There's a version of this story that's neat and linear. Two organizations merge. They find a space. They build something. They outgrow it. They move on.
But that's not how it actually happened.
What actually happened is messier, louder, and more beautiful than any org chart could capture. And it started at ReCity in a Training Lab.
Before echo Had a Name
echo was born in 2022 from the merger of Audacity Labs and Helius Foundation. Two small organizations with big, overlapping missions and not enough walls between them to justify staying apart. Audacity Labs worked with teens. Helius worked with adult entrepreneurs. Both believed entrepreneurship should be accessible to everyone, not just the people who already had proximity to opportunity.
But a merged org still needs a home. And in Spring 2023, echo moved into one of the Training Labs at ReCity on Broadway Street in Durham.
It was not a headquarters. It was a training room in a coworking building. And it became the place where everything we know now was tested, broken, rebuilt, and proven.
What the Room Made Possible
That Training Lab became our workshop, our incubator, our town hall, and our test kitchen. We ran Unstuck Workshops, launched incubators for adult founders, piloted our teen programming, hosted community events, and tried out the idea that would eventually become our entire model: what happens when you share space, share resources, and let entrepreneurs build alongside each other?
It turns out, a lot happens.
Our first full year, echo's Teens Tackle Hunger became the inaugural ReCity Labs project. Over that summer, our initiative brought together more than 14 partner organizations, including ReCity itself, StepUp Durham, Durham Cares, and Bike Durham, to provide over 4,000 meals through Farmers Market activations and Food Truck pop-ups. Teens led the coordination. Partners showed up. The community ate together.
That project didn't just feed people. It proved that when you co-locate organizations with shared values and complementary strengths, the work multiplies. It was the first real proof of concept for what we now call EBE: Entrepreneurs Building Entrepreneurs.
The People Who Made It Work
ReCity isn’t just a building. It is a community of organizations doing related, intersecting work. LILA was there. George Moves You was there. Durham Cares, StepUp Durham, and Bike Durham were right down the hall. We co-programmed, collaborated, shared ideas over coffee, and showed up for each other's events. That kind of organic partnership doesn't happen because someone writes an MOU. It happens because people are physically in the same place, doing work they care about, and paying attention to each other.
And then there's KJ Hill.
KJ built ReCity around a vision that most people in the coworking world wouldn't even attempt: a community workspace designed for intentional collaboration around equity, anchored in the nonclinical social determinants of health. Not a trendy open-floor plan with cold brew and ambient music. A space where organizations working on food access, transportation, wellness, economic mobility, and youth development could sit next to each other and actually build together. That's not a business model. That's a belief system. And KJ made it real.
For echo, being inside that ecosystem was formative. KJ is the heart of ReCity. Full stop. From the day we moved in, he made space for us in ways that went beyond square footage. He opened doors to partners, cheered on our programming, brainstormed with us when things got complicated, and believed in what we were building before we had the data to prove it. Every organization needs someone in their corner who isn't on the payroll but shows up like they are. For echo, that was KJ. We were lucky to be nurtured by someone whose vision for community was as ambitious as ours.
Why We're Leaving (and Why It's a Good Thing)
echo is moving to 404 Hunt Street, Suite 500, in the Measurement Building. It's nearly 5,000 square feet of dedicated space where we'll launch Durham's first community hub for entrepreneurs.
This isn't a departure from what we built at ReCity. It's the direct result of it.
Everything we tested in that Training Lab, the shared resources model, the co-located programming, the braided services approach, the belief that proximity creates opportunity, all of it is coming with us. We're not starting over. We're scaling up.
At ReCity, echo was a tenant with a vision. At Hunt Street, echo becomes a host. A place where entrepreneurs across age, stage, and industry can access the space, expertise, relationships, and resources they need to build. Where youth-serving organizations can co-locate and collaborate the way we did at ReCity, but by design and not just by luck.
What We Want You to Know
To ReCity, to KJ, to every partner organization that shared that building with us: thank you. You gave us the room to figure out who we were. You let us be loud, experimental, and sometimes a little chaotic while we tested the model that now defines us.
echo grew up at ReCity. And we're carrying everything we learned there into the next chapter.
The Measurement Building opens this summer. The Founding Circle is forming now. And if you want to be part of what comes next, we'd love to have you in the room.
We know what happens when the right people share the same space. We learned it on Broadway Street.
echo is Durham's community hub for entrepreneurial opportunities. Learn more at echo-nc.org.
