Many businesses are adopting remote working practices as more and more technologies can accommodate an online work style. Video by Emily Olstad.

Miles Hischier is the co-founder and Director of Sales at HiView Solutions, a Google Cloud partner that helps organizations improve their remote collaboration techniques and technologies.

Hischier founded HiView as an Information Technology (IT) company in late 2016 along with his co-founder and Director of Services, Narjit Patel. After deciding to centralize HiView around Google Cloud, they joined the Google Cloud Partner Program, which provides businesses with resources to leverage Google Cloud offerings.

The HiView founders then met Juan Morales in 2018. Morales, now the Director of Technical Services at HiView, was an engineer with a skill-set that aligned with the needs of the startup. Morales also knew several individuals with similar engineering know-how, all looking for employment opportunities where they could utilize their expertise.

The only issue: Morales and his colleagues were living in El Salvador.

Hischier, however, viewed the challenge as an opportunity to utilize the remote technology that his business is founded upon. He had Morales start working remotely for HiView from El Salvador, and HiView began to expand their teams across continents.

“That’s the company we’re looking to build,” Hischier said. “Our mission statement is, ‘Building your business for tomorrow,’ and we really feel that this remote, hybrid structure is here to stay.”

HiView continued to remotely scale up their El Salvador team over the next few years. Hischier didn’t meet his startup’s 15 El Salvadorian employees in-person until 2021 –– three years after they were initially hired.

The company operated efficiently despite its being completely remote, according to Hischier. The only challenge was “the socialization aspect,” he said.

To remedy the issue, Hischier spent a week in El Salvador, meeting and working alongside HiView’s Latin American team. Several employees from El Salvador also visited San Luis Obispo to visit the HiView base of operations, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) HotHouse. 

“We really believe that good work and good ideas can come from anywhere,” Hischier said. “You don’t have to be in a single company, corporate office.”

For Miles Hischier, coworking with the Cal Poly Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) is a vital part in building a remote business in San Luis Obispo.

Hischier is founder and senior partner at HiView Solutions, a Google Cloud consulting partner that helps organizations improve their remote collaboration tools and technologies. Most of his workday is spent in front of his computer, connecting with coworkers and clients over video calls. Coworking at the HotHouse allows Hischier opportunities to connect in-person with other local entrepreneurs and foster a sense of community that his workdays would otherwise lack.

“There’s a lot of good energy from the other community coworkers,” Hischier said. “Everyone is excited to be around colleagues and replicate that feeling of working at a larger company, but really, we’re all working remote.”

The HotHouse and the CIE first caught Hischier’s attention when he moved to San Luis Obispo in 2016, but as a UC Berkeley graduate with no direct ties to Cal Poly, he was unsure if he would be permitted to utilize CIE resources.

One year later, Hischier learned of the CIE’s community coworking program, and he jumped at the chance to get involved.

“When I found out that there’s a community program that accommodates not only coworkers that are working remotely from San Luis Obispo, but also individuals who are starting businesses, I got real excited,” he said.

Hischier was impressed with the resources offered by the HotHouse. Facilities such as the phone rooms and high-speed internet would prove to be valuable assets in building a business based around remote technology.

His decision to start coworking, however, was ultimately propelled by his desire “to be around other like-minded entrepreneurs.”

The HiView team has now worked out of the HotHouse for nearly two years, and Hischier still looks forward to opportunities that will allow him to connect with the other CIE entrepreneurs — especially during the HotHouse Summer Accelerator.

The HotHouse Summer Accelerator program is an intensive 13-week program designed to help Cal Poly students and recent graduates develop their startup ideas into real, sustainable businesses. Participating teams are provided with $10,000 in capital and given access to expert mentorship, tailored workshops and other CIE resources, including a workspace in the HotHouse.

The accelerator brings a unique energy to the HotHouse that, according to Hischier, encourages and inspires the community coworkers.

“Seeing people stay at the office late at night, white-boarding, thinking about what their business could be in five years — that energy is infectious,” Hischier said. “It always gives us lots of fun ideas.”

San Luis Obispo, said Hischier, has proven to be a hotspot for young talent.

“When I first got here in 2016, I remember getting a lot of questions [about] starting a technology company in San Luis Obispo, but now, four plus years later, it’s very commonplace and seems quite obvious,” Hischier said. “Why not live in a fantastic area that has access to a great university that graduates stellar engineering and business talent?”

HiView hires Cal Poly students as interns or part-time workers, sometimes retaining these young professionals as full-time employees after they graduate. 

Kelly Carroll joined the company during her junior year at Cal Poly when she stumbled across an available position for a Sales Development Representative at HiView.

“The position wasn’t quite what I was looking for, [but] their industry and business model caught my interest,” said Carroll.

She submitted her resume, hoping to speak with a representative about other opportunities at HiView. She met with Hischier and his co-founder Narjit Patel for an interview, where she shared samples of her previous marketing and technical writing work. Hischier and Patel then collaborated with Carroll to create a custom position that was best suited to her skillset.

Carroll worked for HiView as a part-time Marketing Coordinator until she graduated from Cal Poly in June of 2020. Following her graduation, she remained with HiView, working part-time as a contractor until February of 2021, when she was promoted to her current position as a full-time Marketing and Customer Success Specialist.

“At HiView, I feel like my career has been jump-started,” Carroll said. “Working alongside my expert team members at HiView, our colleagues at Google and the industry-leading clients we serve, I learn so much every single day.”

Carroll has gained leadership experience in several realms of business throughout her time at HiView, including marketing, account management, user communications and project management. Her most recent project was spearheading the creation of HiView’s new website.

“It’s been great seeing Kelly’s growth from when she first joined as an intern to now, taking on big projects like overhauling our website [and] running a team of web developers and designers,” Hischier said. “They [were] all reporting into Kelly, who’s only a year out of school, but worked for us 10, 15, 20 hours a week for well over a year before she graduated.”

Coworking has helped shape Carroll’s career at HiView. The HotHouse offers an environment that, according to Carroll, invites collaboration and hard work.

“The friendliness and entrepreneurial spirit of the people working within the HotHouse is inspiring,” Carroll said. “It provides a great in-person working environment that is often missed by remote teams.”

Coworking has similarly shaped Hischier’s startup experience, providing a space in which he can work to grow his company.

“I cannot recommend [coworking] enough for a new entrepreneur,” Hischier said. “If you’re starting a business in San Luis Obispo, I would say the first thing you should do — form your company and then join the HotHouse.”

For more information on coworking or to learn how you can cowork with us, visit https://calpolycie.wpengine.com/coworking/.

Ryan O’Toole founded his business RAO Ideas at just 15 years old. While flying in his pilot father’s airplane a few years ago, O’Toole noticed that smaller airplanes weren’t equipped with storage for the expensive headsets needed when flying. That’s when he set out to design and 3D-print a headset holder for his father, who shared the product with others in the flying community. 

RAO Ideas has since developed into a fully functioning business with various headset holder designs available through both their website and the wholesale market. Its current base of operations: the HotHouse Annex.

The HotHouse Annex provides local entrepreneurs, small businesses and remote employees with a professional coworking space that encourages productivity and collaboration. Along with dedicated office spaces, conference rooms and kitchen amenities, the Annex offers coworkers a manufacturing lab fully equipped for product development.

“It’s a great space to induce that workflow,” O’Toole said of the Annex. “Everyone in there has a similar entrepreneurial mindset, and I definitely like that. It gets the brain juices flowing.”

O’Toole, who is currently a freshman at Cal Poly, hadn’t always planned to continue RAO Ideas into college. The 3D printers he uses to create his headset holders, in addition to the packaging materials used to ship his products, wouldn’t exactly fit in his dorm room. But the Annex was the perfect solution.

“I was thinking about seeing if I could get my parents or a friend back home to ship orders for me, but I really couldn’t figure it out,” O’Toole explained. “Then I found the CIE… I reached out and got pointed towards the Annex, found a space here and so far it’s been great.”

The practicality of the Annex is what originally appealed to O’Toole. The Higuera Street location is easily accessible and its manufacturing space allows O’Toole greater creative freedom in how he creates and produces his headset holders. 

