7 ms·

Ideal co-working space concept

19 points by ajaimk 17y ago

ajaimk 17y ago
My thoughts and ideas regarding an ideal co-working spot for entrepreneurs. It is a little raw, so please comment on any improvements.
- jbrun 17y ago
  Interesting ideas, I work at Station-C.com in Montreal. The main issue I see with your ideas are cost - building something like what you are saying would be very expensive and tough to sell. We have one shower at our place, but I have heard of much larger co-working spaces in Europe and Berlin in particular.
philwelch 17y ago
Hmm. What kind of place can you get coffee, shower, go to bed, take calls in a private room, eat, do laundry, and not have to waste time going home and back again? I think once those requirements are met you might as well live there. Sounds like a hacker house to me. So it would be a better value-add if you just built a walkable, high-density residential community around this theme, since then you wouldn't have to have a residence and a 1 hour commute to worry about. Which is exactly what students and entrepreneurs traditionally do: dorms and garages rather than 1 hour commutes in and out of the suburbs. If it wasn't for brain-dead American urban planning and suburban sprawl this would be more obvious, but the on-campus dorm is closer to what you want to replicate than the coffee shop/sleep tube 1-hour-away-from-home concept. So let's take this residential concept. You could have private kitchens (as well as a public cafeteria) and resell tons of cheap bulk foods as well. Less Starbucks, more Costco. The idea is to encourage frugality, but not at the expense of community. The revenue model is easy--charge rent (and if people who don't live there wanna hang out, that's cool too). Starbucks? That's a money drain.
- rguzman 17y ago
  Yeah, home is pretty good. However, you can't meet random people at home -- granted you may not want to. For me, the ideal working space has the right amount of "human noise" and enough opportunity for social distraction for when I need a break. Secondly, not having to cook a good meal, not having to make your own espresso, and not having to do dishes holds value as well.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    Which is why you'd want to live in a community rather than some kind of antisocial suburban subdivision. Half of my post was about building that kind of community, complete with shared social centers. But with the ability to have a place at home where you can focus and achieve flow. The right model for having someone else fix your meals and coffee is probably closer to a cafeteria than a Starbucks or restaurant. We're talking about a target market that really shouldn't be wasting money.
edw519 17y ago
Even though I'm intrigued by the capsule hotel idea, it sure does look like a kennel for humans.
- ryansloan 17y ago
  I was thinking morgue, but kennel is probably more accurate.
bsaunder 17y ago
Seems like you could cross sell this to some business travelers. Perhaps also up-selling some professional services (legal/design/marketing). Personally I like having separate spaces for work and home. Sounds like a good idea to partner with a Kinkos. Maybe hard to make the numbers work out, but worth looking in to.

19 points by ajaimk 17y ago

My thoughts and ideas regarding an ideal co-working spot for entrepreneurs. It is a little raw, so please comment on any improvements.

jbrun 17y ago
Interesting ideas, I work at Station-C.com in Montreal. The main issue I see with your ideas are cost - building something like what you are saying would be very expensive and tough to sell. We have one shower at our place, but I have heard of much larger co-working spaces in Europe and Berlin in particular.

philwelch 17y ago

Hmm. What kind of place can you get coffee, shower, go to bed, take calls in a private room, eat, do laundry, and not have to waste time going home and back again? I think once those requirements are met you might as well live there. Sounds like a hacker house to me. So it would be a better value-add if you just built a walkable, high-density residential community around this theme, since then you wouldn't have to have a residence and a 1 hour commute to worry about. Which is exactly what students and entrepreneurs traditionally do: dorms and garages rather than 1 hour commutes in and out of the suburbs. If it wasn't for brain-dead American urban planning and suburban sprawl this would be more obvious, but the on-campus dorm is closer to what you want to replicate than the coffee shop/sleep tube 1-hour-away-from-home concept. So let's take this residential concept. You could have private kitchens (as well as a public cafeteria) and resell tons of cheap bulk foods as well. Less Starbucks, more Costco. The idea is to encourage frugality, but not at the expense of community. The revenue model is easy--charge rent (and if people who don't live there wanna hang out, that's cool too). Starbucks? That's a money drain.

rguzman 17y ago
Yeah, home is pretty good. However, you can't meet random people at home -- granted you may not want to. For me, the ideal working space has the right amount of "human noise" and enough opportunity for social distraction for when I need a break. Secondly, not having to cook a good meal, not having to make your own espresso, and not having to do dishes holds value as well.
- philwelch 17y ago
  Which is why you'd want to live in a community rather than some kind of antisocial suburban subdivision. Half of my post was about building that kind of community, complete with shared social centers. But with the ability to have a place at home where you can focus and achieve flow. The right model for having someone else fix your meals and coffee is probably closer to a cafeteria than a Starbucks or restaurant. We're talking about a target market that really shouldn't be wasting money.

edw519 17y ago

Even though I'm intrigued by the capsule hotel idea, it sure does look like a kennel for humans.

ryansloan 17y ago
I was thinking morgue, but kennel is probably more accurate.

bsaunder 17y ago

Seems like you could cross sell this to some business travelers. Perhaps also up-selling some professional services (legal/design/marketing). Personally I like having separate spaces for work and home. Sounds like a good idea to partner with a Kinkos. Maybe hard to make the numbers work out, but worth looking in to.