The Idea Foundry

Tim Fulton 0:11Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, I sat down with Idea Foundry CEO Casey McCarty to discuss what is a maker space, the classes they offer there at the Idea Foundry, the membership opportunities they have, bringing communities to neighborhoods in order to revitalize them, hence the tale of two Franklintons, the new projects, partnerships, and opportunities that they have there, and how to get married there. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com, or at patreon.com/confluence. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Casey McCarty, the CEO of the Idea Foundry here in Franklinton. Casey, how are you?

Casey McCarty 1:23Great. How are you this morning?

Tim Fulton 1:24I'm good. Casey, for those that don't know, tell us about the Idea Foundry.

Casey McCarty 1:29Great. Well, we are one of the world's largest maker spaces, and we are a tool and tech and lifelong learning playground. We-

Tim Fulton 1:38And what... So what is a maker space properly?

Casey McCarty 1:41Sure. Well, a maker space, the nomenclature is a little fuzzy because that can be 10 different things to all sorts of different audiences. Our version of it is that we have shared tools and shared spaces and shared knowledge so that people who want to make and learn and do can come here and find resources to achieve those goals.

Tim Fulton 2:04Fantastic. And so the building is divided. There's a, what I think of as the maker space on the first floor that's, uh, looks like what I think of as, you know, like a, a, a very, very nice wood shop. Uh, or, or like almost like scene shop, theater shop, where there's tons of different like table tools and resources and, and anything that you may need for building and making. And then the second floor is almost exclusively, correct me if I'm wrong, offices, co-working, and some event space, correct?

Casey McCarty 2:37Right. So it is the dust-free floor versus the wood chip friendly floor-

Tim Fulton 2:45Gotcha

Casey McCarty 2:45... to be sure.

Tim Fulton 2:46And what are sort of the, the, the public aspects of the space that folks are able to get involved with? Like, if I wanted to c- if I wanted to build a birdhouse, and that's the metaphor I think I'm gonna keep going back to here. If I wanted to build a birdhouse, how would I, uh, come in and do that here?

Casey McCarty 3:02Well, first of all, I think that you could probably pick a more ambitious project.

Tim Fulton 3:07That's very nice of you to say.

Casey McCarty 3:08And we could help you out with that. Um, but there's plenty of ways that the public can interface with the Idea Foundry. So all of the tools and the tech and all of the cool toys that you wanna point to and be like, "Ooh, what's that? What does that do?"

Tim Fulton 3:23Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 3:23We have a class for that.

Tim Fulton 3:25Okay.

Casey McCarty 3:25And anybody can sign up to take a class. It's on our website. They're mostly adult oriented, although there are some youth or- opportunities.

Tim Fulton 3:33Okay.

Casey McCarty 3:34You can take a class. You can learn how to make stuff. You can learn how the tools work, or there's plenty of just cool, creative hands-on experiences. You know, there's date nights. There's some informal things where, you know, we love to take people that have the, "Oh, I'm not creative. Oh, I, I never got a tool," or, "They didn't have shop class when I was younger"-

Tim Fulton 3:56Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 3:56... and turn them into, "Oh, look at what you just built with your hands." So we love that too.

Tim Fulton 4:01Give me some examples of the classes.

Casey McCarty 4:03Yeah. Um, so there's welding projects, wood shop projects, 3D printers, lasers, CNC routers. You can play in the metal shop. You can use the plasma cutter. Um, you can learn some intro robotics. You can wood turn.

Tim Fulton 4:16That's-

Casey McCarty 4:16There is a little bit of something for everyone.

Tim Fulton 4:19Absolutely. And so are there folks using that space down on the first floor for, like, their livelihood?

Casey McCarty 4:26Ab-

Tim Fulton 4:26Like, they are craftspeople that are building there as well during the day?

Casey McCarty 4:30Yes, absolutely. So our members-

Tim Fulton 4:33Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 4:33... you can sort of think of us as a bit of a, a health club or any other sort of member base. So anybody can take a class.

Tim Fulton 4:40Okay.

Casey McCarty 4:40And then of those people who took the classes, if they wanna join us as members to the maker space, they can use any of the tools and the tech that they've been trained on. They can use-

Tim Fulton 4:48Oh, okay

Casey McCarty 4:48... them for their hobbies or their small business purposes. So about 60% of our members say that they're small business owners at some stage of their development.

Tim Fulton 4:58Okay.

