Hypepotamus Party under the Ballroom in the Biltmore Basement

When Atlanta boosters meet in a great building, there's cake, AND they tell me about it, I'm there! It was the Hypepotamus Founders Day Party yesterday.

Here's a brief report.

Inside these doors you can find:	Xiaohang Li, entrepreneur at XQUVA.

  
Hypepotamus is a year-old start-up incubator. They provide free co-working space in the basement of the Biltmore. They supply massive amounts of energy. They are one of my Atlanta-booster heroes.


Here's the Biltmore. It's the terminating vista at the corner of 5th and West Peachtree. It anchors the eastern edge of Georgia Tech's "Tech Square." It's a brick escarpment with offices, apartments, condos and Hypepotamus.


The two ballrooms are on the piano nobile. This is the Imperial Ballroom on the south end of the Biltmore. The Hypepotamus space is below.


By the time I got there, the cake was gone, the fist-sized meatball sandwiches were running low, and they were making another keg run. The crowd paid no attention, except maybe to the beer.


Cool room. As you walk down the ramp, you see the Polariod field guide.

These folks can use this space for free and they get a lot for their money.


Entrepreneurship is not a field for the shy wallflower. Hypepotamus provides the space, the energy, the activities, and the networking to "give shy people the courage to do what needs to be done."


Entrepreneurs have to sell. Hypepotamus makes you practice.


Entrepreneurs have to promote, they have to be ready to talk.


Entrepreneurs have to give interviews. Hypepotamus manager Scott Henderson conducted video interviews all through the party.


See your city councilman? Where's Kwanza?


Even I was feeling like an entrepreneur, like an angel investor.


There's no avoiding the energy in this place. After two hours folks were still arriving, the place sill buzzing.

But it was time to return to work as Architecture Tourist.


I am totally fascinated by the floor. What was this space in 1924?


Herringbone wood, bordered in marble, framed in tile?


A bar, a restaurant, with a dance floor?

I must see the Georgian on the way out.


The Georgian Ballroom that is.


And I enjoy the giant "Woman Holding a Balance." It warms up the marble-modern lobby.

Thanks Hypepotamus. Thanks for talking with me: Chris, Scott, Stephen, Jane, Melody-Rose, Xiaohang Li, Valerie, Tolen. Thanks Kevin Wallace and Heath Hyneman for Hypepotamus.


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