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Opening up a "hacker cafe" in San Francisco has been a kind of passive dream of mine for a while, but the more I work here, the more I see the demand and the possibility of it happening. I can't think of a better place to ask for some feedback on what I should include in terms of environment, gadgets, etc.

Some ideas of mine include:

  • Unlimited free coffee
  • An external monitor to plug into at each station
  • Vending machine with Jolt/Mtn Dew/[caffeine drink]
  • TONS of outlets
  • pull-down/up separators between work stations (if you want a little privacy)
  • cupholders built into the desks
  • open 24/7 or at least til late (maybe 3am?), maybe open like 11am to 3am

If you could think of something that you would love to see in a hacker-specific cafe, what would it be?

PS I have seen this question, and I like some of these ideas, but they are more for a work environment rather than a cafe environment.

Thanks, and I hope to turn this into a reality at some point! :)

UPDATE:

For those who want to comment on the business end of things, I created a separate question.

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What's the difference between a hacker café and a co-working setup that caters to hackers? This page lists ~20 that are already in SF. – Dori Oct 12 '10 at 22:38
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wow this is a good list. some of these places are really close! they all seem pretty similar to what i'm looking for, except i think they are more formal in terms of environment. I don't know, this is still just a brainstorm at the moment. But thanks for this! – Jason Oct 12 '10 at 23:04
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I think coffee should be free if you can hack into your loyalty card account and give yourself enough points for a free coffee. Noobs and non-hackers can buy their coffee. :) – Scott McClenning Oct 15 '10 at 4:54
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Caffeine kills ... seriously. Bad idea. – Job Nov 20 '10 at 5:06
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So did you manage to get this idea of your going? If I ever visit the states I think I will have to come over to this hacker cafe =P – gideon Mar 12 '11 at 15:54
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closed as off topic by Yannis Rizos♦ Feb 19 '12 at 22:19

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27 Answers

up vote 29 down vote

Fast Internet Access!

Wi-Fi and Cat-6/Gigabit Ethernet Cables coming up from the middle of the tables that hook me up to the fastest internet connection possible!

Of course!

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2  
What do you do when Joe Hacker comes in, plugs into your net connection, turns your business into a gigantic BitTorrent seed, and the RIAA comes knocking on your door? You want some way of legally protecting yourself from your customers. – Barry Brown Nov 20 '10 at 7:37
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up vote 20 down vote

Industrial strength air fresheners.

Seriously. You're going to need them.

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my God, please have a rule that disallow someone who hasn't taken bath for a week to come in – nanda Oct 13 '10 at 8:17
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or provide a nice bathroom :) – nanda Oct 13 '10 at 8:17
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FREE OLD SPICE DEODORANT IN THE ENTRYWAY! – Mark C Nov 8 '10 at 19:58
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Mandatory biohazard shower for any entrants with a neckbeard and/or wearing sandals with socks. – Evan Plaice Nov 20 '10 at 1:05
up vote 19 down vote

Free coffee and fast internet sounds really nice, but I feel it needs to be said that one thing you MUST have for this to avoid being a short-lived dream...

A workable business plan

I'm not saying you need to make money hand over fist from visitors, but you do need to make enough to cover the bills, support yourself, and recoup whatever you put into the place.

Just stating the obvious :P

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Well, if the coffee is free and unlimited, the revenue stream is frankly NOT that obvious. So this is a point well worth making. – BlairHippo Oct 12 '10 at 18:10
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@blair i wasn't saying it wasn't. i just think it's a different question than "what would you have in your cafe". i think it's a very important question. – Jason Oct 12 '10 at 18:28
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@ryan, aeo, blair: check out this question: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/11371/… – Jason Oct 12 '10 at 18:38
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up vote 19 down vote

Shelves full of good books

K&R, Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, etc - and tons of books from O'Reilly.

You can tell a hacker from their bookshelf.

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2  
Consulted for an internal IT unit at a large State County. They had an IT library that you could check out books. A lot of it was crappy ASP for Dummies kind of stuff, but well more than half was old-school BASIC, RPG, COBOL stuff that was simply fascinating. I could have spent a week in there just reading up. Good recommendation. – Xepoch Oct 15 '10 at 3:37
up vote 18 down vote

Massive whiteboards and a secure Internet connection.

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3  
if you want an option other than buying whiteboard, check out ideapaint.com for painting whiteboards on the walls – Jason Nov 20 '10 at 2:32
up vote 14 down vote

A sound-proof room with a conference table, chairs and a projector.

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+1 for sound proof room. Sometimes hacking is intense, and you need peace and quiet. – Ryan Hayes Oct 12 '10 at 17:51
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@Ryan: given the presence of "conference table, chairs and a projector" I think Jeff was more targetting somewhere to have meetings, which isn't really "cafe" like. – Matthieu M. Oct 12 '10 at 19:24
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up vote 13 down vote

a social networking medium

Some way to allow the residents of the cafe to interact easily without physically interrupting everyone. Maybe a simple twitter-like website that lets someone say "Hey! Anyone know C# and wants to help me work out an issue?"