Casey McCarty 4:58There's tons of weekend warriors, people that are sorta nursing along a side gig, passion project, and then there's people that that is their full-time replace the day job. That is what they do. Um, so you can find those people at, at all different levels.

Tim Fulton 5:13Okay.

Casey McCarty 5:13But then there's plenty of hobbyists that are sorta, "Hey, I wanna learn how to make this Adirondack chair," some of the projects that I see in Pinterest or magazines or things like that, and just, you know, want to spend my time, instead of scrolling on the Facebook, uh, making some wood-

Tim Fulton 5:29Make some stuff

Casey McCarty 5:29... wood shop dust.

Tim Fulton 5:30And it is, regardless of whether you're a hobbyist or, I'm gonna call them hobbyists and craftspeople, uh, the membership fee is the same, right?

Casey McCarty 5:39Right.

Tim Fulton 5:39Okay.

Casey McCarty 5:40So-

Tim Fulton 5:40And there isn't like they can show up at any time and do that work. They don't, they're not paying per hour.

Casey McCarty 5:46Right. Full-time members have 24/7 key card access.

Tim Fulton 5:49Okay.

Casey McCarty 5:50And we definitely see that there's differences in the days of time that people occupy this space.

Tim Fulton 5:56Yeah.

Casey McCarty 5:56So the office and co-working folks are much more daytime, 9:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday. The creative class that occupies the downstairs, the maker space-

Tim Fulton 6:07Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 6:08... um, is very evening and weekend oriented. I know I've left at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and have not been the only one here.

Tim Fulton 6:15Okay And it's, I assume, you know, for the tools, it's first come, first serve peop- or people are signing up to make sure that they have access to the saws and the, then the tools that they need, right?

Casey McCarty 6:27Yeah. Members can self-book any single-user stations.

Tim Fulton 6:31Okay

Casey McCarty 6:31And then multi-user stations, you know, several people can be working at the woodshop at the same time. Those don't require any sort of sign-in.

Tim Fulton 6:38Gotcha. Gotcha. And what's the membership... Give me the rundown of membership cost for the makerspace downstairs and then also for the co-working up here.

Casey McCarty 6:46Right. So, uh, makerspace members, that's $65 a month for full members, and then co-working full-time is two hun- as, as low as 200 bucks a month.

Tim Fulton 6:56Gotcha. Very cool. And talk about... So the, the space has been around for, I think, almost 12 years now, founded back in 2008. What was sort of the... It started as the makerspace, correct?

Casey McCarty 7:07Correct.

Tim Fulton 7:08And what was the impetus to expand into co-working and, and how... What, what's the story there?

Casey McCarty 7:14Sure. So I came on board about eight years ago-

Tim Fulton 7:17Okay

Casey McCarty 7:17... so it was already an established thing. I came on board on our cor- We were at Corrugated Way, sort of what we affectionately referred to as Chicken District, uh-

Tim Fulton 7:25Okay

Casey McCarty 7:25... that's Milo Grogan.

Tim Fulton 7:27Yeah.

Casey McCarty 7:27Um, on the corner where Rogue is now, basically.

Tim Fulton 7:30Okay

Casey McCarty 7:30But there used to be three chicken stores-

Tim Fulton 7:32Great

Casey McCarty 7:33... on that corner.

Tim Fulton 7:33Yes.

Casey McCarty 7:34Um, so that was the iteration that I came to it as. And I got out of grad school at the apex of the recession.

Tim Fulton 7:42Okay

Casey McCarty 7:42And in my own context of trying to find, um, some clients and some freelance work, came across, uh, that iteration of the Idea Foundry.

Tim Fulton 7:52Okay

Casey McCarty 7:53And it was definitely a sort of co-op. Um, people brought tools and tech with them, and then taught other people how to use it, and it was this tool share model. There was, I think, maybe 40 or 50 members at the time compared to our, you know, 6 to 700 depending on what time of year it is.

Tim Fulton 8:11Yeah.

Casey McCarty 8:12Um, but it always had the vision of being this self-sustaining enterprise that could sort of deliver the mission to a much broader audience.

Tim Fulton 8:21Okay. And how did it come to Franklinton then and expand into co-working as well?

Casey McCarty 8:27Yeah. So we came to Franklinton with a public-private partnership with the Franklinton, uh, w- the neighbor- the neighborhood CDC, which is now known as FUEL-

Tim Fulton 8:38Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 8:38... um, but was previously known as the Franklinton Development Association.

