[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2015-02-21 Thread Daron Jenkins
I theorized a coworking/co-op incubator environment where members actually 
lived in the space as part of a intensive startup incubator group so I 
wouldn't be surprised if Wework took that on..

I once heard from someone at wework (who shall remain nameless) that their 
goal was (and he said this with a straight face) to open a new coworking 
space every 7 days,

scary.

On Monday, November 17, 2014 at 3:16:07 PM UTC-5, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article 
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork  
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/


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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-18 Thread Steve King
WeWork may be expanding into residential co-living 
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2014/12/16/office-sharing-phenom-wework-eyes-expansion-into-apartments/
 
according to the Wall Street Journal. I


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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-17 Thread Steve King
Commercial real estate is a huge industry and its business practices and 
models are substantially the same as they were decades ago. From the point 
of view of venture investors, it's an industry ripe for disruptive change. 
WeWork has shown it has a business model that's disruptive and, at least so 
far, highly scalable. This, coupled with WeWork also being a play on the 
future of work,is why investors are so excited about them.

We've interviewed a number of WeWork members and they consistently talk 
about the networking opportunities and community provided by WeWork spaces. 
Because of this, we consider them coworking facilities. But WeWork 
communities are pretty different from those of traditional coworking 
spaces. They've targeted startups - including larger startups with 5-10 or 
more employees - as their primary market. This is a  different segment than 
most traditional coworking facilities serve. And while they do have 
independent worker members, these folks tell us they are in a WeWork space 
primarily because of the access it provides to startups.  

So are they coworking? We think yes. But the broader workspace as a service 
industry contains multiple market segments and its size, structure and 
diversity make it unlikely to be a winner take all or most industry like 
many digital business are.  

In other words, we think there's plenty of room for different kinds of 
coworking spaces to be successful. 

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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-16 Thread Steve King
Wall Street Journal reports 
http://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163WeWork
 
just raised $355 million and is now valued at $5+ billion.



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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-16 Thread Alex Hillman
Funny enough, the article URL is more telling about what’s really going on here:




/wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163














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On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Steve King sk...@emergentresearch.com
wrote:

 Wall Street Journal reports 
 http://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163WeWork
  
 just raised $355 million and is now valued at $5+ billion.


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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-16 Thread Aaron Cruikshank
Alex,

Do you consider WeWork to be coworking or something else - closer to Regus?

- Aaron

Aaron Cruikshank
Principal, CRUIKSHANK
phone: 778.908.4560
e-mail: aa...@cruikshank.me
web: cruikshank.me http://www.cruikshank.me
twitter: @cruikshank https://twitter.com/cruikshank
book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank http://www.doodle.com/cruikshank
linkedin: in/cruikshank http://www.linkedin.com/in/cruikshank




On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 8:05 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com
wrote:

 Funny enough, the article URL is more telling about what’s *really* going
 on here:

 /wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163





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 *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.*
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 Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com



 On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Steve King sk...@emergentresearch.com
 wrote:

  Wall Street Journal reports
 http://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163WeWork
 just raised $355 million and is now valued at $5+ billion.

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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-16 Thread Alex Hillman
Yeah, definitely. They’re a real estate company. They’ve gotten better at their 
version of “community” than Regus has, for sure, but if you get closer to what 
they do instead of reading the press and their marketing material, you’ll find 
that it’s a high volume, high turnover real estate business (which is a big 
part of what makes their financials appear different from their more 
conservative cousins). 




Among the many things that are interesting to me is that early on, they 
actively rejected the coworking language along with the broader coworking 
community…until coworking really started to mainstream and it became 
advantageous for them to use the word. Now they’re rejecting the idea of being 
a real estate company because they don’t like being compared to it. 




