Big things are happening in a small house in Pretoria, South Africa, as hobbyists, techies, IT experts and hackers all come together at the aptly named ‘House 4 Hack’.
House 4 Hack began just over a year ago when a group of freelancers came together at an event called Startup Weekend, which was based around the pitching of an idea on the Friday evening, working on the technical and business aspects over the next two days, and culminating in a presentation on the Sunday night.
“There were a couple of guys at the event who really shared our vision of what is required and what we really would like to see emerging in the Gauteng area and so we used the momentum from the start-up weekend to get started,” says Schalk Heunis, one of the founders of the innovation space currently serving as its director.
Heunis explains that the idea behind the project is to create a not-for-profit organisation in which the central focus is on encouraging the members to get together in small groups and work on their projects. The house then gets involved with sponsorship and support on a variety of financial and entrepreneurial levels.
One of the key factors in the creation or evolution of the space is the fact that Gauteng lags somewhat behind its contemporaries when it comes to ICT innovation. Heunis and his colleagues are confident that House 4 Hack is uniquely positioned to bring some momentum to the sector in the province.
“In Gauteng, there is not as much being done in innovation as perhaps in Cape Town. I think that has a lot to do with people finishing varsity and immediately walking into jobs, after that they are in the golden handcuffs and are pretty much stuck there,” Heunis explains.
This is reflected in an interesting way as House 4 Hack has become a magnet for a majority of working people who are eager to work on their ideas, live their passion and get involved in the innovation space.
Heunis does point out though that various initiatives by both government and the private sector in Gauteng are seeing youngsters encouraged to develop a more entrepreneurial spirit and consider the field of innovation.
When it comes to membership, the house takes a very laid-back approach in allowing users to come and go and get a feel for the space and environment. They encourage the regulars to form small teams to get involved in working together on projects and then offer them mentorship support in the hopes that the project might become a small business.
Heunis uses a novel model to explain his vision of House 4 Hack: “I usually draw a picture of a funnel. The wide end of the funnel is where we have the hacker’s space, where hobbyists and enthusiasts come in and network and socialise and show off what they have done but then that funnel narrows and you see people who stay longer and are more mature in their relationship.”
It is at that stage in the ‘funnel’ that the teams will form and work together.
“From there we will get involved and try to mentor these guys and help them along and also create connections with business where we have connections,” continues Heunis.
The space faces some unique challenges due to its slightly older and more established members who often face real obstacles in terms of being able to allocate time and resources to their projects due to pressures at work and at home.
Heunis and the members at House 4 Hack are not short of ambition and have begun to establish similar set-ups across Gauteng with a group already established in Randburg and another coming online in the south of Johannesburg.
“One of the goals is to have House 4 Hack set-ups all over Gauteng and eventually all over the country. The immediate objective is to support each of these units and ensure an income stream that at least supports their infrastructure and then follow it with a membership drive and training courses,” says Heunis.
This ambitious space is also actively engaged in building relationships with industry. To that end, it has begun a very promising collaboration with a local technology company called Parsec. Parsec will be involved in taking an idea or concept that one of the house’s small start-ups has developed and actually turning it into a professional, demonstration-ready unit that can be used in pitches.
“It’s basically taking this thing from a homemade look into a professional product and Parsec will support this product the whole way. Some of the products may just need development support, others funding and while some may need industrialization or commercialization support and they are keen to get involved. This will allow us to complete the chain from the idea when the guy is sitting tinkering in his basement all the way through to the boxed and packaged product ready to be sold and with all the commercial channels successfully navigated,” explains Heunis.
The partnership with Parsec is already in motion and House 4 Hack expects to see some completed products emerge over the next few months. Although this relationship is predominantly focused on the electronics arena, there are already plans afoot to establish similar relationships with other companies in the various fields of innovation.
Heading into the future, House 4 Hack believes it is uniquely placed to become a real centre of innovation and business incubation.
“I think the main difference between ourselves and similar initiatives is that we have this hacker space, which is essentially a pre-competitive space similar to university where you can freely share ideas, show what you have done, work together and all without worrying commercial constraints. It’s a safer environment where they can learn from their peers and don’t have to worry about failing with the project in the same way as in failing in a startup,” concludes Heunis.
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