Tim Fulton 8:42Okay.

Casey McCarty 8:42And then just for reference, I'm currently on that board, but I was not on that board when this transaction happened.

Tim Fulton 8:48Gotcha

Casey McCarty 8:49Um, but-

Tim Fulton 8:49No conflict of interest there.

Casey McCarty 8:51Right. Right. There was not a conflict of interest.

Tim Fulton 8:52Got it.

Casey McCarty 8:53Um, we came to the neighborhood. They were really... The city gave them this building, and with the goal of participating in the revitalization of Franklinton. Of course, this was well before all these $200 million worth of new investments have-

Tim Fulton 9:09Yeah

Casey McCarty 9:09... gone online. Um, and, you know, they got plenty of very lucrative offers of what could go here, but they wanted something that would really participate in sidewalk life, that would really bring humans to the space.

Tim Fulton 9:21Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 9:21And what we were doing, sort of de facto incubating of small businesses, of bringing hundreds of people through for programs and education opportunities, uh, and people were willing to do that at our previous location, which looked a lot less clean and accessible as this location.

Tim Fulton 9:40Right.

Casey McCarty 9:40So we, we brought... We were able to bring that community and sort of participate in the growth of the neighborhood that way. It was by bringing all these small businesses and bringing all these people seeking lifelong learning opportunities to the neighborhood.

Tim Fulton 9:52And in the time that you've been here, in addition to the $200 million in private investment going into apartments and condos and restaurants, what are the other experiences that you're seeing in the neighborhood?

Casey McCarty 10:06Yeah. Well, so both our experiences with the Idea Foundry and then my experiences on the board-

Tim Fulton 10:11Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 10:11... is that, you know, we're sort of starting to see a tale of two Franklintons, right?

Tim Fulton 10:15Okay.

Casey McCarty 10:16This side of the to- of, of Franklinton is becoming very conventionally robust, right?

Tim Fulton 10:22Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 10:22You're starting to see very trendy, very modern, sort of expensive, um, housing opportunities. Um, of course, we're adding to, you know, used to be Rehab Tavern and then Strong Water before Strong Water even had food, and then that became, like, a restau- a, a fully functioning restaurant.

Tim Fulton 10:39Right.

Casey McCarty 10:39And now we have BrewDog next door. So we're starting to see sort of layers built upon the, the skeleton that was here. When we got here, uh, 400 West Rich, the sort of arts collective community was here.

Tim Fulton 10:52Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 10:53And Rehab Tavern was here, and, you know, it wasn't that we had, like, a bad experience. There was just not that much here, right?

Tim Fulton 10:59Right.

Casey McCarty 10:59And then Land Grant opened. They're members of ours, by the way. Um, and, you know, we just started adding layers of things that you could do here in Franklinton.

Tim Fulton 11:08Yeah. And then so what's the other Franklinton?

Casey McCarty 11:11So unfortunately, the other Franklinton is, you know, the rest of Franklinton proper is a very working class community.

Tim Fulton 11:17Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 11:17The median income is, is not very high. I won't try to guess that number right now. Um, but the board that I'm on has been traditionally focused on affordable housing.

Tim Fulton 11:27Okay.

Casey McCarty 11:28And because of what this side's development has done to real estate prices and property taxes-

Tim Fulton 11:35Yeah

Casey McCarty 11:35... there's definitely a pinch in the residential side where houses that were going for 30 to 60K five years ago are now 100, 150, 200 occasionally, we'll see, without a lot of development in those properties. So we're really starting to see some, some struggling with the residential side as this side becomes more conventionally populated, more developed, more conventionally developed.

Tim Fulton 12:04And do you think that, for lack of a better term, the other side will slowly see... Obviously, they're seeing, uh, I'm gonna call them improvements in their property values, but are they going to see, do you think, improvement in infrastructure and in, uh, what's available to them? How do you think that that's gonna play itself out?

Casey McCarty 12:25Uh, you know, not being tightly connected to the city and-

Tim Fulton 12:30Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 12:30... and those type of things, you know, I don't know what their timeline is. I would say unfortunately right now there is a disconnect between the increase in property taxes and the increase of, you know, perhaps property value, but that's becoming almost sort of predatory, right? Where you're starting to see people getting, uh, busted on code violations and sort of getting the predatory, like, "We'll buy your house for cash," type of-

Tim Fulton 12:55Right

Casey McCarty 12:55... hard- you know, hardcore proactive advertisements. And a lot of people are on fixed incomes. They're on... You know, there's a significant senior population. People-

Tim Fulton 13:05Well, and it's a generational population, too.