I don’t think their model is bad, by the way. And they’re definitely smart. 
Overvalued? Definitely, but that’s what happens when you align yourself with an 
already overvalued startup market (which is the vast majority of their 
audience). But also like the startup market, this kind of growth isn’t 
sustainable…which is a whole lot more evident when you look beyond what the 
press tells you is true :)




-Alex 


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On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 11:57 AM, Aaron Cruikshank aa...@cruikshank.me
wrote:

 Alex,
 Do you consider WeWork to be coworking or something else - closer to Regus?
 - Aaron
 Aaron Cruikshank
 Principal, CRUIKSHANK
 phone: 778.908.4560
 e-mail: aa...@cruikshank.me
 web: cruikshank.me http://www.cruikshank.me
 twitter: @cruikshank https://twitter.com/cruikshank
 book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank http://www.doodle.com/cruikshank
 linkedin: in/cruikshank http://www.linkedin.com/in/cruikshank
 On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 8:05 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 Funny enough, the article URL is more telling about what’s *really* going
 on here:

 /wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163





 --
 *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.*
  Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com
 Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com



 On Tue, Dec 16, 2014 at 10:59 AM, Steve King sk...@emergentresearch.com
 wrote:

  Wall Street Journal reports
 http://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-now-a-5-billion-real-estate-sartup-1418690163WeWork
 just raised $355 million and is now valued at $5+ billion.

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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-12-10 Thread Tabari Brannon
This was an amazing story!
As someone who is starting a space it's helpful to hear the backstory, 
behind wework. This particular quote stood for me.


   - WeWork prefers to work with new developments or in gentrifying or 
   distressed neighborhoods, where WeWork can get space at a standard 
   anchor-tenant discount of about 10%.

How important is it to look for buildings in communities  which fit the 
criteria above?

On Monday, November 17, 2014 12:16:07 PM UTC-8, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article 
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork  
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/


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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-20 Thread Steve King
I agree that WeWork is more of a competitor for Regus and other exec 
suites/office business centers. I also agree there's plenty of room for 
independent coworking spaces. 

But WeWork's success is going to impact the coworking and office as a 
service industry beyond simply being a competitor. Their business and 
financial success will drive increased interest in coworking and new 
entrants to the industry.

We'll see more Big Coworking spaces being started, mimicking WeWork's 
success (Industrious is already an example) . We'll see more investor 
interest in coworking due to A list VC firm Benchmark's involvement in 
WeWork and their financial success. The real estate industry, which has 
been sniffing around coworking for years, will likely start to move much 
more aggressively into the industry.  

We'll also see more interest in coworking from local governments as more of 
them see it as an economic development tool. 

And, of course, we'll see more potential member interest in coworking. This 
will include greater interest from larger firms who (rightly or wrongly) 
often equate financial success with stability.  

All of this means new opportunities for existing coworking spaces. But it 
also likely means some new risks, especially from new entrants.  

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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-19 Thread Jeannine
I think that once you put 6 zeros after anything, everybody goes crazy.  

I am glad for the attention, high tide raises all ships and, as Alex points 
out, Regus has been more co-opted than it has been dominant in relation to 
coworking.  Before you know it, WeWork will also be applying to get on the 
Wiki and so on, just like Regus. :-). Though not yet, they are still in the 
own sandbox model and who knows, they may stay there.

A number of sectors are shifting in the face of the ideas around the 
sharing economy and office space is one of them.  And as with the others 
there are policy issues to be worked out and so on. The dark sides of the 
sharing economy include of course exploitation and the black market.  This 
is also not different with coworking.  As Big Coworking develops I expect 
to see these kinds of problems addressed faster than they would have 
without it, so that is helpful.  

One of the things I would like to see is a real cradle to grave approach 
for coworking; at this moment most people think of it as a nice place to 
start until you get to be a real business when you get your own space.  And 
I expect that Big Coworking will change that.



On Monday, November 17, 2014 9:16:07 PM UTC+1, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article 
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork  
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/


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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-19 Thread Tom Brandt
There are two big-box hardware stores near me - Lowes and Home Depot - but
I still go to the local hardware store because they frequently have, order,
or can make, some obscure thing that the big boxes don't, and the people
working there are very knowledgeable about all things hardware and
home-maintenance related.

I think that smaller, independent coworking communities can offer a more
personalized experience than big coworking can. Independent communities are
better able to adapt their communities to the character of the particular
community than spaces that are part of a larger organization.

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 4:44 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com
wrote:

 I think that once you put 6 zeros after anything, everybody goes crazy.

 I am glad for the attention, high tide raises all ships and, as Alex
 points out, Regus has been more co-opted than it has been dominant in
 relation to coworking.  Before you know it, WeWork will also be applying to
 get on the Wiki and so on, just like Regus. :-). Though not yet, they are
 still in the own sandbox model and who knows, they may stay there.

