Reset is Helping Austin Restaurants Monetize Their Space During the Day for Events and Coworking

When Christine Ziegler needed a place for 35 employees to meet off the BigCommerce campus, she turned to Reset.

Reset offered up a few venues and Ziegler picked the Tillery Kitchen and Bar at 3201 E. Cesar Chavez. The restaurant features spacious and comfortable indoor seating with big windows and lots of natural light and a patio with a tree-lined view of the Colorado River.

Reset started out as a co-working business that sets up in Austin restaurants by day but has since evolved in the last year to offer more event space for company offsite meetings. Its name Reset derives from the act of resetting the table.

Reset is the brainchild of Siri Chakka and Silva Gentchev, who met each other while getting their MBAs at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. They created Reset to help restaurants use their space during the day when they aren’t as busy as coworking sites and event venues.

 “Restaurants want to monetize their space, but they don’t have the staff and the ability to do that,” Gentchev said.

BigCommerce liked the flexibility of the Tillery space, said Ziegler, a senior executive assistant at BigCommerce.

“We were able to bring in our own food one day,” she said. “They already had the projector and screen ready to go. It was all-inclusive with flexibility too. Should the need arise I would totally go back.”

BigCommerce used the space on a Wednesday and a Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. and they had breakfast and lunch brought in the first day and the last day Tillery catered the lunch.

Going offsite gets people out of their daily routine and gets them thinking creatively, Ziegler said. It’s great for team-building activities, she said.

Reset opened in August of 2018 and it is now working with eight restaurants throughout Austin with plans to add three to four more by the end of the year.

“Over the last year, we’ve learned a lot about the coworking industry. It has become increasingly saturated,” Chakka said.

Reset is still a good choice for the person who works out of the coffee shop, Chakka said. Its location on Tillery is easily accessible, has great wi-fi, coffee, water and plenty of seating in a nice relaxing setting and it offers free parking.

While doing the Reset coworking business, companies began contacting Reset about hosting meetings, Chakka said. Over the last two months, it has been targeting that market, she said.

Pivoting Reset’s business model to offer more event space sourcing for companies seemed like a natural fit, Chakka said.

“Businesses need this, and restaurants are getting more value out of it,” she said.

Reset faces competition from bigger sites like Peerspace, but its advantage is that it’s Austin-based and Chakka and Gentchev have curated a network of spaces that they have vetted personally.

There is no shortage of beautiful restaurants in Austin, Chakka said.

“We act as a liaison or concierge of sorts,” she said. “We are planning the event hand in hand with our clients. Helping them find the space and helping them book it. We are there on the day of the event on-site to make sure everything is going well. We are curating all the spaces. We go, we see them, we talk to the restaurant owners to make sure it’s something we want to represent Reset.”

Reset’s business model is to take a pre-negotiated commission on each event it books. The bulk goes to the restaurant for providing the space, Chakka said. Reset has planned everything from an eight-person team meeting to a 100-person sales kickoff meeting.

Many of the restaurants Reset works with also have the option to cater.

Ian Thurwatcher and Krystal Craig are the husband and wife founders of Intero Restaurant in East Austin. Intero began working with Reset after Chakka approached them to be involved.

“We already love having guests in our restaurant, so the opportunity to host new people, specifically offering other small companies our available areas daytime, seemed like a perfect venture,” Craig said. “We also enjoy partnerships with great people, and we could tell immediately that Siri herself was someone we’d be happy working with.”

So far working with Reset has been extremely positive, Craig said. Intero has hosted small company business meetings and is planning some bigger events.

“Aside from always being greatly responsive, they diligently do all the leg work to set everyone up for the best success in enjoying the shared space experience,” she said.

“From our side, Reset helps to provide new opportunities in meeting people you may not have, aiding in expanding your own network of guests and future possibilities,” Craig said. “From observing the other side- it’s really cool people can enjoy an event or office meeting in a more interesting, or new way, and in a less conventional setting. In a way, overall it feels like it adds some spice in variety for both parties involved.”