Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittany Kaszas, Sarah Anderson, Kristin Dinnis, Brook Dailey.
Brittany, Sarah, Kristin, Brook, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
First off, let us introduce ourselves – the four women behind San Diego Made!
– Brittany owns a graphic design and marketing company called Thoughtful paper
– Kristin is a clothing designer with a company called Monarch Atlas,
– Brook and Sarah own woodworking company called LODA Designs.
While each running our own handmade businesses out of a shared studio space in Barrio Logan, together we started San Diego Made in 2014 with the aim of creating opportunities for local creatives and small business owners to meet, gather, and grow, and for people to engage with the creative community and support their local economy.
Our work includes managing our online membership database, performing PR and marketing outreach to promote our organization, events, and members, hosting local workshops and business seminars, and putting on small-to-large-scale events and markets hosted by us and clients who hire us.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Unfortunately, due to permitting issues, the space where we met and worked out of was closed down in 2017 during a crackdown on creative spaces after the tragic Ghost Ship Fires in the Bay Area.
Not only were we displaced, but over 100+ creative tenants were forced out of the closed down spaces. These spaces were the livelihood of these tenants, and losing them was devastating.
This led us to realize the massive NEED to create a fully-permitted, safe, and affordable space for artists and creatives – a workspace they can rely on.
That’s when we started plans for the San Diego Made Factory.
After two years of planning and searching, we secured a 12,000 square foot warehouse space in Logan Heights, just outside of downtown San Diego.
We worked diligently with contractors and architects to finalize the interior layout of the multi-use space and put every cent raised from our events into these plans taking no draw for ourselves over that past two years.
We also secured an SBA loan to ensure our project was fully-funded, had financial plans mapped out for the next 5 years, and held a crowdfunding campaign to raise the final funds to get the space up to code, and in order to create a sustainable environment for our members and beyond, we have to meet all city permitting regulations.
It was a huge undertaking, but we have learned so much, gone so far, and are proud to say that we held the Factory grand opening event on May 4, 2019!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with San Diego Made – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We are a small, local operation of just four women and everything we have learned so far in this business has been picked up along the way.
While we have always been proud of our business and our events, the Factory is truly an accomplishment for us!
The Factory features a fully-permitted warehouse with 27 affordable, quality studio rentals, two podcasting rooms, private offices, an event space, a coworking space, and more.
We love that through our business, we get to meet and help grow with other local start-ups and creative companies.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to fill out the space we have worked so hard to build!
While we only have one studio space left, we have now opened up sign-ups for our semi-private desks and coworking space and are currently inviting people to come check out what we have to offer.
We are also now renting out our event space and use of our podcasting and conference rooms.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2031 Commercial St., San Diego CA 92113
- Website: https://www.sandiegomade.org
- Email: info@sandiegomade.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandiegomadeinsta/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandiegomade/
Image Credit:
Bronwyn Huddleson Photography
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
