Sharing Space, Gathering Talent

Before The Sidecar, Jason O'Neil was a youth pastor. He went on to build a wedding and commercial photography business, and it was there — sharing office space with an artist friend who worked for Pixar — that he first felt the creative boost of a shared workspace. That energy became The Sidecar.

Today the membership spans video game developers, marketing professionals, and UI/product designers working alongside attorneys, nonprofit heads, and legislators. Brad Ouldhouse, “Chief Everything Officer” at Helena's SocialFlixx, put it this way: “These last couple of years at The Sidecar have been crucial to my business in many ways, most notably because of the creative folks around me... My business would not have survived the pandemic had it not been for our community here.”

That resilience wasn't a given — when the pandemic hit, O'Neil feared a business built on shared desks and open space might not survive it. Membership held steady instead. The company has since expanded into Helena's former Independent Record newspaper building, with event and exhibition space, and O'Neil is eyeing growth into as many as 16 Montana communities.