10 ms·

Someday Worth Billions, but Now, They Need a Desk

33 points by siculars 13y ago

mathattack 13y ago
Yearn for privacy? “Headphones are the new cubicle,” he said.
- danellis 13y ago
  Milk jugs are the new bathrooms.
swayvil 13y ago
This could be optimized. Catheters. Feeding tubes. Keep everybody naked and shaved. Daily sponge baths.
- __--__ 13y ago
  There's no reason to hire extra employees for the sponge baths. Just put a drain in the floor, a shower overhead and a pull cord to activate it. As for the feeding tubes... soylent. :D
keiferski 13y ago
Even in the hot San Francisco market, however, RocketSpace appears to be making a 20 percent premium to current office rental prices, based on its 580 desks, leased by some 130 companies. Mr. Logan, who leases space inside two buildings near the old Pacific Stock Exchange, charges $700 to $800 a month for a “desk,” or table space. Yet another example of "sell shovels, don't dig for gold".
- timr 13y ago
  Yes, and it's out of control. There are at least three different, huge co-working spaces that have popped up near my place. All were formerly businesses that were interesting and useful. Now they're just deadzones of douchebaggery. Not only are these places generally providers of really lame office space (the people who congregate at co-working spaces are often the worst kind of wantrepreneur -- all talk and "hustle" and zero ability to produce anything of value), they drive up the rents for everyone else, drive out street-level retail and other businesses that help make a neighborhood livable, take up parking spaces during the day, and cause an urban flight problem, wherein everyone leaves the neighborhood when the sun goes down. IMO, the city needs to change the zoning laws to make these sorts of office desk sublets harder to produce.
  - beambot 13y ago
    How can people "talk to customers" when they're packed in so closely? The proximity of those desks looks like phone calls would be awful for nearby developers' productivity. Well, it would kill my concentration -- headphones just don't cut it. Even movement in my peripheral vision is distracting (thankfully our cats sleep most of the time!).
    - timr 13y ago
      "How can people "talk to customers" when they're packed in so closely?" Heheh. They're busy talking to you, potential customer and incidental coworker! Seriously: hate these places. Hate.
  - forrestthewoods 13y ago
    "IMO, the city needs to change the zoning laws to make these sorts of office desk sublets harder to produce." The only reason these types of facilities exist is due to outrageous real estate prices caused by extreme regulation. The solution to regulation induced issues is rarely more tiers of regulation.
    - timr 13y ago
      "The only reason these types of facilities exist is due to outrageous real estate prices caused by extreme regulation." Yeah, I was wondering how long it would take before someone corrected me that San Francisco's real estate prices were due to our zoning laws. Kudos to you for not disappointing me. Now that you mention it, I'm sure that our real estate prices are indeed a byproduct of the evil, evil guv'ment, and have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that this is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
      - simonebrunozzi 13y ago
        Rents are a result of demand and offer. San Francisco has seen an incredible raise in rent costs, because more and more people (with money, evidently) want to move to SF (from elsewhere in the country, or from the South Bay).
- colmvp 13y ago
  > Charges $700 to $800 a month for a “desk" Wow. Not even the Hub charges that much and IMO, the Hub has a far better community and workspace.
  - potatolicious 13y ago
    The Hub has a better community because it has set criteria on who gets to rent desks there, which seem to generally boil down to "do good". This doesn't describe most startups. Most startups wouldn't be able to work out of the Hub unless rules were bent so far you'd risk creating a black hole. I worked out of RocketSpace for a while while the company I worked for was still shopping for offices in SF. Nice space, good location, lots of room. I trialed some other coworking spaces and found them wanting - extremely short supply of dedicated desks or poor locations (two were in the glorious section of SOMA where you'd get to play dodge-the-crackhead at all hours of the day). Space was good, amenities were good, location was convenient, just pricey. Culturally though somewhat wanting, but that seems par for the course when is comes to modern startups, coworking space or no. A lot of people who are perennially there but you never see them launch anything. A lot of parties after hours where you'd meet hear the most disingenuous pitches known to mankind. If I can count the number of times I've been pitched to join someone's hot startup that's going to be "worth $1bn a year from now!" while I was working out of that space... Now that I think of it, I have a pretty cynical view about startup culture that probably traces mostly back to that place. Ah well, the offices were genuinely pretty nice, we got a lot of work done there before the actual office firmed up.
cpursley 13y ago
Pure insanity.
SF_Tech_PR 13y ago
Have to comment anonymously, as I still work in PR. Quentin has a reputation for being easily pitched by PR people... and well, you can see for yourself: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/quentin_hardy/index.html http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h... Stories that are just pitched by flacks, and written up. This "trend" piece reeks of the same.
kakali 13y ago
My $100 Hacker Dojo membership sounds like a steal in comparison to their rates.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
richardjordan 13y ago
Well this is what you get for wanting to live in the cool city. I get that more and more startup activity has moved up from the valley to the city but you also get far more of the folks with money to burn who want to play entrepreneur who sit around these places chatting with each other more than doing anything. Down the peninsula we have the hacker dojo for a $100 per month membership with great space and a nice atmosphere. Very rarely do you have to put up with overly loud frat boys playing entrepreneur for show.
edandersen 13y ago
> “Headphones are the new cubicle,” he said. What will be next to go?
peterjancelis 13y ago
You could live and bootstrap from SE Asia for the $700-$800 rent that's being charged for 1 desk. You are making your money on the internet[1], leverage it into not paying premiums for location based stuff... [1] Of course, this is the step that may be lacking for a lot of companies that pay these kinds of rents.
- heartbreak 13y ago
  You could live and bootstrap in SE USA for that rent too...no sense moving across the planet.
  - eru 13y ago
    Oh, but the food is better here.

