Hi everyone, I've been lurking on this discussion list for a few months now but wanted to introduce myself. I'm Mike, and I cowork at a coworking space called The Bourse in New Haven. The space is beautiful and enormous, and I've been working closely with the owners to help create an online presence and buzz around it. We just opened late December of last year. Check out our website at http://www.boursenewhaven.com
While New Haven is a huge startup city, it's still a comparatively small city population, and we're "competing" (I use quotes for a lack of a better term, we really want everyone to succeed) amongst a really well-run and established coworking space called The Grove that is literally just down the street, as well the many startup incubator spaces in the area and great coffeeshops/free wi-fi areas. The owners have tried to distinguish The Bourse amongst the "competition" by offering a little more anonymity and less rigorous vetting to become a member (no interviews to get in, no forced workshop sessions and teambuilding for members). By no means do we want a total lack of community or collaboration, but we'd rather have it happen naturally for those who want it. After 3 months, we still have practically no members. And I will admit that the owners did break a cardinal coworking rule in setting up the space before organizing a core group of members. They were blessed to own a multi-story historic commerical building, and converted an unused floor of their building into The Bourse. Now, they're struggling to find people who are willing to take a chance and work in a very large and quiet/empty space until we hit a critical mass. We're marketing as best as we can, both online and in person, trying to partner with chamber of commerce, Yale, and other organizations that make sense, and we've brought someone on board to organize and hold monthly "bootcamp" workshops and events to just get people in the door. The discussions that have gone on this list have been extremely helpful to us as we trial by fire. I so want this space to be successful, as do the owners obviously, but they definitely suffer from lack of resources (they run and manage other businesses in their building) and the STRONG desire to be profitable. To all the space owners out there, what were critical factors for you in reaching your "breakeven" number of members? What else can we do to attract a core group of members. How have you dealt with other coworking spaces that may be closeby? Mike K. Nguyen http://www.mknonline.com [email protected] -- 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.
