Credit: BBJ
Your phone provider could be your new office landlord. Verizon is dipping into the market by converting former telecommunication space to office space and partnering with Alley to run it.
From Bizjournals.com:
“Alley, powered by Verizon,” the new membership-only, 10,000-square-foot space in Cambridge is scheduled to open at the end of June at 10 Ware St. The facility served as a central office for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) that previously housed network and telecommunications equipment.
Credit: Bisnow
Some tenants now use a model where they lease less space and rely instead on on-demand conference room and meeting space. This model changes the square foot requirements per office worker, and has become a great resource for small to mid-sized office tenants.
From Bisnow:
These shared office spaces provide “temporary meeting space, conference rooms and event space to companies that would traditionally have leased or rented that space through their landlord. The goal is to offer employers a temporary solution on a need-by-need basis, giving office occupiers more flexibility to pursue cost-saving initiatives such as shrinking their square footage.”
One of the reasons these third-party space providers are gaining popularity within the industry is because they offer more than mere space — they provide hospitality services and create an experience that users would not otherwise get.
Credit: Built in Boston
Reflecting back before looking forward, Built in Boston notes, “in 2016, Boston’s tech sector flourished, with startups maturing alongside the city’s legacy industries while a steady trickle of venture capital poured into industries like edtech, food-tech, fintech, digital media and healthtech…”
Click through to Built in Boston article to view its list of 50 start-ups in Boston to watch in 2017.
Credit: Boston Globe
What are we know for in Massachusetts? Innovative ideas. Among our peers, Massachusetts ranks number one. Why is that, well a number of reasons; we have:
From the BBJ:
According to Bloomberg, California scored behind Massachusetts, “which gained ground by churning out more science and engineering graduates and producing jobs in those industries even though it had less technology company density than in 2015,” according to the data compiled by Bloomberg.
Credit: Techvibes
Breather is on an aggressive growth mode with a closing on a $40 million dollar round led by Menlo Venture in participation with Valar Ventures, RRE Ventures, Slow Ventures and Real Ventures. The team of Justin Harlow, Bonny Doorakian, Robert LeClair and Wil Catlin is handling their Boston expansion.
From Techvibes:
“Breather has tapped into a real need in the workplace. There hasn’t been a company of its kind offering spaces on-demand,” said Venky Ganesan, Managing Director of Menlo Ventures. “Breather has a tremendous vision to connect the world’s spaces and make them accessible to all.”
Breather has no membership fees or long-term contracts. Instead, the company offers workspaces on a pay-per-use basis through the company’s proprietary app.
Never had this crossed my mind, the social do’s and don’ts of Co-Working and its larger implications.
Credit: New York Times
From the NY Times:
To get a glimpse of what manners will be like in the office of the future, it behooves us to look at co-working spaces, those offices peopled by freelancers or by workers who have different employers. Many sources predict that by 2020, half of the work force will be freelance.
One theory of etiquette holds that manners are best in communities with fixed populations: If you know that you’ll see Tina again tomorrow (and Tuesday and Wednesday), you’re less likely to surreptitiously scarf down the rest of the half-eaten boysenberry yogurt she left in the office fridge, because daily exposure to her yogurt-based wistfulness will start to gnaw at you, and ultimately turn you into a Munch painting.
WeWork
It is clear, Co-working is a valuable resource when launching a company. Depending on, in part your age, or size of your company, shared space is by far changing the traditional office environment. No longer are we a society of cubes and offices; we now have huddle rooms, phone booths, collaboration stations and quiet spaces.
There’s a variety of co-working options and environments available to applicable enterprises; for instances, at WeWork businesses can receive the following:
HOT DESK
A shared workspace in a common area. When you purchase a Hot Desk, there is no need to reserve a particular workspace in advance each day; you can come and go as needed and use any available desk.
This plan includes access to our digital Member Network, events, and services, 24/7 keycard access at your home location, as well as 2 monthly credits for reserving workspaces and conference rooms.
DEDICATED DESK
An assigned desk space in a large open area shared with other members. This dedicated space comes with a lockable filing cabinet for your personal belongings. Desktops may be set up and left overnight. This plan includes access to our digital Member Network, events, and services, 24/7 keycard access at your home location, as well as 5 monthly credits for reserving workspaces and conference rooms.
PRIVATE OFFICE
A fully enclosed, lockable office space. Your company can add on more offices as you grow. This plan includes access to our digital Member Network, events, and services, 24/7 keycard access at your home location, as well as monthly credits for reserving workspaces and conference rooms that correlate with your office size (minimum of 12 credits for a 1 person office).
You can read more on the Daily Free press website.
Staples will be offering far more than office supplies; they’re now also providing office space. Yes, the new rollout will allow you to have office space where you buy supplies.
What they have:
The real question: do I want my clients to visit me at Staples?
According to a press release, Staples will be opening up communal workspaces at three locations in the Greater Boston area.
The migration from “Me Space” to “We Space” will continue as employers accommodate flex time and independent working. At PwC the North American worker had 176 less personal pace in 2012 versus 2010.
Credit: FastCompany
According to a recent article on FastCompany.com, “Companies like WeWork, which offers small offices within a shared community of workers on a monthly basis and recently raised funding at a $16 billion valuation, have helped building owners adapt as the renting of vast swaths of cubicle farms in three- or five-year increments falls out of style. But as these real estate developers have watched WeWork rise, they’re looking for ways to more directly tap into the trends that have made the company so successful. “When you look at the growth of, for example, the coworking companies, it’s clear that long-term leases with little flexibility are probably not entirely the way of the future,” says Deborah Boyer, EVP and director of asset management for the SWIG Company, which owns almost 9 million square feet of real estate. Some real estate companies have developed their own prebuilt spaces to accommodate growing companies. Others have partnered with WeWork to design entire buildings with a new type of work in mind.”
You can read the full article on Fast Company’s website.
Credit: Bisnow
Yes, you can. The devil is in the details, and at some point when your head count gets above a certain level you will want to create your own company culture.
From Bisnow:
Over just the past couple of years, we’ve watched modern co-working become a multibillion-dollar industry, seemingly right under our noses. WeWork’s now valued well into the 11-digit range, and attempts to jump into the fray are everywhere, from in-house shared space provided by companies like Silverstein Properties, to small operations popping up outside of traditional office districts. But if part of the point of co-working spaces is to help small companies grow, what happens when they do?
The answer: they evolve and develop an internal culture to reflect its products and corporate values.