Well, it's certainly happening right here in our back yard now. Two employees of a large bank just walked into our space and said that they are opening a coworking facility at a new location that is a 8min walk from our door. They will have their bank on the ground level and a separate coworking space on the second level. Meeting rooms, event space, hot desks, participate in the visa program, the works.
I was open minded when they first walked in, thinking maybe there could be a way to make this work, but in the end I didn't believe a word they said about how they want to help the community. While they may still attract a different crowd, they are co-opting the word coworking, using it as a marketing tool to reach more banking clients and strengthen existing clients, and every dollar they earn takes away from the rest of us. Our current biggest competitor in town doesn't need to care because they just got a $4million dollar loan from the city to buy their next building. It's the rest of us (including the spaces that essentially do coworking but that don't brand themselves as coworking) that have to worry about how this is going to affect our bottom line. And if this affects our bottom line, then we can't be as great a resource to the freelance community. And for us in particular, it really stings that they will be so close. In the end, I told them that they will be doing a disservice to the coworking community if they proceed, and if they really want to help the community, they should go back to their management and tell them that they are making a mistake, that they should be investing in/ offering grants to independent coworking facilities instead and offer services or discounts or training sessions or something to our members, but that moving forward with opening a coworking facility of their own is, quite simply, wrong. I still maintain that competition is healthy, but this is not fair competition. They can bleed money for 3yrs and still throw more money at it. They can hire someone to be the community manager and make it a really great space where they build a strong knit community, just like all of the rest of us did. They can have it all and figure out a way to make it work in any city they want. Am I upset because it's not fair? Yes. Do I think that they will attract a different crowd? Maybe, but it depends on how they manage things. Will it work in the end? I don't know. I think they will give it their best and see how things go, and I think it will be at the expense of some of the rest of us. So folks, brace yourselves for the wave. The suits have taken notice. r. On Mar 19 2009, 2:54 pm, John Proffitt <[email protected]> wrote: > I was thinking about coworking today -- locations, designs, amenities and so > on -- and I got to thinking about the future of the business. > > It strikes me that someone will eventually come along and franchise or > corporatize the concept, assuming there's a profit to be made that's worth > pursuing for a big company. Worst case scenario, I can imagine Starbucks > making a slight strategic change and pursuing the coworking business as an > add-on to the coffee shop business. They could, with a little effort, buy up > space next to many of their existing locations and setup the spaces in a > coworking fashion rather than a cafe fashion. Charge for day-to-day access, > weekly, monthly, etc. I'm sure to corporate thinkers, a coworking space > looks just like any old office, only cheaper. > > I don't know if it would be profitable for a company like Starbucks to do > this, but they do seem to be well-positioned to make a move like this, given > their sizable retail presence. And coworking sites might look like a > not-insignificant threat to their existing business. > > What they couldn't replicate, of course, are the communities that accrete > around a coworking space and group of regulars. That's organic and needs a > "real" leader to facilitate it and grow it; it requires people to be in the > space and participating in the community regularly, and Starbucks couldn't > get that kind of loyalty, I'm sure. > > For those that have started a coworking biz or researched it more than I > have... > > [1] Are you concerned about copycat corporate businesses popping up? > [2] Has this already started happening in some areas? > [3] Could a "corporate" version of coworking even survive? -- 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.
