At the Wantable Cafe in Walker's Point — particularly on Wednesdays — you'll likely see Milwaukee-area startup founders typing on laptops or chatting at tables in the plant-filled, roughly 5,000-square-foot space.
The idea for the cafe began as a new employee benefit, said Wantable Inc. CEO and president Jalem Getz. Wantable employees eat and drink for free in the trendy, open cafe and bar space that's equipped with high-speed internet access. But the concept soon grew into what it is today: a place that's open to the public and specifically, to the local startup community.
"Anybody is welcome to come to the cafe — they don’t have to be an entrepreneur," Getz said. "But we wanted to kind of have that theme and create that gravity around it."
Since the cafe opened in early 2021, a coalescence of word-of-mouth attention and intentional efforts from local startup leaders have turned the cafe into a place where local entrepreneurs come to work, meet and socialize.
Steve Glynn, host of the Experience Milwaukee podcast and a well-connected member of the local startup community, said he began spreading the word about the cafe after interviewing Getz on the podcast in late January.
Additionally, WorkAround — a new local startup aiming to help people find locations from which to work remotely alongside communities of others doing the same — attracted about 60 different people into the cafe throughout 35 business days this spring, according to WorkAround co-founders Nick O'Brien and Erin Magennis.
WorkAround is using Wantable to test its theory that in the increasingly remote-friendly world, communities can form anywhere. O'Brien and Magennis began working from the cafe in mid-April and invited other startup founders in their networks to join. The company is building an app aiming to facilitate this type of flexible co-working for other groups in locations around the city.
"(Wantable Cafe has) been great to work with, they’ve been great to partner with… but I believe this would have happened wherever we started," O'Brien said.
The cafe wasn't initially aware of WorkAround, O'Brien said, but its management has been appreciative of the business that the new startup has attracted. Members of the WorkAround community collectively spent more than $2,000 at the cafe during WorkAround's 35-day testing period, according to O'Brien.
The cafe is operated by Jeffrey Reinbold, general manager of Milwaukee Sail Loft. Reinbold pays rent, operates under Wantable's brand and keeps all profits, Getz said. Purchases by all Wantable employees get billed directly to Wantable, and other patrons make purchases as usual, Getz said.
After becoming aware of WorkAround, Wantable Cafe began offering free bottomless coffee to WorkAround users, O'Brien said. He and Magennis said they hope the partnership can expand and serve as a model for other locations for how to collaborate with WorkAround.
Wantable Cafe is planning to formally sponsor Wantable Wednesdays — a midweek startup founder happy hour that's already been happening organically, spread through word-of-mouth by the WorkAround community and Glynn, said Wantable chief operations officer Tyson Ciepluch.
Ciepluch said Wantable is also supportive of hosting other startup-related events at the cafe, which can accommodate around 300 people at full capacity, Getz said.
"Startup folks...(are) the kind of people you want around a cafe like that," Ciepluch said. "They’re the future bright world of Milwaukee and beyond."
Co-working at Wantable, facilitated by WorkAround, has led to unique collaboration among local founders, O'Brien said.
"There’s something magical happening right now among these founders," O'Brien said. "Everybody is just kind of working at or on each others’ companies in the ways that they know how."
Wantable Cafe is located at 123 E. Walker St. in Milwaukee's Walker's Point neighborhood, in the same building as Wantable's headquarters. Wantable has about 250 employees, around half of which are based in Milwaukee, Getz said. The company is an online try-before-you-buy shopping retailer founded in 2012.
