Hacking Your Way Through Coworking
A quick guide to finding your ideal shared workspace
If you’re any way involved in today’s startup scene, you’ve probably spent time in a shared office environment, also known as coworking. The general idea is that a coworking company secures an office space, sets up an open space floor plan, and then rents out monthly access — either to individuals or small teams.
The concept of coworking isn’t necessarily new; some players, like Regus, have been running this game for decades. But in the past five years, a new generation of coworking companies has sprouted up in every major city. They are often redesigned loft spaces, with Instagram-worthy furniture, staff right out of American Apparel ads, and hyped-up networking events.
Even more important than the aesthetics is that coworking has dropped the middle man from the office space equation. Entrepreneurs are beginning to consult directly with sales reps at coworking hubs instead of finding space to lease through real estate professionals. And let’s not forget, the benefits of coworking run the gamut and include increased productivity, access to amenities, flexibility, cost savings, and potential for networking.
The growth potential of this coworking market is significant, as we’ve learned from the leaked financial deck from WeWork — the biggest player of the bunch. The industry is banking, literally, on more and more companies and people opting for non-traditional office settings over the next few years. With this in mind, expect to see greater complexity and options as more coworking spots spring up to compete in the market.
As someone who has bounced around various coworking spaces in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Singapore, and now Berlin, I can offer a few tricks for those who are new to the coworking world. It’s helpful to treat the exercise of finding the ideal space like a hackathon: involve your entire team, put a burst of effort into the search, don’t let the project drag out, and encourage creative solutions and compromises. None of these are ironclad rules, and most have a high degree of personal preference involved. However, if nothing else, being aware of them will ensure that you and your team won’t be flying blind in an ever-changing market.
Research your options
First, before you start racing around, go ahead and make a spreadsheet with information about each coworking location in your area. You can generally find a website or blog post covering the major spots in a particular city. While it’s easy to stop your research here, be aware that there are new facilities launching every month, and you might find a newcomer ready to give you plenty of perks in exchange for your early business.
Once you’ve compiled your list, visit each location’s website to collect and fill in more details. You’ll want to note such items as: neighborhood, price per person (both for a private office and desks in an open area), discounts when your team grows to a certain size, conference room hours per month, and any included bonuses, such as free printing, networking events, and coffee. You’ll be happy that you’ve got all this information in one place.
Narrow it down
Gather your team around and eliminate any spots based on location. Remember, in order to get your money’s worth, you’ll want to frequent your coworking space every day. Paying a bit more for a prime site is often worth it. Of course, sometimes this gets tricky with team members that live in different locations, so keep subway locations in mind and consider which team members will be present in the coworking space most often. You can also factor in potential customers and partners who are nearby the space, which prevents you from burning entire afternoons on travel when you have meetings.
You should also put some thought into whether you want your team’s desk space in a private office or open work space. If you’re flexible about who sits where, it might be wise to request desks for half the team in a small private office and the other half in the open work space. This allows your team to treat the office as a meeting room for important calls instead of vying with the whole coworking space for precious conference room time at a moment’s notice.
Test the waters
When you get down to your remaining prospective locations, email each one and ask if you and a team member can get free day passes to check them out. If you can’t secure an entire day, do your best to get at least a few hours so you can work on site. This is an important request and it always surprises me how many times I hear of a company onboarding at a co-working space without spending any time actually doing work there. It’s easy to get caught up on the vibe — wall graffiti, slick couches, and espresso machines are great, but they can’t make up for slow wifi.
Review the experience
Once you’ve spent some time working at a space, you’ll have plenty more information to add to your spreadsheet. Be sure to ask some follow-up questions about your experience. Here are a some examples:
Is there excess seating capacity on a typical day? How’s the overall noise level in the open areas? Can you pick the exact desk and/or office spot? Do they have private telephone booths that you can jump into without reserving in advance? Is the temperature level too hot or cold? If you have a guest from out of town visit, what are the policies for letting them work there for the day? Can you negotiate for a free month if you commit to a longer contract? What’s your opt-out notice? Are they just opening their doors and would you be one of their first tenants?
About that last one: Be cautious about them working out their kinks while you’re paying rent. On the other hand, the newly opened places are trying as fast as they can to get seats filled, so you also might be able to get an original tenant discount.
The final verdict
Based on what you find with this exercise, go through and give each location a rating on your spreadsheet. You’ll probably start to see a winner emerge from the pack. Further, by involving your team, everyone should be on board with the decision, knowing that some compromises were part of the process.
Again, co-working is still an emerging market, so expect to see prices change regularly, perks added and subtracted, and new players pop up. If you keep your ear to the ground, know what’s important versus what’s fluff, and in general, take advantage of the market not being established yet, you can often put your team into a much better work environment without breaking the bank.
Happy hunting, future coworkers!