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1  
+1 this is a pretty cool idea! could probably work it into the cafe's website or something, or make it show up in real time on a monitor or from a projector on a wall... this is kind of like walter's idea: programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/11346/… – Jason Oct 13 '10 at 0:48
up vote 11 down vote

Foosball or pool table.

Hackers need to take a break from hacking sometimes.

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4  
Too distracting. – Xepoch Oct 12 '10 at 21:01
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@Xepoch If you don't put out many and keep them in a separate room, then thats acceptable. – TheLQ Oct 12 '10 at 21:15
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up vote 10 down vote

Comfortable couches.

Hackers need to take a nap sometimes.

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5  
+1, though you don't really want people sleeping there. – Josh K Oct 12 '10 at 18:19
11  
Cheaper to let them sleep than drink free coffee. – JeffO Oct 12 '10 at 18:34
up vote 9 down vote

Some protocol for meal breaks.

Either you put in a bar and sell snacks, sandwiches, and beverages, and handle the pizza orders for the clientele.

Or people will want some way to lock up their workstation and stow their stuff when they step out for 30 min to get food.

You will probably want something in the middle. Coffee and jolt supply sounds nice, but if you want to have regulars, you need to offer something that is not directly designed to ruin your health. ;-)

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+1. The cafe definitely needs to handle the pizza orders. – systemovich Oct 13 '10 at 6:57
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@barry if they're paying for it, that's the point. – Jason Mar 12 '11 at 18:01
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up vote 9 down vote

Decent network security. Seriously, with all that technology, and smart techies, I am ramping my fire wall and defenses to defcon 5

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If everyone is on the same segment, DNS cache will likely get hacked – makerofthings7 Oct 15 '10 at 1:14
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up vote 8 down vote

a lot of board games!

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I've played chess and starcraft at the same time. its a bit challenging – WalterJ89 Oct 12 '10 at 22:43
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As long as they are skill games, not chance games. Checkers, chess, go, Set, what else? – Mark C Nov 8 '10 at 19:57
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Combination cyber-cafe/game store. If there's anything that hackers love is obscure board games like Catan, Carcasonne, Zombies, Ticket to Ride, etc. – Mike Brown Feb 1 '11 at 3:38
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up vote 8 down vote

Deep Freeze (or something similar)

If you have any computers to rent this is a must. When the computer is turned off it resets to exactly how it was before. It's easier than fixing the computer every time a script kiddie breaks it. Schools generally use this to keep computers fresh and clean.

Its also worth noting that some kids see security as a challenge (and some adults).

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1  
+1: I worked in IT at my University, and we used this. Made things pretty easy. You don't have to muck around too much with security priveleges: everything installed is gone on a restart. – Steve Evers Oct 12 '10 at 22:21
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up vote 8 down vote

A couple of ideas:

  • Rentable storage lockers
    Sure, I'll bring my laptop with me, but there's always some extra bits of kit that I'd rather not have to lug around. I'd pay for a secure place to leave things like a USB hub and a lapdesk.

  • Showers
    Laugh now, but think about it. Let's say you work from home and a group of people want to set up a meeting with you. You book the conference room at the Café in advance, and on the day, you ride your bike over (why own a car in SF when there's Zipcar?). When you get there, you realize that you look (and smell) like you just biked several miles, and these are important people to your business—wouldn't you like to freshen up somewhere? Something along the lines of the facilities available at a small gym would be perfect (or find one nearby that will co-market with you).

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Straddling the fine line between café and gym? – Stuart Pegg Nov 28 '10 at 0:42
up vote 6 down vote

Networked color laser printer

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Make sure it's capable of doing A3. – Peter Boughton Oct 13 '10 at 0:47
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Oh and have a limited number of free prints allowed, paid afterwards, otherwise you'll be throwing money away even faster than the free coffee. :P – Peter Boughton Oct 13 '10 at 0:48
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up vote 5 down vote

Some interesting hardware to connect to and try stuff out. I'm thinking about a ramped up DB server or web server. Perhaps other interesting hardware for testing/integrating into your project

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I was thinking of some sort of LED display that could be "hacked" into to display your own message. Or something along those lines... – Walter Oct 12 '10 at 18:56
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@walter, that is brilliant :) tiny things (not overly disruptive) that people could hack into to modify the environment slightly. i like! – Jason Oct 12 '10 at 19:14
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Maybe make a deal with a local boutique PC maker - they provide their latest toy(s) and in return get free marketing to a dedicated audience. :) – Peter Boughton Oct 13 '10 at 0:49
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@Jason - Exactly! I originally thought that hacking the cafe's lights would be cool, but after awhile that would be annoying. Lot's of cool small embedded hardware devices all over the walls and ceilings would be a lot of fun to take control over. I'm in NY and can't wait to book a flight to the west coast. – Walter Oct 13 '10 at 1:10
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up vote 5 down vote

A set of team rooms so that people who want to work together can have a projector and whiteboards so they can flesh out their ideas together and get coordinated face to face instead of by e-mail or talking in the private work areas. This would also reduce aisle meetings.

