The nutrition facts of an entrepreneur: 100% motivation, 0% fear, and 10,000% hustle. This poster sits in the kitchen near Bruce Brandon’s standing desk, not yet hung as they’re still moving into the new space. The words perfectly capture the spirit of this place where determined innovators push the boundaries of the business world, creating new opportunities and fixing problems.
This is 121 Tech Hub, a new coworking space founded by serial entrepreneurs Brandon Bruce and John Bruck. It is a place where freelancers and entrepreneurs gather for “building and hacking, sharing stories and hanging out together, and trying to get stuff done,” as Brandon explains. It is a place of community, of creative collisions, and of founders who are building growth-oriented companies. It’s for people who are trying to overcome challenges, fix problems, and celebrate wins—and who want to be around others who are doing the same. People who are—to return to that all-important word—hustling. So far, they have 21 members representing 16 companies, and 8 sponsors: PYA, Teknovation.biz, Pinnacle Bank, Insperity, CGI, Junto, Big Slate Media, and Market Square Ventures.
Originally from Los Olivos, a small rural town in the Central Coast region of California, Brandon has lived in East Tennessee with his family for 17 years. He studied political science at UCSB and then earned an MBA and a law degree. Brandon started many other companies before 121 Tech Hub. He co-founded a software company in 2011 called Cirrus Insight as well as the Knoxville Technology Council and so many others. The list of his ventures on his website—brandonbruce.com—is massive. He’s even working on another startup currently called Uncat, which may get covered in a future post. He has a pattern of identifying gaps in the market and working to fill them with businesses that he is passionate about and that he hopes will benefit the community.
Brandon had wanted to create a space like 121 Tech Hub for a long time. Earlier this year, he ran a Techstars Accelerators program in Knoxville, and he took participants on a tour to give pitches in Cincinnati, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Nashville. He noticed each of those places had coworking spaces like 121 Tech Hub where companies were building and growing and founders were hacking.
“To me, there was an opportunity to fill that gap in Knoxville,” Brandon said. There are so many startups in our vibrant entrepreneurial community, and Brandon wanted to be part of building and growing that momentum. He considered several spaces over the summer before selecting the current one on Jackson Avenue. It was a beautifully finished space with the amenities already built in as well as optional room to expand.
“I’m really happy that we found this place,” Brandon said. “Old City, to me, seems like the perfect place. It’s got the right energy… We wanted to be kind of in the heartbeat of Knoxville.”
Every day when he goes in, he sees founders by the standing desks collaborating on projects and sees others catching up on the orange couch by the stairs. His coworkers here are self-disciplined, but they also benefit from being around other people.
“I’m watching in real time what we wanted to see happen,” Brandon explained. “Members working in community with other members is the magic of 121 Tech Hub. Everybody here is working on starting, growing, and scaling companies, so there are many shared challenges and opportunities.”
Another advantage of a shared coworking space is the sense of healthy competition between the founders. Entrepreneurs are often very competitive people, which can help motivate them to work harder.
The space has a massive basement which they plan to expand into as they gain more members. The plans for this space are still in the works, but Brandon is considering having a recording studio, flexible pod layouts for small teams, and event space.
There are other coworking spaces in Knoxville besides 121 Tech Hub, but Brandon doesn’t see these other spaces as competitors. Instead, he said, “The more the merrier. That’s the sign of a healthy community.”
In the end, for Brandon, it all comes down to that keyword—hustle. There’s no secret formula to entrepreneurial success, but hard work is a consistent theme. As he explains, “You can control for effort. Sometimes, it’s elusive or hard to solve for raw talent, it’s hard to measure that, and for intelligence. But you can always show up, you can put in hard work, and you can be coachable… Being around a place [like this] where everyone’s here and they want to put in effort—it gives it the right vibe.”
By co-founding 121 Tech Hub, Brandon has created a place for people to build, network, succeed, and most of all, hustle. If you’d like to learn more or join the community, reach out to Brandon for a tour:
121 Tech Hub
121TechHub.com 121 East Jackson Avenue, Knoxville
