Geekadelphia Chats with Indy Hall’s Adam Teterus

Hearing Adam Teterus tell me his backstory reminded me a lot of the opening montages of a quirky romcom. The young protagonist moves to Cleveland for a girl, gets a funny job making videos for a strangely niche video game website, has a bad reaction to Cleveland; moves back with the ‘rents and then off again to Texas. Then finally, our our young protagonist found his own way back to Philadelphia and into the coworking community.

Adam likes to talk a lot. He is a former BTMM major at Temple and secretly dreams of becoming a voice actor for Galaxy Express 999. He is charming and quick on a joke but, more prominently, extremely passionate about coworking and community development.

Adam is the point-person at one of Philadelphia’s most popular coworking spaces, IndyHall. He spends most of his days tending to the space, giving tours and managing the Hall community. If you have ever talked to someone at Hall, you have probably talked to Adam.

He makes it a point to say hello and goodbye to anyone that walks into IndyHall.

“That’s really important. I want people to feel like this is their space… and it is. I barely have to clean anything because everyone knows that it’s their space and they take care of it. So it’s only right that we get to know each other,” he says.

Long story short, Teterus now eats, breathes and sleeps community development. He and IndyHall’s chief, Alex Hillman, now teach a masterclass in community development. They tour, visiting New York and Paris, and plan to reach Austin and Australia sometime this year.

“I get this intense sense of pride when someone gets involved with the class that really has nothing to do with coworking. It proves how universal the idea really is.” says Adam about IH’s Masterclass students.

Their students include the non-traditional likes of Philly’s Chief Data Officer, Mark Headd, as well as more traditional coworking enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. As with his duties at IndyHall, Adam provides most of the ancillary support for the class and acts as a mentor and intellectual translator for students.

“I guess that I’m really into metaphors. I like to come up with different ways to teach someone and to make it the subject relatable. People learn in completely different ways.” says Teterus.

He is also a writer, comic book fan and full-time geek. Next to community development (and maybe voice acting), Teterus has one other obvious obsession: Captain America. His desk is adorned with figurines, mugs and prints of his favorite Marvel hero.

Looking into 2013, Adam hopes to write more–and, specifically, more like his literary hero, Kurt Vonnegut. He keeps a tumblr, writes the IH newsletter and other content for the Masterclass.

In regards to his personal penmanship, Adams says that he “makes strange observations and I try to make them funny. That’s what Kurt Vonnegut does well.”

So if, you ever find yourself walking by IndyHall, be sure to stop in–and if you listen closely and have the patience, check out a few of Adam’s voice acting “Easter eggs” buried in the IH welcome buzzer.

Super Power: Really good at Earthworm Jim 2
Recent Achievement: Bought a wine rack and a few dish towels like an adult
Favorite 2012 Read: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay