Raines-- Our model is somewhat different from some of the proto spaces. We have four resident desks in our existing offices, but in Uptime itself, there are no residents. All members are on an ad hoc as needed as available basis. Right now we can very comfortably serve 30 concurrent users at a time. When we reach that point, we can add another 20 seats, serving up to 50 simultaneous users. My analysis of other membership organizations suggests we'll max out at about 250 active members.
I don't think 30 net revenue members by the end of the year is aggressive at all. But my value proposition is significantly different from a typical resident desk situation. We're not renting fixed desks; we're charging $99 per month to use our facility like a health club model. This won't appeal to people who need to be at their desk 20+ hours per week. It's more for people who need to crank out deskwork a few hours a day, a couple days a week. The usage patterns are more fluid, more volatile, and more serendipitous. I think it will be something like the 80/20 rule, although it's more of a 10/20/30/40 rule. 10% of users will be there 40% of the time, and vice versa, with a similar thing happening at 20% and 30%. Our key markets are sole proprietors, freelancers, remote field force (sales reps and service techs deployed to the territory from another location, plus telecommuters, of which there are plenty here), and true entrepreneurs trying to build businesses with grand scope. The core characteristic of our ideal member is nomadism. They can work anywhere they can get signal, and do. We have operating funding for about six months. And, of course, this is not our only line of business. We can absorb slow ramp, but I really don't think that's going to happen. You mention "tight economic times", which is actually a positive indicator for our business. Entrepreneurship historically surges during downturns, and existing businesses in serviced premises are being squeezed out; Uptime can be soft landing for them. The communities and the relationships that form within and across them will be somewhat fragmented and clustered. This won't be a single unified community of interest, but rather a gathering of tribes, with plenty of cross-pollination. Then there's the network outside our premises. We have strong partnerships with the College of Engineering and College of Business. They will be deploying interns to Uptime to learn about entrepreneurship, and those resources will be available to the members. Also, Engineering has testing labs, prototyping technology, and earnest scholars looking for cool projects to work on. These resources will also be available to Uptime members. We have a strong partnership with the city and the economic development community generally. We call this "Incubator 2.0". We'll see lots of referrals from them and other agencies. Finally, this is the pilot. We'll use this to prove out the model, make and remedy mistakes, and forge a template for replication in other markets. I hope to have a half a dozen Uptimes in operation by the end of 2009. You can't grow a big company slowly. The iron is hot. Come visit sometime! We're only about three hours north of Berkeley. --Ax On Nov 7, 2:08 pm, "Raines Cohen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ax: Please ignore my previous P.S., I appreciate the report on the launch. > But this piece caught my eye... that's a pretty aggressive goal, driving > rapid growth to an unfamiliar, locally unproven concept during tight > economic times. What kind of mix of full-time/part-time members does it > assume? What's your backup plan if it is not reached - do you have reserves > to tide you over? > > In several spaces I've evaluated in the SF Bay Area, it took a year to reach > 100% occupancy of desks. > > Raines Cohen, your neighborhood Coworking > Coach<http://www.CoworkingCoach.com/> > > Delighted to get some quality productive coworking time at IndyHall this > week > > On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 5:01 PM, axon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > So we're chilling today, basking in the glow, so to speak. Next week > > we do the serious membership drive (goal: 25 net new members by 12/31, > > which is cash-positive). --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
