artist, Sierra Bailey had while looking for a new studio space. Sierra realized that while she needed a space to work, what she truly yearned for was a sense of community. Being self-employed for decades, she understood the loneliness of working alone and wished there was a space in South Austin that provided a place to work, but more importantly, where people were not closed off in offices, but instead connected when not working.

At the same time that Sierra was looking to relocate, her husband and co-founder, Adam Fujawa, was ready to shift professional gears. He loved the hospitality and facility management aspects of his last position, but wanted to transition away from food.

The two decided that, given Sierra's entrepreneurial background, she could create the business and handle the behind-the-scenes running of the company. Adam could manage the space and handle the day-to-day tasks. At first, they looked for a building where Sierra could have a pretty studio space, and then rent out the other rooms to artists. But as they began brainstorming, they quickly realized that renting studio spaces to artists had a lot of room for failure. Artists (other than Sierra, who is an extremely tidy painter) are often prone to being messy in their workspaces, keeping irregular hours, and not being actively engaged in community spaces.

After deliberating on how to create a community, accommodate people working during office hours, and minimize messiness (i.e., no paint on the floors), they realized that a coworking space would provide everything they desired.

Creating an Inclusive Community

After researching coworking spaces in general and specifically in southwest Austin, they realized that there was a need for such a space. Still, more importantly, there was a need for community-driven events in a third place (a communal space between work and home, such as a church, gym, rec center, etc.).

After speaking with a few dozen well-networked individuals in the Southwest community and friends who had been members of coworking spaces in various parts of Austin, trends began to emerge.

The first were the negative feelings that people currently coworking had about the numerous cold and industrial spaces, and that the individuals who rent desks and offices tend to dominate the spaces over those who only need to work a few days a week at a space.

The second was that the Southwest Austin community craves a membership-style event space to participate in low-key events like coffee and social meet-ups. Many people are busy caring for children and/or aging parents and want closer-to-home options. They felt isolated in certain ways from Austin and wanted a place to connect and gather.

The third was a space to rent for meetings that was pretty and close to home.

The community's needs aligned with Sierra and Adam's goals, and the idea of Maeve House was born.