Cool article. Our office is down the street from the American Underground and I'm down there fairly regularly. The space is definitely starting to gain quite a bit of traction and is getting to be a popular location for small teams that need a starter office. The Underground's growth is probably due to the growth of the Durham entrepreneurial community in general. There has been a lot of startup activity in the area over the past couple of years and it doesn't show any signs of slowing.<p>I'd love to see Durham get a co-working space of some sort (something I've heard is in works), which might be a way for even smaller teams to meet other people and work together.
I worked in the adzerk office this past weekend during Triangle Startup Weekend. At first I was a little bothered by the lack of natural light but I quickly got used to it and actually enjoyed the environment/architecture there.<p>Since moving to the triangle though, I think the best decision I've made is moving to Durham. It's still affordable, has a lot of character, and offers the same amenities that Raleigh and Chapel Hill offer. I think this why the startup scene in Durham is taking off.
It's awesome to see NC on the front page of HN and it not be related to how backwards our new broadband laws are. :D<p>I was curious if anything similar to American Underground existed in the state, glad to see it does. Thanks for writing!
Durham gets a bit of a bad rep from the rest of the state, but it's an awesome little city on the quiet - in addition to the tech startup scene, it has a blossoming food truck community, a big arts scene, tons of bars, and they didn't bat an eyelid when my wife and I applied to get married by CCB Plaza in Pac-Man outfits last year :).<p>(and on that note, when I finally get this damn visa, anybody in the area interested in hiring somebody with sysadmin / JavaScript/Ruby development experience? ;))
Durham's a great town putting a lot of effort into enticing startups to settle there. Check out Bull City Forward <a href="http://bullcityforward.org/" rel="nofollow">http://bullcityforward.org/</a> an incubator backed in part by the city.
More about the Durham, NC start-up scene here: <a href="http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.downtowndurhamstartups.com/</a>
I grew up in Durham, NC so it's great to see startups like Adzerk doing well. It's clear that the startup scene in the Triangle (with all the tech talent, access to universities, etc.) is blowing up. Keep it up!
For anybody "looking in from the outside" here's an article about the Startup Weekend that was held here, just last weekend. It might help you get a feel for what the startup scene here is like:<p><a href="http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/9687876/" rel="nofollow">http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/968...</a>
I noticed LaunchBox in the article and with all the Durham-ites replying to this post, it's a perfect time to ask: Are they still a thing? Their website shows no signs of having the program again this year and their last blog post was in February.
How are the Ruby, Python, Javascript and Clojure communities in the area?<p>What startups in the area are in the consumer tech space?<p>I was given the names of a bunch of people in the startup community there by Fred Hutchison, but I was very disappointed to find out that none of them were on Quora. This left me with the impression that there isn't much of a community or that the community lives in a bubble that is separate from instead of networked with the tech communities in Silicon Valley, NYC, Boulder, Austin and Boston.
I second what everyone's saying about the the underground. My company scoped out an office down there, but we opted for the Snow Building on Main Street. I think not having natural light would have bothered me, but the trade off is having good companies very near by. Either way, there's lots of affordable office space in Durham and the business community (particularly the start-up community) is strong and getting stronger.
I'm happy to see NC even mentioned in the startup world. I'm tired of people raising an eyebrow at the 919 area code on my business cards. D-TOWN, STAY DOWN.
American Underground is very nice. I was there for the first time a week or so ago for the Triangle Cocoaheads meet up and was very impressed with the space!
I live a couple of hours away from Durham and might be interested in coming down and staying in some temporary housing while trying out the startup scene there. But what's the deal with Underground? Is it an incubator? An office? I went to the site and I was unable to determine if I was looking at office space or applying to be accepted somewhere.
Wait a sec, weren't you the same guys that told me you started to go stir crazy working in an office with no natural light? :)<p>It's a really cool place. I love a dark room to work in but I worry about the long term effect of working in a basement (bunker).
The title of this link is confusing. The place referenced is the American Underground. It's not actually subterranean or below ground. Confusing to an outsider.