It’s a whole lot of one thing: work. Work prepping the space beforehand, sending out invites, making sure everything’s set, oh hell I forgot to get bags of ice, people will be here any minute. Work during the party. Does everyone have beverages? Is anyone bored? Cups are everywhere. Must tidy. Did anyone go to pick up more ice? What … Read More
To get a new space open, you need to do probably at least several thousand different things. No matter what you do, you’re not going to get to all of them, and you’re not going to get them all right. It’s amazing how much leeway you get, actually. I realized, having built a business from scratch, just how many things … Read More
Hard to believe as it may be, the coworking industry is growing fast without there being a lot of commonly accepted business models for it. On its own, coworking actually doesn’t work all that well as a business, unless you approach it in one of a handful of ways that have proven to be effective. If you rush into building … Read More
A concept promoted by the Institute for the Future, Positive Platforms are described as follows: The design of “Positive Platforms” — platforms that not only maximize profits for their owners but also provide dignified and sustainable livelihoods for those who work on them, plus enrich society as a whole — is one of the most urgent tasks we are facing today. – “Design It … Read More
I noticed something as I settled into a new space I was helping to manage. Everyone seemed to get along with each other, but I was having a hard time getting a sense of who was in the room and what they needed. For the most part, it seemed like people came in, did their work, and went home, only talking … Read More
We closed our coworking space just over a year ago, but people are still asking about why we did. Peter (my partner) and I just didn’t want to keep running a space anymore. We’d been in the business 7+ years and had never managed to turn it into something that was really supporting us more than just getting by, and we … Read More
As opposed to the Space Owner’s Mindset… Space Owner’s Mindset success metrics: Revenue from renting out space. The space owner is only happy when things happen in their space. Everything that happens outside the space is either a marketing opportunity, competition, or irrelevant. The space owner is inclined toward xenophobia, concerned with how their community fits into the wider landscape only insofar … Read More
I recently got this question: I’m trying to figure out how many seats I would have for open coworking. I’d plan to dedicate some of the space to desks and tables and a portion to more casual couch areas and seats at a bar or round table. Do you think I can count the latter (couches, bar, etc) toward my … Read More
Consider reading the previous chapter, My first Meetup, or: How I made my first friends in NYC To be notified about the next chapter, subscribe here! After my life-changing initial experience, I’d resolved to attend every Jelly I could. I couldn’t make all of them, but I was there often enough to become a staple. I was also enamored with the five bedroom apartment, dubbed … Read More
Consider reading the previous chapter, My first day coworking: a moment that changed my life forever. For more stories, subscribe here! Around the same time I discovered Jelly, I also discovered a site called Meetup.com. As its name implies, Meetup lets people host local gatherings around a particular interest, so people who share that interest could find each other and connect. As … Read More