{"id":39,"date":"2015-03-09T23:46:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T23:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/?page_id=39"},"modified":"2016-02-17T14:52:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T14:52:05","slug":"backstory","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/","title":{"rendered":"Backstory"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"dslc-theme-content\"><div id=\"dslc-theme-content-inner\"><p><strong>It was never about workspace.<\/strong> The fact was, we didn&#8217;t need it.\u00a0With nearly everything we needed to do confined to the space of our laptops, we needed little more than\u00a0power, wifi and a comfortable seat to have everything we needed to do our work.<\/p>\n<p>The trouble wasn&#8217;t with the physical environment. The trouble was with the flesh-and-blood people around us, or, more importantly, the lack thereof.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New Work City arose as an effort to build a gathering place\u00a0for people who&#8217;d otherwise be stuck alone in their homes.<\/strong> It arose out of its more lightweight predecessors, a cafe-based group called CooperBricolage started by Sanford Dickert and a home-based group called Jelly started by Amit Gupta and Luke Crawford. By creating a dedicated, central, physical location, we made it\u00a0possible for\u00a0visitors and residents alike to know\u00a0there was a place they could go to meet people and get connected.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-39 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/coobric\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coobric-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-48\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coobric.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coobric-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-48'>\n\t\t\t\tCooperBricolage, a coworking community based at a cafe in the East Village.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/jelly-living-room\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-living-room-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-47\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-living-room-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-living-room-272x182.jpg 272w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-living-room.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-47'>\n\t\t\t\tJelly at House 2.0, a loft apartment on 39th Street in Manhattan.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/jelly-house\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-house-300x225.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-46\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-house-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jelly-house.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-46'>\n\t\t\t\tJelly at House 2.0, a loft apartment on 39th Street in Manhattan.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/2012-06-29-13-13-09\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2012-06-29-13.13.09-300x224.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-45\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2012-06-29-13.13.09-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2012-06-29-13.13.09-1024x765.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-45'>\n\t\t\t\tA reunion Jelly at New Work City.\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Back in 2008, coworking was still a pretty new and radical idea. Landlords were wary of the new utilization of their space, and consistent business models hadn&#8217;t yet been proven. Since then, the real estate industry has embraced the concept, and now shared workspaces of all sorts have emerged.<\/p>\n<p>But when we got started, there were only the examples of a handful of\u00a0communities in other cities that\u00a0all seemed to be zeroing in on the same basic idea.\u00a0Places like <a href=\"http:\/\/citizenspace.us\" target=\"_blank\">Citizen Space<\/a> in San Francisco, <a href=\"http:\/\/officenomads.com\" target=\"_blank\">Office Nomads<\/a> in Seattle, and <a href=\"http:\/\/indyhall.org\" target=\"_blank\">Indy Hall<\/a> in Philadelphia all aimed to build spaces that were, first and foremost, gathering places for people who&#8217;d otherwise be alone. They optimized for culture-building and connection-making.<\/p>\n<p>While we\u00a0were\u00a0doing well with what we had, we knew that there needed to be a hub, a home, a place that could act as a beacon. Sanford and I and our coworkers resolved to\u00a0take the extra step and resolve to making something happen. The result was New Work City.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New Work City was launched as a community effort.<\/strong> It was built not to be an enterprise, but as a vehicle for\u00a0the best interests of the people it sought to serve. It doesn&#8217;t have investors. It doesn&#8217;t have a mandate to grow. It doesn&#8217;t answer to anyone but its own people.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2513\/4035889329_f0ef63323f_b.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NWC 1.0 launch party &#8211; November 1, 2008<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since its launch, New Work City has been a completely self-sustaining entity.\u00a0Because it didn&#8217;t have to worry about maximizing profits or scaling quickly, it was able to focus on being the best possible vehicle for serving its people.\u00a0We created a membership model that was as accessible\u00a0as possible. We hosted and organized countless events, many of them free and nearly all of them affordable.<\/p>\n<p>We helped house some of the earliest\u00a0versions of some\u00a0programs that have since grown\u00a0far beyond our borders, in some cases incubating their very beginnings. We were home to the first events for Girl Develop It and Nightowls, for example, as well as\u00a0an early home for the NYC chapters of Startup Weekend, BetaNYC, and Startup Bus.\u00a0We&#8217;ve hosted events from the silly to the serious: from\u00a0a sold-out Turntable.fm dance party and a fake startup launch party to an event to register people for the national bone marrow registry, an effort that helped\u00a0our friend Amit find a donor to help him defeat Leukemia.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-39 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/6786679647_ef68a50464_b\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6786679647_ef68a50464_b-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-66\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6786679647_ef68a50464_b-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6786679647_ef68a50464_b.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6786679647_ef68a50464_b-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-66'>\n\t\t\t\tGina Noy speaking at Reboot\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/6246249672_aa8d5f7b81_o\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6246249672_aa8d5f7b81_o-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-67\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6246249672_aa8d5f7b81_o-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6246249672_aa8d5f7b81_o-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/6246249672_aa8d5f7b81_o-272x182.jpg 272w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-67'>\n\t\t\t\tGroup photo from our bone marrow registry event\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/5986436372_8516133f34_b\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5986436372_8516133f34_b-300x179.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-68\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5986436372_8516133f34_b-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5986436372_8516133f34_b.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-68'>\n\t\t\t\tTurntable.fm dance party\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/5597976744_c5a6c28997_o\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5597976744_c5a6c28997_o-300x199.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-2-69\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5597976744_c5a6c28997_o-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/5597976744_c5a6c28997_o-1024x680.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-2-69'>\n\t\t\t\tOne of many talks in the space\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve piloted new\u00a0kinds of educational programming and structured gatherings to give\u00a0coworkers a way to help each other fill\u00a0a critical need for externalized structure and accountability.\u00a0Some of\u00a0the more successful\u00a0programs are now in use at coworking spaces\u00a0in other cities.<\/p>\n<p>Then, of course, there were the\u00a0poker nights, halloween parties, anniversary parties, holiday festivals, the Startup Funerals, the happy hours, the karaoke nights, the movie nights, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way, literally thousands of people have helped in one way or another (you can see more about some of them on our <a href=\"http:\/\/nwc.co\/thanks.html\" target=\"_blank\">Thank You page<\/a>), and countless more have been positively affected by working here, visiting for an event, just passing through, or\u00a0learning of our efforts online.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Now, we&#8217;re resolving to\u00a0rally more people who believe what we believe to widen our collective impact.<\/strong>\u00a0When we first opened for business, coworking was still so new and New York had so little of it happening. Now, there are dozens of coworking communities, large and small, popping up all over the city, and thousands all over the world.<\/p>\n<p>This gives us a tremendous opportunity to support the needs of the new workforce in a more substantial, powerful way. To that end, our new iteration is going to be focused on uniting the communities of many coworking spaces around the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New Work Cities aims to take everything we&#8217;ve learned and share it,<\/strong> so others can build upon it.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ll do that by providing products and services that make it easier for people to get started and get it right. Learn more about what we have to offer <a href=\"\/consulting\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n&nbsp;<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">It was never about workspace. The fact was, we didn&#8217;t need it.\u00a0With nearly everything we needed to do confined to the space of our laptops, we needed little more than\u00a0power, wifi and a comfortable seat to have everything we needed to do our work. The trouble wasn&#8217;t with the physical environment. The trouble was with the flesh-and-blood people around us, &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/backstory\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":550,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwc.co\/3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}