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My experience with on-demand co-working started a bit rocky, but I’m excited about the possibilities! Here’s what happened when I became a member of Croissant co-working over the past year.
The Backstory
About a year ago, I decided to break out of the San Francisco tech rat race, and give my business idea a shot. I was fresh off of releasing an online course about Chrome Developer Tools that was actually starting to make some real money, so I was pretty high on the idea that I could build things that people would pay for.
So I put in notice at my company TINT, and decided to give it a go. Of course the team was sad to see me go, but Tim Sae Koo the CEO was excited that I would be taking the plunge into entrepreneurial world.
Online teaching, while successful for me, was not really an end-game. I knew that I could make some incremental profits, but I had something bigger in mind. I would build a website for game developers that would make it incredibly easy to put their games on the web.
After doing a little bit of research I found a co-working space specifically for game developers in San Francisco called GameNest. I liked the idea of getting out of the little bubble of my home office, and actually working with indie game developers.
Honestly it was great. It was a welcoming community and I got a chance to pitch my idea around and learn from people around me.
Sadly, about 3 months in to my tenure at GameNest, I found out that the people who run the space were coming to the end of their lease, and the landlord wanted to double their rent. The space ended up closing, and I was back to working out of my home office every day.
The Wifi (and Poop) Problem
At this point, I had found a decent solution for getting out of my house, I would work out of POPOS (privately owned public open spaces).
While the idea was alluring there were two problems: access to great wifi, and the fact that I needed to completely pack up every time I needed to go poop.
Giving Croissant a Try
Back at my tenure at TINT, I had remembered that a remote co-worker of mine, Brad Singley, working out of NYC, had suggested that I check out Croissant co-working. They didn’t require long-term commitments, so I decided to sign up for their “Creator” plan.
I only needed to get out of my home office occasionally, so the mid-tier plan worked for me. I also liked the idea of the five “guest” hours so that I could occasionally invite friends to join me.
A Rocky Start
The first day I decided to go check out a space with my friend Tony Lownds who was also working remote for a very small business-card startup called Brandly. Croissant had a bunch of spaces available and we settled on checking out The Payne Mansion hotel.
When we got there, it honestly was a bit of a disappointment. There was a small cafe in the back where we stopped and asked about the Croissant co-working space. The barista didn’t really know what we were talking about so he radioed up to his manager, then said “Have a seat, you’re in the co-working space!” He was also kind enough to offer us some free coffee.
While the space was quite nice (and the Wifi was great!), to me, the idea of paying hourly to sit in a hotel lobby was kind of silly. I could probably get away with this at just about any hotel in SF for free.
So at lunchtime we signed out of the app and grabbed some grub. We then decided to relocate to another space called The BirdNest.
The space was also a bit quirky, but an interesting concept. Apparently BirdNest had rented out a restaurant called Hazel during their off hours (9–5), and had set up appropriate plugs and solid wifi.
Here, the woman at the front knew about Croissant, but didn’t understand the concept of guest hours on the app. Eventually she let us in and gave us a light sales pitch about Birdnest co-working. They had free coffee, tea, and water, and it was actually a pretty pleasant place to work.
As a quick note: BirdNest and Payne Mansion are no longer available on the Croissant App.
Things got much better!
I was definitely unsure about whether Croissant would meet my needs at this point, but I still had a bunch of hours left, so why not try a few new spaces?
The following week I had an appointment over in Oakland, so I decided to try out OakStop for a few hours:
This space was a lot closer to what I had in mind as a co-working space. It had plenty of plugs and decent wifi, and there was a front desk that immediately knew about the Croissant app. It was also great to have a workspace available across the bay where I could get in a few hours before my meeting.
Over the next couple of weeks I visited a few other spaces that definitely met my needs. Most (if not all) were semi-private and offered good wifi and bathrooms.
Back to the Grind & Rollover Hours
About six or seven months into my entrepreneurial stint (and about two months after joining Croissant), I realized that it is damn hard to pay San Francisco rent and try to bootstrap a business. So I decided to do some contracting at a previous employer four days a week. The goal there was to get them trained up on some old code I wrote, so it was most effective for me to work out of their offices.
At this point I had about 50 hours available in my Croissant account. Because my contracting gig was planned to be six months or less, I decided not to cancel my Croissant account, but to change to their lowest-tier offering, the Explorer plan. Thankfully they had a pretty generous rollover plan that allowed me to keep most of my hours.
The rollover hours definitely came in handy about three months into my contracting gig.
I live in San Francisco, but my wife works near Berkeley (and commutes with my one-year-old boy to daycare). She had gone on a business trip and I was left figuring out how to drop of my son at day care and work my contracting job.
It turns out Croissant offered a few co-working spaces in Berkeley, so I was able to drop off my son and work for the day without commuting back into the city.
The space was called NextSpace in Berkeley:
It was not a bad little spot and they had some nice privacy rooms where I was able to Skype with my co-workers. Additionally they invited me to a gathering that they were having after hours (but I could not attend because of my little boy).
A hybrid approach
Now that my bank account is padded a little bit, I’m back to working full-time on my business. I’m still working though my rollover hours and occasionally using Croissant.
I’ve been mostly working out of Impact Hub in SF:
It’s a really great workspace (with a back yard) but on a pretty shitty block in SF near 16th and Mission BART.
I’ve also been doing a lot of work out of the UCSF Library (outside of Croissant). They have great views and decent wifi, but the desks are not that ergonomic and I still have to pack up all of my stuff to go poop.
I’ve also been using Covo and Workshop Cafe (which are on the Croissant app):
The nice thing about Covo and Workshop Cafe is that these spaces also offer hourly rates. This will be a great option if I burn through all my Croissant hours in a month.
Additionally these two venues also offer food and drink (beer and wine at Covo!). That’s nice because if I want to camp out for a full day I don’t even need to burn an hour going out for lunch.
A Phone Call with Croissant
One thing also worth noting is that one of the founders of Croissant scheduled a thirty minute phone call with me about my experience. I spoke Nisha Garigarn and she was pretty eager to hear about what I was working on and how I was using the service. They’re out of NYC and are growing their business to a whole bunch of locations worldwide.
I mentioned to her about my initial experience and a few other nits (slow wifi at one of the spaces), and it sounds like they’re totally open to improving and expanding the service.
My Overall Opinion
Overall, I’m totally digging my experience with Croissant. It has given me an opportunity to get out of the house without renting an expensive office. I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with a friend using my guest hours, and the flexibility to visit various locations around the Bay Area. I also like that it’s month-to-month with no deposit or long-term commitment.
Combined with using a few free workspaces like the UCSF library and various coffee shops, Croissant is a cost effective way to get out of the house and not go stir crazy.
Here’s the link to get your first week free and $20/off your first month.
I hope you enjoyed this article! If you did, I’d appreciate a tweet, a “clap” or a follow :-).
