Hey all Super fascinating thread....
I just want to clarify something - and apologies for being a bit defensive. We (The Centre for Social Innovation) are the space that Rachel refers to in her post as her "biggest competition" and as having received a "$4 million loan from the City". We've never received a penny from government. We raised $6.5 million through a bank mortgage and private investment - an incredible accomplishment that took a herculean effort. We've been working our asses off (like the rest of you) for over six years to build our community and our business model. We're proud of what we've accomplished and we've freely shared all of our knowledge, tools etc with dozens of spaces around the world, in addition to putting it all up online (e.g., you can download our investor's package if you want to know how we structured the deal - www.socialinnovation.ca/sssi). What we did get from the City was an Agreement to backstop the loans if we went into default - i.e., they would take over the building. In terms of competition more generally, I agree fully with everything Raines said. This is a huge and growing market. You can never control what other groups or corporations are going to do. A big bank, Starbucks, Kinko's etc. may come on the scene but they can;t replicate what you do - and if you do something the community/market values, then you will always have a successful business. Toronto, for example, has a sprawling population of close to 5 million people. There is room for dozens if not hundreds of shared spaces... I understand it may sting a little, but a little creativity can turn this into an opportunity. And Rachel - no offense taken, but i did want to clear the air... and we will continue to refer folks who don't fit our model to Camaraderie, as the connections among spaces are vital and part of a really exciting evolution in this 'sector'... Finally, it's interesting to note that no one mentioned The Hub as a source of coworking competition... plus there was the recent post by The Cube. There are more and more coworking spaces that are growing on a franchise model and popping up in communities around the world.... this is a particularly interesting form of competition because it often comes with the community-building vibe of local coworking spaces, as opposed to the 'corporate' presence that looms on the horizon... We'd far prefer to see these spaces conceived and run locally, but the reality is that this field will include all types of spaces working with all types of models... and that's a good thing. Anyway... blah blah blah.... sorry if this comes off rant-like... but we're living and breathing this stuff all the time and i find this particular topic fascinating... Eli p.s. sincere but belated apologies for the Auto-reply last week... will do my best to remember next time :-( -- 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.
