Thanks Tony - that's a really interesting point about WeWork. The couple I visited in London definitely had that "service first" feel when you walked in. In truth I have no idea if communities existed in the ones I went to, but I can tell you that the independent ones all felt different - the minute you walked in the door. Some were polished, others less so, but they definitely had that community-not-corporate vibe.
Ultimately I'm not looking to set the world alight in terms of launching another corporate WeWork clone - the more I read and learn about the coworking community, the more I feel like I just want to create "my" own little space for a community which will ultimately become the community's space once it's up and running. Obviously there's a financial aspect to all of this - I can't exist on no income - but I would rather struggle and be happy than sell out and end up with just another space full of tenants who expect a lot from their service provider. Easily said at this early stage I know - I've no doubt there are examples of others who have had the same ideals and thought the same, then gone on to fail! On Thursday, 12 October 2017 19:50:53 UTC+1, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: > > Mark, > > Welcome to the party! > > It can be a bit tricky to understand the nuances of these two camps as you > define them. We're all still getting a handle on it ourselves! > > Here's another way of looking at it: > > *1. You can organize a coworking community without ever having a > business. * > > Go on Meetup, start a group, meet at a cafe. Hooray, you're coworking, > without any money involved! > > > *2. You can build a workspace without doing coworking.* > > There's a whole industry of serviced offices that has been around for a > while. Raise some money, get a space, rent bits of that space out to > companies for a margin. > > There's lots of established competition in this world, and it's entirely > transactional. No emotional relationship between the space and the > customer. If you want to step into that arena, godspeed! > > > *3. You can build a workspace with coworking in mind. * > > Coworking exists regardless of office space; physical workspaces just > happen to be a handy delivery vehicle. > > Many in the business center industry are scrambling to change their spaces > to catch the trend. Many of them think they can get away with offering open > plan memberships and fancy decor, but that misses the point. > > *The point here is that lots of people don't need workspace, but they do > need each other. * > > If you can build something that facilitates real connections between > people, then you can do something really exciting and fun and impactful. > > Even WeWork knows this—they try very hard to build community. But they are > always going to be hamstrung by the fact that their approach is one of > being a provider to consumers, and it's hard to get consumers to care about > you or the other consumers. > > You, by contrast, are a human, with hopes and dreams. > > If you find others who share those hopes and dreams in your city, and you > invite them to conspire with you to build something that can help lots of > other people find the belonging and support they need, you just might be on > your way to starting something that will bring both profit and fulfillment. > > Tony > *---* > *New Work Cities <http://nwc.co/consulting> * > > > On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Alex Linsker <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > >> Figure out your main "why", then market that. If it is "money and >> status", or "community of like-minded people" or "community of people doing >> a variety of work", those seem to be the big areas of "coworking". And then >> make your place embody that fully. The others can happen in the same place >> over time, but they are 3 different ways to start from what I've seen. >> >> -Alex Linsker, Collective Agency, Portland Oregon >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected] <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