Casey McCarty 13:07Right.

Tim Fulton 13:07Yeah.

Casey McCarty 13:08Right.

Tim Fulton 13:08Um-

Casey McCarty 13:08We're starting to see landlords maybe not take the best care of some of these places while dramatically increasing the rents.

Tim Fulton 13:15Okay.

Casey McCarty 13:16Um, and sort of market it to the, the next wave of tenants and, and not yet seeing the sort of infrastructure support.

Tim Fulton 13:25Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 13:25Right? Right now we still have problems just even getting streets plowed on the residential neighborhood, or, you know, police relationships could definitely use some improvement with the, the neighborhood-

Tim Fulton 13:38Yeah

Casey McCarty 13:39... residents.

Tim Fulton 13:40Switching back over to the Idea Foundry, talk to sort of the... In addition to the foot traffic, bringing people into the neighborhood, the benefits of and the philosophy behind maker spaces.

Casey McCarty 13:53Sure. So ostensibly, now maker spaces exist in so many different models. There's nonprofit models, there's little wings in libraries.

Tim Fulton 14:02Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 14:03You know, and every community sort of dictates what they're interested in. Some we've visited, I've been to some of these all around the country. I've been to ones in church basements and I've been to, you know, Tech Shop back in its heyday at the Coaster in Detroit.

Tim Fulton 14:18Yeah.

Casey McCarty 14:18Um, so every community has its own flavor, which is a benefit, right? Each community sort of gets to decide what its priorities are. Our community tended to be very heavily involved with small businesses and entrepreneurs, and so that is our SKU-

Tim Fulton 14:34Okay

Casey McCarty 14:35... is small business friendly. M- about 20% of our members report that they launched their business after joining us. So some people gain the confidence and sometimes the skill set to be able to jettison the day job and really make a go at it after they join this community, and they turn... They monetize hobbies or they, you know, always had something they sort of wanted to do but didn't really have confidence that it could replace their day job income.

Tim Fulton 15:04Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 15:04We used to have what was sort of affectionately called the stick it to the man party when people launched their day jobs, and we have lovely success stories of that happening. And then secondly, we form this internal economy that's pretty robust, and that is definitely a, a differentiator that a lot of co-working spaces, a lot of office spaces can't really say so.

Tim Fulton 15:25Yeah.

Casey McCarty 15:26Um, 40% of our members every year report that they have hired or been hired by a fellow member.

Tim Fulton 15:34Okay.

Casey McCarty 15:34And about a quarter of them have done both. They've hired and been hired by.

Tim Fulton 15:38Okay.

Casey McCarty 15:38And when we start... There's such a considerable diversity in the skill sets that we have here and the different types of small businesses. You can find drone videographers, boutique, uh, interior designers, and architects, and small law firms, and people that are amazing at CNC skills. People who take people through the invention and commercialization, the product prototyping processes. You can find so many disparate skill sets under our roof that, um, while we certainly advocate that you can learn these skills, we also are really hands-on in connecting people with-

Tim Fulton 16:14Okay

Casey McCarty 16:14... the resources that they're looking for. So for lack of a better analogy, people can come to us like, "Ugh, you know, I know that you teach a CNC class, but, like, just who are your really good CNC people?" Because they just-

Tim Fulton 16:27And I'm sorry, what is CNC?

Casey McCarty 16:29C- CNC. So computer numeric controlled, and that is sort of when the robot cuts a piece out for you-

Tim Fulton 16:34Got it

Casey McCarty 16:35... based on a, a design that you might have had in a file.

Tim Fulton 16:38Got it.

Casey McCarty 16:38Yeah. Uh, great. We're all learn-

Tim Fulton 16:41We're all learning today.

Casey McCarty 16:42We're all learning terms here. Yeah. Um, and, and so we can point to those people, and sometimes else it's, "You know, I have this idea for a restaurant build-out, but it needs a, a lighting solution."

Tim Fulton 16:53Uh-huh.

Casey McCarty 16:53Or, "Who's your best programming nerd?" And like, "Hey, we have five of those nerds I can introduce you to." And so some of our role as facilitators of this is to get to know pe- what they make and do, what their skill sets are, to build relationships so that we can take people and say, "Hey, is it you're trying to get through the patent process? I have someone I can point you to. Are you trying to... You have some small business legal needs? I have a person for that. You're trying to set up a nonprofit? I have someone for that." Right?

