This. I suspect their actual motivation was always to be a education play, but wisely used the co-working / hackathon angle to generate income while they built

This. I suspect their actual motivation was always to be a education play, but wisely used the co-working / hackathon angle to generate income while they built out the education piece. That said, there's plenty of great places here in NYC to co-work from, so it's probably all for the best.