NoD co-working space has doubled its footprint, expanded its team, and landed Austin Coding Academy, which plans to introduce its software development classes to Dallas at the new space.
It’s also begun the first steps to develop a healthcare innovation center called Catalyst.
The growth comes as NoD celebrates its second anniversary. Within the past six months, NoD, formerly occupying 7,500 square feet of space, added open space and eight more private offices on the second and third floors of its North Dallas location, 17290 Preston Road, and a classroom on the first floor that will help serve Austin Coding Academy. The co-working space now occupies 15,000 square feet total. It also added four team members to its staff.
“We’ve had good success with open co-working membership, and dedicated desks have been doing well,” said Chirag Gupta, founder of NoD. “But … having longer term private offices helps give you stability.”
And the offices went fast, with the private space filling up within two months, Gupta said.
Meanwhile, Austin Coding Academy is expected to begin its classes in September. The school, which offers a range of course options, will launch with intro classes that will explore HTML, and CSS languages for web design. It is expected to also offer intermediate courses, which will cover languages including JavaScript and jQuery, and advanced courses, which will cover Node.js, Express.js, and Backbone.
The school has agreed to operate out of NoD for three months. If both parties find the program to be sustainable, they will then finalize a longer-term agreement.
“That’s a resource we’ve always wanted to add into NoD,” Gupta said. “So the prospect of having a dedicated coding school here is attractive to me.”
But the coding academy and additional space aren’t the only things Gupta has been working on lately. He’s also teamed up with Dr. Darshan Ghandi to serve the healthcare innovation community.
About two months ago, the two hosted their first event featuring speakers from UT Southwestern at open space at a neighboring building, 17218 Preston Road. They also launched healthentrepreneur.com, which will serve as the landing page for all events and upcoming plans. The two will soon launch monthly networking events for physician entrepreneurs, as well, Gupta said.
The events will help feed into Catalyst, powered by NoD, an innovation center which Gupta expects to open on the second floor of that building.
“At every event we do, there are doctors are coming out and talking about ways they can disrupt the market with new technology,” Gupta said, adding that Teladoc generated excitement in the local telemedicine market. “My approach is to go and stir up the market to some degree to get people to quit their jobs and start new companies.”
The space will be 80 percent office space and 20 percent co-working space, the opposite model of NoD. No lease has been signed yet.
