Hero City

What Hero City does

Hero City is a privately operated coworking community located within the Draper University campus at 55 East 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, California. Founded in 2016 and designed by venture capitalist Tim Draper, the company functions as the physical workspace component of the broader Draper Ecosystem, which also includes Draper University, Draper Venture Network, and Draper Associates. Hero City operates a single location in Silicon Valley and sells tiered monthly memberships to individual early-stage entrepreneurs and startup founders, with corporate intrapreneurs as a secondary segment. The business uses an application-based admission process and direct-to-consumer go-to-market, with tours scheduled by email or website contact form.

The product portfolio consists of three core subscription tiers — Open Flex Membership at $350 per month (hot-desking), Full-Time Dedicated Desk at $700 per month (permanent workstation with mail services), and Virtual Membership at $250 per month (business address and mail handling) — plus a $45 Day Pass and add-on mail forwarding services priced at $20 (domestic) or $45 (international) per month. Membership includes access to VC office hours, legal and accounting consultations, conference rooms, and member events. The company accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment methods, processing crypto payments through OpenNode. Hero City has no proprietary technology platform; it is a physical-space and community-services business, with member value derived primarily from the bundled Draper Ecosystem access and curated founder community rather than from a software layer.

Hero City's revenue model is recurring monthly subscriptions with ancillary day-pass and add-on revenue, making it a small-ticket, SMB-priced business with no enterprise contracts or named institutional logos. The company is a privately held entity with no disclosed funding rounds, no reported revenue or headcount, and no recent product launches beyond its founding-era membership structure. Operationally, Hero City is a single-site boutique coworking space whose commercial proposition is fundamentally a co-branded extension of the Tim Draper personal brand and Draper VC network.

Name

Hero City

Legal name

Hero City

Website

https://herocity.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hero City operates a single boutique coworking space within Draper University's San Mateo campus, selling tiered monthly memberships to early-stage entrepreneurs and bundling access to the Draper Venture Network, VC office hours, and founder events. The business runs on recurring subscriptions and accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum payments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Coworking and Flexible Workspace

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Corporate Conference Center Hotels (THAGALAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Hotel & Resort Convention Venues (Convention Hotels) (THAHAAAC), Urban & Downtown Full-Service Hotels (THAGAAAA)

Keywords

• Coworking space
• Flexible workspace
• Entrepreneur community
• Venture office hours
• Startup coworking

Headquarters

HQ city

San Mateo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Coworking Membership Subscriptions: Hero City generates revenue through monthly membership subscriptions for coworking space access. Three tiers are offered: Open Flex Membership at $350/month, Full-Time Dedicated Desk at $700/month, and Virtual Membership at $250/month. Additional revenue is generated through day passes at $45/day and optional services such as mail forwarding.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Hero City operates a physical coworking community located within Draper University in San Mateo, California, offering tiered membership plans (Open Flex, Full-Time Dedicated Desk, and Virtual) plus Day Passes. Members gain access to shared amenities (Wi-Fi, printing, conference rooms, beverages), on-site VC, legal, and accounting office hours, and the broader Draper Ecosystem of venture capital networks, entrepreneurship programs, and speaker events. Memberships are paid monthly and the company accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum via OpenNode.