 A number of sectors are shifting in the face of the ideas around the
 sharing economy and office space is one of them.  And as with the others
 there are policy issues to be worked out and so on. The dark sides of the
 sharing economy include of course exploitation and the black market.  This
 is also not different with coworking.  As Big Coworking develops I expect
 to see these kinds of problems addressed faster than they would have
 without it, so that is helpful.

 One of the things I would like to see is a real cradle to grave approach
 for coworking; at this moment most people think of it as a nice place to
 start until you get to be a real business when you get your own space.  And
 I expect that Big Coworking will change that.



 On Monday, November 17, 2014 9:16:07 PM UTC+1, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/

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 For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.




-- 
twb
member, Workantile http://workantile.com/
@twbrandt

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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-19 Thread Jacob Sayles
WeWork moving to Seattle has been a good thing.  They spend more
money/energy throwing the word coworking around then we ever have and
provide services we don't care to offer.  They work better for bigger teams
(4+) or individuals requiring private offices.  Also, they fully
participate in the Seattle Collaborative Space Alliance.  I think they are
good people.  If anything Regus should be worried, not us.

Thank you for the back story.  It's great to see how everyone gets started.

Jacob

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 5:23 AM, Tom Brandt twbra...@gmail.com wrote:

 There are two big-box hardware stores near me - Lowes and Home Depot - but
 I still go to the local hardware store because they frequently have, order,
 or can make, some obscure thing that the big boxes don't, and the people
 working there are very knowledgeable about all things hardware and
 home-maintenance related.

 I think that smaller, independent coworking communities can offer a more
 personalized experience than big coworking can. Independent communities are
 better able to adapt their communities to the character of the particular
 community than spaces that are part of a larger organization.

 On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 4:44 AM, Jeannine flexkantoorkame...@gmail.com
 wrote:

 I think that once you put 6 zeros after anything, everybody goes crazy.

 I am glad for the attention, high tide raises all ships and, as Alex
 points out, Regus has been more co-opted than it has been dominant in
 relation to coworking.  Before you know it, WeWork will also be applying to
 get on the Wiki and so on, just like Regus. :-). Though not yet, they are
 still in the own sandbox model and who knows, they may stay there.

 A number of sectors are shifting in the face of the ideas around the
 sharing economy and office space is one of them.  And as with the others
 there are policy issues to be worked out and so on. The dark sides of the
 sharing economy include of course exploitation and the black market.  This
 is also not different with coworking.  As Big Coworking develops I expect
 to see these kinds of problems addressed faster than they would have
 without it, so that is helpful.

 One of the things I would like to see is a real cradle to grave approach
 for coworking; at this moment most people think of it as a nice place to
 start until you get to be a real business when you get your own space.  And
 I expect that Big Coworking will change that.



 On Monday, November 17, 2014 9:16:07 PM UTC+1, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/

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 --
 twb
 member, Workantile http://workantile.com/
 @twbrandt

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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-18 Thread Tim Syth
Hey Steve! Yeah, WeWork is suddenly all over the place.

I am curious as to what this list thinks as far as positives and negatives 
of their model/approach?


On Monday, November 17, 2014 2:16:07 PM UTC-6, Steve King wrote:

 Fascinating - and eye popping - numbers on WeWork in the Forbes article 
 Inside the Phenomenal Rise of WeWork  
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2014/11/05/the-rise-of-wework/


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[Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-18 Thread Steve King


 Tim:


I did a blog post on this 
http://www.smallbizlabs.com/2014/11/the-rise-of-wework-coworking.html today. 
Our view is overall this is very good news for the entire coworking 
industry. WeWork is showing coworking is rapidly becoming a mainstream 
workplace alternative for startups, independent workers and firms of all 
sizes. The more broadly this is recognized and reported on in the press, 
the better it is for the overall industry.  

We also think there's plenty of room for other players. Even with their 
aggressive growth plans, WeWork is only aiming for 46,000 members in 
2015. This is a tiny share of the potential coworking market.  There are 
many millions of potential coworking space members and most are looking for 
spaces offering something different than WeWork is.  

But - and this is a big but - just as big box retail fundamentally changed 
that sector, we think Big Coworking (spaces with many hundreds of 
members) will also have a major impact on coworking and broader 
office-as-a-service industry.  Smaller spaces and firms will have to learn 
to adjust to Big Coworking competition.  

What do you think?

