Hacker Lab announced it will shut down its makerspace and coworking space in Midtown Sacramento over the next few months, saying the organization is unsustainable.
In an email and social media postings, Hacker Lab said its "organization is unsustainable in its current form."
“Our revenue streams over the years have been a mix of membership, ticket sales and office rentals, but heavily reliant on grants and partnerships. At present, without a significant investor, major partnership or direct injection of funds, our runway is not long enough to make the changes necessary for building long-term self-reliance," the announcement states.
It says Hacker Lab will continue in some form, but it will wind down its coworking and makerspace operations at its current location, at the corner of 26th and R streets in Midtown.
For most of a decade, Hacker Lab was a local rallying point for the region’s burgeoning startup community. It hosted multiple hackathons, coding classes and meetings, and served as the initial Sacramento offices for Uber and the technology design group of VSP Vision, among others.
But the pandemic was tough on the operation, and it limited the meetups, classes and meetings that had been the hallmark of the Hacker Lab community.
The announcement says the exact details are still in the works. It also says the operators are open to discussing alternatives to closing down.
Gina Alatorre, Hacker Lab CEO and co-founder, wasn’t available for an interview.
“This is a going to be a real loss. This is going to leave a hole,” said Tim Keller, director of Inventopia, a nonprofit coworking and prototype makerspace in Davis.
He said the tenants who use the advanced computer-controlled machine tools at Inventopia "pretty much all learned how to use this equipment at Hacker Lab."
Hacker Lab focused on science, technology, engineering and math education; art; the maker movement and do-it-yourself projects; along with teaching clients how to use everything from welding equipment and machine tools to sewing machines and 3D printers.
Launched in 2012, the original Hacker Lab in Sacramento was in just 750 square feet in an upstairs office in the Franklin neighborhood. A year later, Hacker Lab moved into a 10,500-square-foot office, warehouse, maker and coworking space at 1715 I St.
That high-profile location had office and shared meeting space in front, and an extensive makerspace in an industrial area in the back. Hacker Lab had to move when that property was put up for sale in in 2018.
Hacker Lab eventually expanded to having office and makerspace locations in Rocklin and Rancho Cordova. The 15,000-square-foot Hacker Lab location in Rocklin opened in 2015, with support from Sierra College. The funding from Sierra College dried up in the spring of the pandemic year of 2020, as the college would no longer allow its students in the space because of the pandemic. The pandemic also shuttered Hacker Lab’s smaller makerspace in Rancho Cordova.
