WeWork and City of San José

Building on-ramps to opportunity

We know that the prosperity of our city and valley has come from being open to innovation and opportunity — to creating spaces where anyone can have an idea and allow it to take root and grow. When WeWork planned to expand into San José’s downtown core, we nurtured a partnership with them to ensure that the next generation of San José entrepreneurs can also prosper in our city. We see this partnership as a way to support innovators who are already making a difference in our community, regardless of their background.

Only 5% of tech executives in San José’s tech companies are Latino, despite 33% of San José’s overall population being Latino. The diversity issue has changed little over time, with the percentage of Latinos in the entrepreneurial and venture capital labor pool staying consistent at 2 percent, and women at 8 percent, from 1990 to 2016, despite gains in STEM and business school degrees over the same period.

We want to help these hometown entrepreneurs thrive in Silicon Valley. We believe they can bring a fresh perspective to businesses with the potential to have meaningful exits. As Mayor Sam Liccardo said at the ceremonial ribbon-cutting on February 15, 2019, “We need a Valley for all. One solution is to provide greater access for all.”

Mayor Liccardo at the WeWork partnership launch event.

At this opening, WeWork and the City of San José officially announced a partnership that includes 10% discounted desk space in WeWork Labs’ new facility for minority and female entrepreneurs. The aim is to encourage more small to mid-sized entrepreneurs to create innovative businesses in San José. We know this small step won’t solve the whole problem, but we want to encourage a more diverse set of entrepreneurs to thrive in San José This initiative will be housed in California’s first WeWork Labs, an innovation platform that supports early-stage startups and corporations seeking to transform their industries. Located in the River Park Tower at 333 West San Carlos Street, this is WeWork’s second space in San José.

Some of the fabulous working spaces in WeWork’s new San José location.

Another key component of the partnership between WeWork and the City includes support for local technology related initiatives and non-profits. San José is the first city in the country to pledge to close its digital divide in the next decade. San José’s Digital Inclusion Fund aims to connect 50,000 households in San José to the internet and and provide digital skills training to low-income children and families, the elderly, and the disabled. To support this ambitious effort, WeWork will provide a fully sponsored desk/office space for the local Program Director, which will be administered by the California Emerging Technology Fund. By dedicating this space in the heart of downtown, the City will ensure that someone on-the-ground is directly connected to our community and can oversee appropriate disbursement of funds to help close the digital divide in San José. We are also excited that this partnership will provide two years of dedicated work space for winners of the Unleash Your Geek initiative, where residents create technology solutions for civic challenges.

We hope this partnership serves as a model to other cities and private partners as a new way to co-create value for the public good. We also hope incubators, accelerators, VCs and corporate innovators will be inspired to join us to make a difference in San José.

For Accelerators, Incubators and VCs — Supporting and Building the Startup Ecosystem, Together

• WeWork Labs serves as a platform to a growing number of forward-thinking organizations, partnering with local incubators, accelerators, and VCs to help create innovative hubs that provide holistic, lasting support to startups throughout their journey.
• The platform opens doors to a number of partners, investors and vendors to help members grow, raise capital, and build brand awareness.
• WeWork Labs works with industry-leading tech communities like Techstars and forward-thinking university partners like Georgetown Ventures and Columbia Startup Labs, utilizing the programming and operational support to create a robust experience for startups centered around programming, events, and community-building in a collaborative workspace.

For Corporate Innovators: Powering the Next Generation of Innovation

• WeWork Labs sits at the nexus of corporate-startup collaboration, working with large enterprises seeking to transform their industries. Thirty percent of Fortune 500 companies are WeWork members, creating the unique opportunity to connect startups and entrepreneurs directly with large organizations around the world.
• The collaboration with corporations will provide a global platform for startups to incubate their ideas, develop and actualize their corporate innovation strategies through operational coaching, concept ideation, and pilot testing — bridging the gap between corporations and startups as they explore new opportunities to innovate their business.

Thank you so much to our partners for their commitment to supporting the next generation of technology and innovation in our city, and to support our efforts to close the digital divide! We invite you to their upcoming launch event this coming Tuesday May 7: How Silicon Valley Has Shaped the Landscape of Global Entrepreneurship.