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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-18 Thread Alex Hillman
I wrote this in 2011, but my thoughts haven’t changed much:




http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2011/11/sex-coworking-and-rock-n-roll/





WeWork is tiny compared to Regus (who employs nearly 1/4 of the headcount that 
WeWork is aiming for as membership in 2015). And yet we laugh at considering 
Regus a coworking competitor. 




Further, viewing communities as “competitive only makes sense in a vacuum. In 
reality, people choose what suits them. Using the analogy in that post, music 
artists don’t “compete” directly with each other. And to use the restaurant 
analogy from previous posts, a chinese food restaurant doesn’t “compete 
directly with a steakhouse, even though they technically serve some of the same 
ingredients. 




Point being: catch yourselves when huge numbers and eye-popping statistics 
become a distraction from what YOU need to do best, which is support and lead 
YOUR communities.




-Alex





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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.


Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com

Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com











On Tuesday, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Steve King sk...@emergentresearch.com, 
wrote:
Tim:

I did a blog post on this today. Our view is overall this is very good news for 
the entire coworking industry. WeWork is showing coworking is rapidly becoming 
a mainstream workplace alternative for startups, independent workers and firms 
of all sizes. The more broadly this is recognized and reported on in the press, 
the better it is for the overall industry.

We also think there's plenty of room for other players. Even with their 
aggressive growth plans, WeWork is only aiming for 46,000 members in 2015. 
This is a tiny share of the potential coworking market.  There are many 
millions of potential coworking space members and most are looking for spaces 
offering something different than WeWork is.

But - and this is a big but - just as big box retail fundamentally changed that 
sector, we think Big Coworking (spaces with many hundreds of members) will 
also have a major impact on coworking and broader office-as-a-service industry. 
 Smaller spaces and firms will have to learn to adjust to Big Coworking 
competition.

What do you think?

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Re: [Coworking] Re: Inside The Phenomenal Rise Of WeWork

2014-11-18 Thread Leif Utne
This is awesome. And Alex, I love the restaurant analogy. Reminds me of how
I and many friends wrung our hands when Whole Foods moved into Minneapolis
about 15 years ago, just a couple miles from our beloved Wedge
http://www.wedge.coop/ food coop. As it turned out, rather than taking
business away from the food coops, Whole Foods mostly served as a gateway
drug for suburbanites to try organics, bringing lots of newbies into a
rapidly growing market. Today, the Wedge is one of the largest food coops
in the country by both membership and sales.

On Tue, Nov 18, 2014 at 11:28 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com
 wrote:

  I wrote this in 2011, but my thoughts haven’t changed much:

 http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2011/11/sex-coworking-and-rock-n-roll/

 WeWork is *tiny* compared to Regus (who *employs* nearly 1/4 of the
 headcount that WeWork is aiming for as membership in 2015). And yet we
 laugh at considering Regus a coworking competitor.

 Further, viewing communities as “competitive only makes sense in a
 vacuum. In reality, people choose what suits them. Using the analogy in
 that post, music artists don’t “compete” directly with each other. And to
 use the restaurant analogy from previous posts, a chinese food restaurant
 doesn’t “compete directly with a steakhouse, even though they technically
 serve some of the same ingredients.

 Point being: catch yourselves when huge numbers and eye-popping statistics
 become a distraction from what YOU need to do best, which is support and
 lead YOUR communities.

 -Alex

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 *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.*
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 Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com


 On Tuesday, Nov 18, 2014 at 2:11 PM, Steve King 
 sk...@emergentresearch.com, wrote:

 Tim:

 I did a blog post on this today. Our view is overall this is very good
 news for the entire coworking industry. WeWork is showing coworking is
 rapidly becoming a mainstream workplace alternative for startups,
 independent workers and firms of all sizes. The more broadly this is
 recognized and reported on in the press, the better it is for the overall
 industry.

 We also think there's plenty of room for other players. Even with their
 aggressive growth plans, WeWork is only aiming for 46,000 members in
 2015. This is a tiny share of the potential coworking market. There are
 many millions of potential coworking space members and most are looking for
 spaces offering something different than WeWork is.

 But - and this is a big but - just as big box retail fundamentally
 changed that sector, we think Big Coworking (spaces with many hundreds of
 members) will also have a major impact on coworking and broader
 office-as-a-service industry. Smaller spaces and firms will have to learn
 to adjust to Big Coworking competition.

 What do you think?

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