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up vote 4 down vote

A password. I think it'd be awesome for a hacker cafe to have a 'secret password' you have to key before being let in. Preferably one with a countdown timer.

oh, and a back room/cage for robot battles.

Also, Halle Berry should be there.

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8  
...and a young Angelina Jolie – Peter Turner Oct 12 '10 at 19:19
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up vote 4 down vote

Blacklights and Neon Paint

Don't overlook the proper ambience in your ultimate hacker jungle experience.

If nothing else, at least include blacklights and neon paint in the bathroom.

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5  
??? Sorry I'd not work anywhere with neon paint and blacklights. – Xepoch Oct 12 '10 at 21:00
7  
This could be augmented by obscenely loud techno music as well to really capture the whole "Matrix hacker" vibe. lol – Morgan Herlocker Oct 12 '10 at 22:49
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@Prof Plum: Du hast mich! – Stuart Pegg Nov 28 '10 at 0:44
up vote 4 down vote

I'd pass on trying include a really hot, fast new machine with huge quantities of memory, etc. Although the pace of obsolescence has slowed somewhat, to maintain this as a really cutting edge machine is still going to require a fairly serious level of ongoing investment (i.e., to remain cutting edge, you'll need to replace it every year or so at most).

Instead, I'd consider going the opposite direction: try to come up with a half dozen really old machines that still work -- a TRS-80, an Apple II+, a Commodore 64 or VIC 20, maybe an old microVAX, possibly a few old S-100 machines, etc. With a bit of time scrounging at some rummage sales and such, you can probably come up with a reasonable collection for less than $100 -- and to quite a few people it'll be more impressive (not to mention just a lot more fun) than almost anything you could do in the way of new machines.

If you want to show off new hardware, do your best to get it for free. One possibility is sponsored -- i.e., get a vendor to bring in a machine to show off to the admiring crowds. Another possibility is to hold monthly (or whatever) contests, primarily to give the high-end gamers a chance to show off their rigs.

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up vote 4 down vote

Events

What better way to promote the cafe than have events every now and again. LAN competitions come to mind.

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1  
+1 great idea :) – Jason Oct 13 '10 at 18:34
up vote 4 down vote

Women

Honestly, because what environment isn't better with a general female presence. Flirting is a great stress reliever when I need a break from the seriousness of coding. The lack of interest that most women (that I've come across) have in programming forces me to shut up about it and wash my mind of the tedious details for a little bit.

My issue isn't working on code, it's affording myself the time to take a break from it to stay sane. Women are personally my favorite distraction.

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2  
Having women present might also encourage the men to clean themselves up. – Barry Brown Nov 20 '10 at 7:25
1  
Oh snap...how about a topless room...get lapdances while coding. – Mike Brown Feb 1 '11 at 3:42
1  
@Mike Not that kind of distraction. I'm talking about classy women. The kind that brighten up a room and remind you that there's a world outside of the programming cave. Not the kind that want to take you back to their dungeon to add to their collection. – Evan Plaice Feb 6 '11 at 3:17
up vote 2 down vote

Virtual servers ready to go and the ability to save the state of them for return trips.

Whiteboards have been mentioned but the ability to record what is on the whiteboard would also be needed.

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up vote 2 down vote

It may seems obvious but space as in enough space to work.

I know rent cost a lot and you probably want to maximize your profit but when I work i need enough space to be able to take note, not be distracted by someone standing right behind me, etc.

It's something that is way too often overlooked in public spaces (restaurants, etc.). I like having space to breath and move. Especially if I'm supposed to be working.

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up vote 1 down vote

Raised-Floor Tiles

Make it feel like an old halon tile room. :)

On-Premise Systems

Already said, but provide some server infrastructure to try things out. Employ an IBM admin and have AS/400, Mainframe, and AIX temporal VMs as an on-site pay-service. Or a big'ol x64 box with 1 tebibyte of primary memory (OK, that might cost over $100k :) ) but you get the idea.

This can be done of course without the café, but it would be much better.

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up vote 1 down vote

Cats! ;) Gotta have at least one cat.

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3  
I'd say, in general, animals are a bad idea. There's a very big difference in not liking the color of a room and not liking an animal rubbing up against you. If you don't like the color, you can not look at it. Can't prevent an animal from coming over and jumping on your lap. – Aeo Oct 13 '10 at 15:53
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yeah i'm pretty sure i'd have a no animal policy. pet dander isn't the greatest for electronics. – Jason Oct 13 '10 at 16:32
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Also there's allergies to think about. – Paul Nathan Oct 14 '10 at 23:52
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up vote 0 down vote

Caves

Perhaps this is just me, but -

When I'm really in the zone, I want to go into a dimly lit quiet cave with a mini-kitchen; a window by the chair to provide mental stimulation, controllable temperature, and maybe a scented candle burning.

Unlimited salad - heavy food brings down the thinking ability.

Probably a cot as well.

Okay, that's sort of a dorm/hotel room.... :-)

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