33 points by siculars 13y ago

mathattack 13y ago

Yearn for privacy? “Headphones are the new cubicle,” he said.

danellis 13y ago
Milk jugs are the new bathrooms.

swayvil 13y ago

This could be optimized. Catheters. Feeding tubes. Keep everybody naked and shaved. Daily sponge baths.

__--__ 13y ago
There's no reason to hire extra employees for the sponge baths. Just put a drain in the floor, a shower overhead and a pull cord to activate it. As for the feeding tubes... soylent. :D

keiferski 13y ago

Even in the hot San Francisco market, however, RocketSpace appears to be making a 20 percent premium to current office rental prices, based on its 580 desks, leased by some 130 companies. Mr. Logan, who leases space inside two buildings near the old Pacific Stock Exchange, charges $700 to $800 a month for a “desk,” or table space. Yet another example of "sell shovels, don't dig for gold".

timr 13y ago
Yes, and it's out of control. There are at least three different, huge co-working spaces that have popped up near my place. All were formerly businesses that were interesting and useful. Now they're just deadzones of douchebaggery. Not only are these places generally providers of really lame office space (the people who congregate at co-working spaces are often the worst kind of wantrepreneur -- all talk and "hustle" and zero ability to produce anything of value), they drive up the rents for everyone else, drive out street-level retail and other businesses that help make a neighborhood livable, take up parking spaces during the day, and cause an urban flight problem, wherein everyone leaves the neighborhood when the sun goes down. IMO, the city needs to change the zoning laws to make these sorts of office desk sublets harder to produce.
- beambot 13y ago
  How can people "talk to customers" when they're packed in so closely? The proximity of those desks looks like phone calls would be awful for nearby developers' productivity. Well, it would kill my concentration -- headphones just don't cut it. Even movement in my peripheral vision is distracting (thankfully our cats sleep most of the time!).
  - timr 13y ago
    "How can people "talk to customers" when they're packed in so closely?" Heheh. They're busy talking to you, potential customer and incidental coworker! Seriously: hate these places. Hate.
- forrestthewoods 13y ago
  "IMO, the city needs to change the zoning laws to make these sorts of office desk sublets harder to produce." The only reason these types of facilities exist is due to outrageous real estate prices caused by extreme regulation. The solution to regulation induced issues is rarely more tiers of regulation.
  - timr 13y ago
    "The only reason these types of facilities exist is due to outrageous real estate prices caused by extreme regulation." Yeah, I was wondering how long it would take before someone corrected me that San Francisco's real estate prices were due to our zoning laws. Kudos to you for not disappointing me. Now that you mention it, I'm sure that our real estate prices are indeed a byproduct of the evil, evil guv'ment, and have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that this is one of the most densely populated cities in the world.
    - simonebrunozzi 13y ago
      Rents are a result of demand and offer. San Francisco has seen an incredible raise in rent costs, because more and more people (with money, evidently) want to move to SF (from elsewhere in the country, or from the South Bay).
colmvp 13y ago
> Charges $700 to $800 a month for a “desk" Wow. Not even the Hub charges that much and IMO, the Hub has a far better community and workspace.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  The Hub has a better community because it has set criteria on who gets to rent desks there, which seem to generally boil down to "do good". This doesn't describe most startups. Most startups wouldn't be able to work out of the Hub unless rules were bent so far you'd risk creating a black hole. I worked out of RocketSpace for a while while the company I worked for was still shopping for offices in SF. Nice space, good location, lots of room. I trialed some other coworking spaces and found them wanting - extremely short supply of dedicated desks or poor locations (two were in the glorious section of SOMA where you'd get to play dodge-the-crackhead at all hours of the day). Space was good, amenities were good, location was convenient, just pricey. Culturally though somewhat wanting, but that seems par for the course when is comes to modern startups, coworking space or no. A lot of people who are perennially there but you never see them launch anything. A lot of parties after hours where you'd meet hear the most disingenuous pitches known to mankind. If I can count the number of times I've been pitched to join someone's hot startup that's going to be "worth $1bn a year from now!" while I was working out of that space... Now that I think of it, I have a pretty cynical view about startup culture that probably traces mostly back to that place. Ah well, the offices were genuinely pretty nice, we got a lot of work done there before the actual office firmed up.

cpursley 13y ago

Pure insanity.

SF_Tech_PR 13y ago

Have to comment anonymously, as I still work in PR. Quentin has a reputation for being easily pitched by PR people... and well, you can see for yourself: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/quentin_hardy/index.html http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h... Stories that are just pitched by flacks, and written up. This "trend" piece reeks of the same.

kakali 13y ago

My $100 Hacker Dojo membership sounds like a steal in comparison to their rates.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

richardjordan 13y ago

Well this is what you get for wanting to live in the cool city. I get that more and more startup activity has moved up from the valley to the city but you also get far more of the folks with money to burn who want to play entrepreneur who sit around these places chatting with each other more than doing anything. Down the peninsula we have the hacker dojo for a $100 per month membership with great space and a nice atmosphere. Very rarely do you have to put up with overly loud frat boys playing entrepreneur for show.

edandersen 13y ago

> “Headphones are the new cubicle,” he said. What will be next to go?

peterjancelis 13y ago

You could live and bootstrap from SE Asia for the $700-$800 rent that's being charged for 1 desk. You are making your money on the internet[1], leverage it into not paying premiums for location based stuff... [1] Of course, this is the step that may be lacking for a lot of companies that pay these kinds of rents.

heartbreak 13y ago
You could live and bootstrap in SE USA for that rent too...no sense moving across the planet.
- eru 13y ago
  Oh, but the food is better here.