Product overview

Hero City offers a tiered coworking membership model centered around physical workspace solutions at Draper University in San Mateo, California. The portfolio consists of three core membership tiers: Open Flex Membership ($350/month) for hot-desking with unlimited access and standard amenities; Full Time Membership ($700/month) providing dedicated permanent desks with mail services and business address usage; and Virtual Membership ($250/month) for remote entrepreneurs requiring a professional address. Optional Day Passes ($45/day) enable short-term access. All members gain access to the Draper Ecosystem, including VC networks, entrepreneurship programs, and exclusive events through Draper University partnerships.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Open Flex Membership Flexible hot-desk coworking membership at $350/month providing unlimited open seating access, high-speed Wi-Fi, free printing and scanning, complimentary coffee, tea, and snacks, legal and accounting office hours, VC office hours, conference room access, and a monthly member lunch. Designed for individual entrepreneurs and small teams needing on-demand workspace in Silicon Valley.
• Full-Time Membership Premium coworking membership at $700/month providing a permanently assigned desk, mail and package receiving, use of Hero City's business address, mail forwarding (additional fees), and all Open Flex amenities including unlimited access, Wi-Fi, printing/scanning, beverages, legal/accounting and VC office hours, conference rooms, and the monthly member lunch.
• Virtual Membership Remote membership at $250/month providing use of Hero City's address, mail receiving, and package receiving services for entrepreneurs who do not require a physical desk. Optional mail forwarding available at $20/month domestically or $45/month internationally.
• Day Pass Single-day access to Hero City's open coworking space at $45/day, granting visitors high-speed Wi-Fi and basic amenities for a 24-hour period. Designed for prospective members, drop-in users, and visitors exploring the workspace.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Draper UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHero City is physically located within Draper University campus and serves as the coworking component of the Draper Ecosystem. The partnership provides Hero City members with access to Draper University's entrepreneurship programs, events, speakers, and the broader network of entrepreneurs and investors associated with the institution. Tim Draper, founder of Draper University, designed Hero City.
• Draper Venture NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHero City members receive access to the Draper Venture Network of funds, a global network of venture capital firms. Members can sign up for meetings with VCs to get expert feedback on their businesses, creating a direct pathway to potential funding.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Others

• Techstars: Techstars is a global startup accelerator with strong overlap to Hero City's target customer (early-stage founders) and to its Draper Venture Network/VC connections, though it sells a 3-month cohort program rather than ongoing coworking memberships.
• Founder Institute: Founder Institute is a global pre-seed accelerator targeting aspiring and early-stage founders with mentorship, curriculum, and investor access—adjacent to Hero City's Draper University / EIP programming and overlapping target persona, though not a coworking operator.

Emerging players

• 1871: 1871 is a Chicago-based nonprofit tech hub offering coworking, mentorship, and corporate partnerships for early-stage entrepreneurs. Like Hero City, it blends workspace with curated community and investor programming, though at greater scale and as a nonprofit.

Direct peers

• Industrious: Industrious is a premium coworking and flexible-office operator offering tiered memberships (coworking, dedicated desks, private offices) with hospitality-driven amenities, much like Hero City. Comparable target market of professionals, startups, and corporate teams in urban markets.
• RocketSpace: RocketSpace provides coworking and accelerator-style environments exclusively for tech startups and scale-ups, with curated member rosters and corporate-innovation programming—directly comparable to Hero City's curated, founder-focused positioning.
• Knotel: Knotel (now part of Newmark) provided flexible, branded office and coworking space for startups and growth-stage companies with membership-style access—comparable to Hero City's dedicated-desk and flex offerings for SMB founders.
• Galvanize: Galvanize operates tech-focused coworking campuses combined with education and venture programs, mirroring Hero City's integration of workspace with the Draper University entrepreneurship ecosystem. Both target technical founders and offer events plus investor access.
• Mindspace: Mindspace is a global coworking and serviced-office operator offering flexible memberships in urban centers with hospitality-grade design and amenitized common areas, structurally similar to Hero City's tiered membership model.

Broad incumbents

• Spaces (by IWG): Spaces is the design-forward coworking brand under IWG, the global workspace giant. It competes head-to-head with Hero City for entrepreneur and SMB tenants in urban markets with creative, community-led environments and flexible membership tiers.
• WeWork: WeWork is the largest global coworking and flexible-workspace operator and the most direct category benchmark for Hero City, although at vastly greater scale. Both sell monthly memberships for shared workspace with community and event programming targeting entrepreneurs and SMBs.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/DraperHeroCity
• Facebookfacebook.com/DraperHeroCity
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hero-city-at-draper-university

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hero City