A look inside a social start-up incubator (photos)

Once home to just Inveneo, Mission Social now houses eight different social enterprises in the top floor of an old San Francisco sewing factory.

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The surrounding neighborhood, as seen from one of the shared conference rooms at Mission Social. All of the rooms, each named for a different African beer, are equipped with a Webcam for quick Skype calls.

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Among the first tenants of Mission Social, besides Inveneo, was Catapult Design, a product design firm that specializes on products geared toward developing countries.

Catapult moved to the building after getting kicked out of a shared spot in a trendier neighborhood.

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Although it may lack some of the amenities of other areas, Catapult Design founder Tyler Valiquette says Mission Social has a sense of common purpose that makes it a great place to work.

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Among the residents of Mission Social is the local chapter of Engineers Without Borders, which tends to use the space only for night meetings, when other tenants are gone for the day.

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Bruce Baike, of Green Wi-Fi, with a prototype of his company's vision for a solar-powered data center.

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The view from the roof of Mission Social's headquarters.

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Inveneo uses this "hot box" to make sure its servers, computers, and other gear can withstand the hot conditions they will face in rural Asia and Africa.

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Inveneo's Brian Shih checks out an antenna that is part of a test network operated on the roof of the company's Mission Street space in San Francisco.

The antenna is similar to a set-up that Inveneo used to help with earthquake relief in Haiti.

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Mike Del Ponte, whose venture Sparkseed is a Mission Social tenant, plugs in his laptop.

Inveneo rents out space to other social enterprises, most of whom specialize in bringing technology to the developing world. Organizations can rent as little as a single desk, getting both space and Internet access.

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Inveneo CEO Kristin Peterson said she rode her Vespa to work during the rainy season and hasn't found the time to take it home yet.

"It started raining one day and it just stayed here," she said.

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