Tim Fulton 17:21Got it. And are you formalizing that process or is it much more... I believe that you guys have, like, profiles on the website of all the folks that are located here and the members. But are you formalizing that in terms of networking events or member events? Are, are there fo- Let's say I am a, a creative professional, but digitally, and so I'm not really interested in the maker space on the first floor, but I also have a full-time job. Is there an opportunity for me here to integrate myself with this community to, you know, work on my side hustle or frankly get hired, uh, by some of the folks here if they need, like, a logo design or something like that?

Casey McCarty 18:00Right. So like so many ecosystems, membership is absolutely what you make of it, right?

Tim Fulton 18:07Okay.

Casey McCarty 18:07So yes, we have meetups. We have tons of meetups spanning all sorts of different topics every month that are free and open to the public. We have w- special guest lectures. We, uh, always encourage people if they have a topic that they're really passionate about, that we are happy to host that as a guest lecture. Um- We have sort of natural opportunities for members to network and interact. You know, it's sort of the onus is on you to participate in those things.

Tim Fulton 18:37Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 18:37Um, and then also we're a 24-hour space, so you can be here, you can make friends in real life, right? We certainly have digital opportunities to interact. We have private Facebook groups and messaging boards, and you can look at the member directory and whatnot. But, um, really the connections are, come talk to us. Come... You know, we can... If you're not sure how to ingratiate yourself to the community, how to make those first few contacts, ta- that you're telling staff, that you're telling us what it is that you make and do and are interested in and what needs that you have that are not yet met-

Tim Fulton 19:11Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 19:11... and we can connect you intelligently with people. That isn't so much you scrolling the member directory as saying, "You know what? I'm really interested in someone who knows blockchain or 3D printing," or whatever it is-

Tim Fulton 19:25Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 19:25... that your nuanced needs might be. Be like, "Okay, we have a handful of sources that we can sort of point you to. They like to come to the 3D printing meetup," or, "They're here at the Game Dev meetup," or, "They're here in XYZ capacity to, to meaningfully connect you a little bit more than just, like, all right." I mean, we certainly have some social outings, you know, um, but if you really wanna take an- advantage of networking opportunities, that's probably the best, most meaningful way.

Tim Fulton 19:54Gotcha. And you are an event space, too. Is that... Uh, I've certainly been to a couple of, like, art auctions and some presentations here. Is that... Do you guys offer... Uh, you do offer event rental, right? Those aren't-

Casey McCarty 20:07Yeah

Tim Fulton 20:07... just partner organizations that are doing stuff.

Casey McCarty 20:10Right. So we both host our own events, and then we also take rentals from-

Tim Fulton 20:16The community

Casey McCarty 20:16... whomever, right?

Tim Fulton 20:17Right.

Casey McCarty 20:18Um, typically those are mission-oriented, uh, partnered events. Sometimes they're, like, the annual stakeholder meetings for corporations, or it could be community, um, like you said, art auctions and functions.

Tim Fulton 20:33Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 20:33We do the... We've done for the last few years the, um, fundraiser part, the Urban Scrawl turns into the Art for Franklinton, for example.

Tim Fulton 20:42Right.

Casey McCarty 20:42Um, but we've hosted city council debates and, uh, other opportunities to meet elected officials, for example. Um, we've had the ballet here. So it's really, like, a, a mix, a broad mix of sort of community uses.

Tim Fulton 20:56Right.

Casey McCarty 20:56Um, although five, five people have gotten married here, too, so there's that.

Tim Fulton 21:01I was about to ask, like, can people... 'Cause I think when I was a member you couldn't. They, they were like, "Maybe in the future-

Casey McCarty 21:08Right

Tim Fulton 21:08... you can get married here."

Casey McCarty 21:09Right.

Tim Fulton 21:10But-

Casey McCarty 21:10It's definitely come knocking on our door pretty heavily, and as long as you don't mind that it's a 24-hour space that makers are doing their thing, and, you know, maybe you might hear a power tool-

Tim Fulton 21:20There might be a coworking guy-

Casey McCarty 21:20... every once in a while.

Tim Fulton 21:22... sitting over in the corner while you say your vows.

Casey McCarty 21:24Right?

