Coworking in the Middle of the Map
When I look back on my rediscovery of Tulsa, it’s no surprise that my foot in the door started at 36 Degrees North (aka Gradient) with a box of Hurts Donuts. The growing group of remote workers kept their eyes glued to their screens, day in and day out, with so much potential for connection in a city intentionally primed for the moment. Founders had ideas. Creatives had stories. Techies had solutions. All that was missing was an introduction.
As a boomerang to the 918, it felt like an exciting opportunity to meet my hometown during a chapter of its own maturation. Tulsa was big enough to apply big-city skills and ambition while still maintaining a small-town, collaborative ethos. No one was out of reach. No one was gatekeeping the secrets to success. No one stood above the momentum the community was building together. That recipe meant that now was a better time than any to experiment with the learnings from outside experiences to show our neighbors how notable the middle of the map could truly be.
36 Degrees North became a microcosm of the larger movement unfolding across Tulsa. It housed the resources, events, and people needed to inch toward meaningful growth, and I witnessed it firsthand. As the Polaroid pictures of individuals from across the world began to fill the member wall, it visually represented the collective knowledge and diversity that was permeating throughout a city historically rebuilt on unrealized potential. Incubator programs. Startup accelerators. Tech hub initiatives. There was no better place to be if you wanted a voice in what happened next.
Cue a few dozen donuts, an all-channel Slack notification, and a kitchen generously stocked by staff, and suddenly you had a modern-day watering hole that quietly altered the trajectory of careers. Gathering around gummy-worm-topped treats sparked lifelong friendships. Splitting Reese’s-flavored fillings led to transformative business conversations. It was unheard of, yet unsurprising. Those midwestern designer delicacies simply served as a catalyst to what existed beneath the surface—a community ready to reclaim its identity, one conversation at a time.
