Who we are.

Sonia Wendorff
Sonia Wendorff
Cofounder

Managing programming, partnerships, recruiting, and membership.

Emergent Communities Consultant. 5+ years designing & implementing operational systems, digital tools, and community experiences for pop-up cities and ecovillages worldwide.

PolishEnglish
Rahul Lio
Rahul Lio
Cofounder

Managing technology, physical space, and corporate strategy.

Harvard Business School MBA. Serial founder and technologist โ€” $28M raised, $100M+ in exits across digital media, EVs, and generative AI. Previously engineering at Adobe and product management at Microsoft.

EnglishJapanese
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Sponic Gardens

Community center for social networking, built AI-native.

A quick concept overview

01
The Opportunity

AI can bring people together in ways that were not possible before.

AI can manage our schedules, run the building, and quietly return the hours we lose to logistics. But efficiency is just the starting line.

Pointed at personal development and community connection, AI is becoming the most pro-human infrastructure we have ever built.

Sponic Gardens venue overview
02
What Sponic Gardens Is

A next generation community center designed as a living garden.

Community center, enhanced by intelligence that evolves with the members and the environment.

Garden is both a theme and an operating metaphor. Herbs, flowers, and living greenery woven into the space โ€” reflecting our core focus: connection, wellness, and growth.

Sponic Gardens greenhouse
03
Who It's For

Built for people who invest in themselves.

Creative professionals, founders, and wellness-driven people aged 25โ€“50 who want more from their social environment than a desk or a treadmill.

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The Creative
Artists, writers, designers, musicians. They work independently but thrive in community. Looking for inspiration, collaboration, and a space that feels alive โ€” not sterile.
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The Builder
Founders, freelancers, side-project people. They want a network that goes deeper than LinkedIn. Seeking accountability partners, co-founders, and real relationships built over time.
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The Wellness-Driven
Gym regulars, yoga practitioners, sauna enthusiasts. They already invest in their body โ€” now looking for a space that connects physical wellness to social connection and personal growth.
04
Mission

Deliver our members radically more value through IRL social interactions.

This is enabled by:

1) an extreme focus on physical space design for socializing.

2) developing technologies and deploying models that support the mission.

3) educating members on how to best adopt beneficial technologies and align them with their long-term goals.

Sponic Gardens AI hub at night
05
What We Cultivate ยท Social Connection

Every member journey is designed to foster self-discovery, education and meaningful relationships.

AI as a facilitator

Individual โ€” personal development through talking therapy, health & business coaching, project management.

Small groups โ€” social & business networking, dating, connection circles, brainstorm sessions, relationship coaching.

Big groups โ€” dinner parties, fitness sessions, coworking, gardening, building, decision-making.

Sponic Gardens community kitchen
06
What We Cultivate

What we cultivate.

i.
Education & Craft
Classes, coworking sessions, art & building workshops. An environment designed to spark new and existing passions, collaboration and productivity.
ii.
Physical Wellness
Customized fitness classes, thermal contrast therapy, recovery and health coaching. Supporting physical wellbeing of our members.
iii.
Community Commerce
Farmers market, artisan vending, food & beverage sales, community barters. Supporting community-led businesses and exchange of resources.
iv.
Botanical Cultivation
Community gardening, flower contests. Herbs and flowers woven into the experience โ€” a living ecosystem that grows with the community.
07
Intelligence

The space that learns and adapts.

We listen to our members first and combine their feedback with real-time sensor data. The AI runs optimization experiments and tunes the experience in real time.

Every day the space gets a little smarter โ€” learning what to tweak next to provide more value to the community.

Sponic Gardens workshop
08
The Product

Smart community venue.

The product is the full integration โ€” not any single piece in isolation. Every layer reinforces the others.

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Community
A group of people that wants to connect and grow together.
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Space & Hardware
The physical layout, amenities, sensors, IoT devices, and built infrastructure that make the space intelligent.
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Intelligence
The AI layer that manages both the space and the people: scheduling, recruitment, project management, member experience, optimization.
09
Business Model

Simple, day-use, member-friendly.

Members can join events, workshops, wellness sessions and unstructured time at Sponic Gardens.

Drop-In
Come for a single event or hangout, charged per time.
Membership
Ongoing access to events and space.
Go-to-market

Sundays first. We launch with a single, weekly Sunday gathering โ€” low overhead, high signal. It lets us test programming, build the founding community, and prove the model before scaling to a full-week operation.

Sponic Gardens food market
10
Roadmap

From pre-seed to full bloom.

We are prototyping in Poland. High density of talent. Low cost for infrastructure build and talent.

0 โ€“ 3 months
Experiments. Weekly Sunday gatherings to test programming, build the founding community, and validate the model.
3 โ€“ 9 months
Physical space build-out. Securing and transforming our own venue โ€” garden, infrastructure, hardware installation.
9 mo โ€“ 2 years
Full program build-out. All AI systems, community programs, and technology stack operational.
2+ years
Robot prototypes. Automating physical maintenance and garden cultivation.
2.5+ years
Scaling. A proven system that can be dropped into any rural site near an urban center โ€” and start building itself.
The Ask

Help us connect with Austin's ecosystem.

We're looking for warm introductions to local accelerators and early-stage investors who back community-driven, AI-native ventures.

Sputnik ATX
Early-stage accelerator โ€” existing relationship with Dr. Oksana Malysheva.
Austin Technology Incubator
UT-affiliated incubator with healthcare and community verticals.
Texas Venture Labs
McCombs-backed venture studio โ€” product validation and student talent.
MassChallenge Texas
National accelerator with Texas regional programming.

Know someone at any of these? We'd love an introduction.

Get in touch