Tim Fulton 21:24Yeah.

Casey McCarty 21:25But, uh, you know, our architect got married here. We even had, um, a gorilla wedding here where people just bought coworking day passes and then came in with their whole team-

Tim Fulton 21:36Oh, I was gonna s-

Casey McCarty 21:37... and got married.

Tim Fulton 21:38I didn't know which gorilla you were talking about. Okay.

Casey McCarty 21:40Just gorilla the extra vows. Yeah.

Tim Fulton 21:43Right.

Casey McCarty 21:43Uh, no. So, and I'm so proud that people are like, "Yeah, I want to get married there."

Tim Fulton 21:49Yeah.

Casey McCarty 21:49All right. That's not, that is not our wheelhouse, but we are certainly happy if you want that, you know, maker Franklinton stank on your wedding. Like, we will participate in that.

Tim Fulton 21:59You're happy to do it. You don't offer planning services, but-

Casey McCarty 22:03Right

Tim Fulton 22:03... got it. Got it. Talk to me about what's coming up at The Idea Foundry. What initiatives are you working on? You guys kinda set what's, what's coming up.

Casey McCarty 22:12Okay. So one initiative that's launching is our Changemakers program. And we have a couple nonprofits that work out of here now, and one of our newest one, um, formerly known as the Dick and Jane Project, rebranded as WAVE.

Tim Fulton 22:28Yeah.

Casey McCarty 22:28We Amplify Voices. Travis Hoshier is the executive director of that. And in sort of talking about what they needed and really loved about this space, we decided to sort of formalize that into welcoming additional nonprofits here.

Tim Fulton 22:46Okay.

Casey McCarty 22:46So there's some information on our website, and we'll be making a more concerted push here now that the new year has started-

Tim Fulton 22:53Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 22:53... of some sort of introductory opportunities for nonprofits, people particularly in our mission wheelhouse, our sort of STEAM, arts, education, makery, entrepreneurial focuses, um, that they can sort of set up home base here for a little less than what we normally charge for that.

Tim Fulton 23:14Got it. Okay.

Casey McCarty 23:14And then not only get some discounts on rent or coworking solutions so that their team has a place to work and show clients and fundraise and whatnot, but-

Tim Fulton 23:25Yeah

Casey McCarty 23:25... um, some interaction with some of our multi-talented members and staff here that can also provide some mentorship about marketing or business-orient- ed, you know, needs.

Tim Fulton 23:37Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 23:37Um, and then also use some of our spaces for those fundraisers and outreach activities.

Tim Fulton 23:42Okay. What else?

Casey McCarty 23:44What else? Uh, a couple of our members are also trying to formalize our processes for taking on, uh, design and production activities. So-

Tim Fulton 23:55Okay

Casey McCarty 23:56... this has always been a sort of space that people have come to, like, "Ah, you guys have all the creative people. Like, can we get this built?" And-

Tim Fulton 24:05Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 24:05... and sometimes, depending on our bandwidth at the time, we've taken that on as Idea Foundry projects. Like, our previous, like, sh- shop manager, um, Matt Hatcher and his team did the Vets Memorial desk.

Tim Fulton 24:16Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 24:16Um, we've done some restaurant remodels and some other big projects. Um, but this will be a group that will sort of activate all of the disparate talents so that they can take on clients and really reduce the bottleneck between the design and the making, right? Because typically, we get all these great designs, and then it's like, "Yeah, that's not feasible because material doesn't act that way."

Tim Fulton 24:43Okay.

Casey McCarty 24:43Or because things that you're planning for now is a lot more expensive than you thought it was.

Tim Fulton 24:50Yeah.

Casey McCarty 24:50Or because outlets don't exist in the middle of the wall, you can have that floating shelf with that light feature right here, right?

Tim Fulton 24:56Right.

Casey McCarty 24:56So, so to have makers involved a little higher up in the design food chain-

Tim Fulton 25:02Yeah

Casey McCarty 25:03... as it, as it is, is a real value add to say, like, by the time... Even if you're just hiring them for the design process, that, you know, you really have something that is actionable, that you have a budget for, that you know will work, whether it's us making it or not.

Tim Fulton 25:20Yeah. Well, and it's like building a house as an analogy. Like, you guys want... You guys have the opportunity to be the contractor who's hiring the mason, who's hiring the person to do the drywall, who's hiring the plumber, who's hiring the electrician. There aren't a whole lot of projects that just need a designer or just need a lawyer, and you have the ability to sort of bring in those skill sets into individual projects.

