South Austin Small Business February 2, 2018

The Buzz At The Hive: Co-Working, Coffee and Childcare

A Solution For Parenting Professionals 

Down Old Manchaca Road you’ll see a grey-violet house nestled in the back of a large lot. When you pull down the driveway you’ll see a coffee trailer and a playscape. This is The Hive. Owner, Shelly Weiser, greeted me as she does every customer with a warm welcome. This coffee shop and co-working space embraces the average Jane and Joe’s desire for work-life balance. For those who know the struggle of keeping one foot in the workforce while the other is chasing after a toddler can appreciate Shelly’s savvy solution. This model really caters to a very under-served part of today’s workforce. As I sat working at the concrete counter, I noticed an equal balance of young men and women getting an hour or two of concentrated work done while their children had supervised fun on the playscape adjacent to the shop.

Another way The Hive positively impacts the community is through supporting locally handcrafted gift items. Shelly has managed to use Austin vendors that are primarily woman owned ventures.

Shelly had a little time to fill me in on her new business adventure, what it grew from and where it’s heading.

How did you come up with this concept?

I’m a graphic designer. I worked out of my home and often times I just needed an hour here or there to work on a last-minute project without interruption. For people who work from home with small children, you may not need full time daycare, but just a few hours of quiet time.

For $10 an hour, 4 hours a day max and 12 hours a week max we will babysit on site. The difference between us and other places with playgrounds is that we provide childcare with supervision. We have a monthly membership for $80 which gives you 10 hours of supervised childcare per month.

What woman-owned local businesses are you supporting here?

We use Perky Perky for our espresso beans. We connected with Maruxa Murphy, owner of Perky Perky Espresso, through a woman’s entrepreneur network. She started Austin Moms’ Network and she’s super tapped in to the Austin local mom-markets.

Cuvee is our drip coffee. Cuvee really helped us navigate the coffee business and the logistics of running a coffee shop.

The local honey we sell is Bee Gone by Mandi Ledford. Mandi did bee removal and ended up bringing them all to her property. This resulted in Mandi keeping these bees and harvesting the honey, which created Bee Gone. We carry Salty Lemon Apothecary owned by Daphane Mitlo. I met Daphane as a customer who happened to come in the The Hive. We started talking and hit it off right away!

As I got involved in the mom networks, I realized how many amazing things were being made by women living in the surrounding neighborhoods. I love the feeling of supporting women who like me are trying to navigate their own way.

What amenities do you offer as a business center?

For those needing to meet clients or conduct meetings, we have a board room for $25 hour. The board room seats 8 and includes a white board and projector. We also offer Free Wi-Fi to our customers during their visit.

For $550 a month, you can have your own desk which includes 10 hours of childcare, 4 hours of conference room rental and most importantly one bottle of wine every Friday.

Need more reasons to show up to The Hive?

Shelly is packing the calendar these days with events that serve a broad range of interests. Coming up in February:

Feb 3rd Hive Market Day

Feb 7th Free Boot Camp Demo

Feb 11th Valentine’s Day Brunch Date & PJ Party

Feb 17th ATX Goat Yoga

Feb 17th Tye Cooks Austin Date Night

Feb 18th UnHushed Sexuality Education for Girls

Looking to grab a drink with a friend? The Hive’s signature cocktail, Bee’s Knees, is mixture of Ray’s Lemon Spirits, soda water and a hint of cherry. Check out her assortment of wine and beer.

Oh yeah, and you can rent the facility out for birthdays, cocktail hour… you name it!

See the many ways their space can be used here: http://www.hiveaustin.com/facility-rental/

Future Plans

Coming soon to The Hive, a drive thru coffee trailer! The plan is to have the drive thru in the front, so you can snag your cup to go if you’re an office dweller! Also in the works is a food truck court yard with an array of food options. Keep watching as new developments arise and follow Shelly on Facebook to keep up with what’s new at The Hive.

https://www.facebook.com/hiveaustin/

The Hive
(512) 366-8120
10415 Old Manchaca Rd
Austin, Texas