It’s the people, however, that have quickly become O’Toole’s favorite aspect of coworking at the Annex.

“Everybody here is super nice, and it’s just a great workspace and environment,” O’Toole said. “I’ve met nothing but amazing, innovative people at the HotHouse.”

The young entrepreneur plans to continue building his business throughout his college years, with hopes to branch out from aviation headset holders and pursue new innovations. Coworking at the Annex is an integral facet of that plan.

“As long as my business is going strong, I’m planning to stay [at the Annex] at least until I’ve graduated from Cal Poly,” O’Toole said. “And maybe even after that. I really don’t know where my business is going to take me next.”

Find out how you can start coworking at one of the CIE’s coworking locations today at https://calpolycie.wpengine.com/coworking/. 

By Dylan Grant

HotHouse coworker Alisa Reynolds has revolutionized the desk to improve wellness while doing office work. Founder of the company Buddhi Boxx, Reynolds invented the world’s first floor-sitting to a standing desk to combat health problems associated with stationary living. Innovative and mindful of holistic wellness in the workplace, Reynold’s attributes some of her best ideas to inspiration drawn from the HotHouse coworking space.

“I don’t think I could do what I do without the interaction that I find in the coworking space,” she said.

The CIE created a community coworking space with the goal of providing an exceptional work environment for entrepreneurs. Local professionals are guaranteed to maximize productivity with access to business consulting and a collaborative atmosphere.

“My reason for coming out of the home office and into the HotHouse coworking space was to be a part of the community that I am serving and that I work with,” said Reynolds. “There’s no reason to be in my house while I’m doing my work instead of interacting with the amazing minds of people in this city.”

Join a community of entrepreneurs in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo by becoming a HotHouse coworker. Any business professional regardless of their affiliation with Cal Poly or a startup is more than welcome. Explore all-inclusive membership amenities and become a coworker. https://calpolycie.wpengine.com/coworking/

Michael Allen, CEO and co-founder of Imajize, made a company that provides customers with beautiful, sharp 360 degree images of their product, ready in no time. Their 360º viewer lets customers spin products virtually, online. They sell both 360 degree images and 360 degree image software.

With 360 degree photography being a relatively new industry, coworking at the SLO HotHouse has given Allen the resources he needs to be successful in the field and expand his business fast. Watch our video below to see how coworking at the SLO HotHouse is a great way for your startup to find its competitive advantage.

Greg Gibson, CTO of Motimatic, is one of our coworkers at the SLO HotHouse.  He enjoyed launching his company here in SLO, and he is taking advantage of all the benefits coworking has to offer.

He attributes coworking as a factor to his success, “Being a part of this community, an even informal conversation in front of the coffee machine has inspired ideas.  With coworking, you get the benefits of working at a large company as a small startup.”

Click on our video below to learn more about Greg, his company and his experience with coworking.

Have you ever heard of the phrase two minds are better than one? This phrase definitely holds its truth when it comes to coworking.

Coworking is about being independently productive around people who share similar values and goals. It’s about learning from and connecting with one another to achieve success. Research has shown that coworking spaces lead to a culture that drives innovation and furthers success of entrepreneurs and business professionals. So, whether you are interested in the synergy of like-minded people or just want a place to work with fast Wi-Fi and your own space, coworking may be a great option for you.

The SLO HotHouse is a community hub with more than 50 individuals and over two-dozen companies working out of the space. Members include professionals in real estate, marketing, law, photography, and development. With affordable 24/7 workspace, no leases, all the office amenities you could ask for and a location in the heart of downtown San Luis Obispo, the SLO HotHouse is the perfect place to work toward accomplishing your goals.

“Before the SLO HotHouse I was running my business out of my home or in coffee shops,”said Luke Fox, CEO of WhiteFox Defense Technologies, Inc. and a SLO HotHouse coworker. “Being at home meant constant distractions. Coffee shops were costing me about $100 a month and were loud with limited hours. My business has really taken off since being at the HotHouse. The environment and culture they cultivate is an experience to behold!”

Take your company to the next level and come see for yourself why coworking at the SLO HotHouse would be a great choice for you! Book a tour today or click here for more information.