Casey McCarty 25:45Right. Right. So, um, yeah, we have so many... You know, we have the woodworking people and the, you know, welding and fabrication and the electronics that can do lighting and c- very hyper-customized solutions, right? So nothing that's gonna be made by a craftsman is gonna be like IKEA price point style.

Tim Fulton 26:04Right.

Casey McCarty 26:05Right? But again, whether or not it's our people that are the final makers, certainly involving people that have m- that know how the tools work, that know how the materials work-

Tim Fulton 26:16Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 26:16... early on in the design process. Um, we also have super talented designers. So, um, Andrew Lundberg of Lundberg Industrial Arts has a lot of very visible, like the sculpture at the Pilot Dogs, for example.

Tim Fulton 26:28Yeah.

Casey McCarty 26:28Or has done some work all over the city. Um, it's really more about assigning who is the wrangler

Tim Fulton 26:36Mm-hmm

Casey McCarty 26:36... of all of the design talents and what projects specifically need. So-

Tim Fulton 26:40Got it

Casey McCarty 26:40... we're going through sort of market vetting process on that, and then that will be formally announced a little later.

Tim Fulton 26:45That's great.

Casey McCarty 26:46Yeah. Well, so those are our primary initiatives.

Tim Fulton 26:49Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 26:49And we have a couple new tenants on deck. Um, so our founder, Alex Benner, is also working with the Columbus Fashion Initiative.

Tim Fulton 26:57Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 26:58And they're about to relocate here, uh, in what used to be the Smart Columbus room.

Tim Fulton 27:03Yeah.

Casey McCarty 27:04Uh, so they will bring a new wave of sort of programming and sorta Columbus-based fashion initiatives here.

Tim Fulton 27:12Yeah.

Casey McCarty 27:13We've sort of launched a number of member-led initiatives. Members want to sorta change the lobby experience and just... We're, we're trying to empower more than just our staff to put the flavor of what people need here, right? So, uh, you know, if members want to redesign the lobby experience or members want a sort of visual representation of a member directory, for example, those are January projects getting kicked off.

Tim Fulton 27:40Okay.

Casey McCarty 27:40So these sort of, like, group build projects. Um, you know, so we're just stepping out of the way and letting people play a little harder here in our space.

Tim Fulton 27:51That's great. And what is your background? How did you get here to The Idea F- I know you said you graduated in, in the, the height- ... or the, or the bottom, whichever, however you consider it, of the, the recession. Uh, what's your under- what's your degree in?

Casey McCarty 28:06Yeah. So I went to undergrad for criminology and psychology.

Tim Fulton 28:10Okay.

Casey McCarty 28:11And then I went to grad school. I got a Master's of Science in Criminal Justice and Public Policy.

Tim Fulton 28:16Okay.

Casey McCarty 28:16I was sort of all set to do pretty hardcore research on whether or not criminal justice programs reduced or increased recidivism and-

Tim Fulton 28:28Okay

Casey McCarty 28:28... and the efficacy of public policy in the criminal justice realm.

Tim Fulton 28:33And now you run a maker space.

Casey McCarty 28:35Now I run a maker space.

Tim Fulton 28:36Yeah.

Casey McCarty 28:36Um, yeah. And I did some postla- uh, post-grad stint in homeland security-

Tim Fulton 28:41Okay

Casey McCarty 28:41... and, um, emergency management. Um, yeah. And then I am here. I am here. So I ac- sort of accidentally found a previous incarnation of The Idea Foundry in just networking for my own needs.

Tim Fulton 28:56Mm-hmm.

Casey McCarty 28:57And, uh, I used to sort of joke that I just took it over, right? It was, uh... The vision was that we would be able to have this self-sustaining enterprise, and some of that was the cat wrangling of volunteers. It was, how do we monetize some of the things that we're doing? How do we turn some of the mission into revenue streams that could support the mission-

Tim Fulton 29:20Yeah

Casey McCarty 29:20... and deliver it to a broader audience? And that is what I did as COO for years, and I took over as CEO about 18 months ago, and that has still, you know, been my mission, is to improve being self-sustaining.

Tim Fulton 29:35Got it. Awesome. That's all I have for you.

Casey McCarty 29:38All right. Thank you so much.

Tim Fulton 29:39Yeah. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite maker. If you're interested in sponsoring Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.