0 WeWork Plans Café Across from South Station in Boston

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bostinno.Streetwise.co

Café owners lookout; a new provider is opening up with its own customer base. WeWork continues to forge ahead and cater to the customer by offering additional services at street level The latest venue is a Café’, by no sense is this a new concept, but it is if you are in the temporary office space business. This fulfills two goals; first more services to its existing customer base. Second; a street level presence to attract new customers. Banking has also seen this in Café 360 by Capital One.

Bostinno.StreetWise.co is reporting a “Small scoop here: In the midst of a Boston expansion, WeWork has also taken street-level retail space in the Hub. The company plans to open a coffee shop at 745 Atlantic Ave., a few floors below its shared workspace in the same building…This sets up a potential barista duel for the hearts and minds of downtown Boston’s startup set. Cambridge Innovation Center, another shared workspace, is also developing a café project on the ground floor of its 60,000-square-foot Boston facility at 50 Milk Street. CIC’s founder and chief executive, Tim Rowe, demurred about a date for its opening.”

The full article details WeWork’s cafe project as well as how it fits in with its larger corporate strategy. You can read it on Bostinno.Streetwise.

1 Greater Boston Co-Working Office Spaces Get Boost

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

Co-working won’t change the need for companies to have office, but rather it will bring those that are in home offices and garages into a dynamic environment.

The BBJ is indicating that Bostonians are likely to “see a surge in co-working spaces around Massachusetts thanks to funds made available to residents in select cities across Massachusetts. The spaces, which typically feature a variety of entrepreneurs in shared office space that doesn’t require a long-term lease, have become such a big part of the Greater Boston’s startup scene. But new grants available to entrepreneurs in Massachusetts’ 28 Gateway Cities— from Everett and Worcester to Fall River — aim to spread the concept of co-working spaces beyond Boston, Cambridge and Somerville.”

You can view the full article on the Boston Business Journal, here.

0 Boston Ranks 2nd in Tech Employment, VC Funding

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Wil Catlin

office space on JFK blvd in Cambridge MA

Office building at 30 John F Kennedy Boulevard, Cambridge

The greater Boston market is strong for tech jobs and VC funding into tech company. When clients as why the rapid rent growth from 2010 to now? Supply and demand to the absorption by venture backed tech companies.

According to a report in the Boston Business Journal, “Boston with its more than 145,000 tech jobs trails only Silicon Valley in terms of total high-tech employment, noting that Greater Boston experienced a 4.3 percent growth in high-tech jobs over the year. Silicon Valley had year-over-year tech-related job growth of 5.2 percent and employed a little over 213,000 people in the industry, the report noted. But the results aren’t much of a change from last year’s report, which stated that the Boston area was No. 2 in terms of tech jobs and No. 4 in venture funding…The Boston area also scored big in venture funding during the second quarter of this year, accumulating a total of $441.6 million in funding during the time period, according to the report. San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Manhattan all snagged more venture capital funding than the Boston area.”

The full article is available on the BBJ website.

0 FinTech Program for Burgeoning Boston Financial Services Startups

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Entrepreneurs: do you have an idea focused on the Financial Services sector? Look no further, Fidelity and Amazon would like to help back fledgling Boston startups through a new program, tagged the Fintech Sandbox.

A Boston Globe editorial highlights the target:

“Fintech entrepreneurs have a unique problem, which is the high cost of data to help them build applications,” said David Jegen, managing director of Devonshire Investors, the private investment arm of the Johnson family, which controls Fidelity. “They raise $2 million of venture capital funding, and then spend $500,000 of it buying market data from Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters. Or they show up to customers, who say, ‘Nice app, but it hasn’t been tested on robust data sets.’ We think that is a problem we can help solve.”

0 Suburban Offices Fight the Trend Downtown

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Boston Business Journal

Where should you locate your company office? Most groups I speak with are trying to provide an option that accommodates multiple solutions; easy access from public transportation, amenity rich environment, vibrant workforce and economically feasible.

This doesn’t mean that groups are flocking to the vacant office buildings on 495, but rather looking inside of 128 and more specifically within areas serviced by the Red Line. New hotspots for the emerging tech firms are surrounding the Broadway T stop. This caters to the young workforce residing in South Boston, the commuter coming in from Metro West combined with those either driving or relying on public transit from the South Shore. This area is generally priced in the mid $20’s PSF unlike the Seaport which would price in the upper $30’s to low $40’s for a comparable Class B building.

From the BBJ:

“Some suburban companies are moving to Cambridge and there’s all the buzz about the Seaport District,” said Garry Holmes, president of R.W. Holmes Realty Co. in Wayland. “We’re also seeing the same people who worked at EMC and live in the suburbs launching startups. And they’re convinced the in-vogue thing to do for hiring is to have an office in Seaport. As a result, lots of those startups are bypassing the suburbs and it’s having an impact out here.”

The full article is available on the Boston Business Journal.

0 Boston Residents: Text In Your Choice to Fill Storefront Vacancies

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Wil Catlin

This is a very interesting idea. I would love to see the results and read the texters’ suggestions; I imagine they would likely differ from the residents of the community. Either way, a great reach out program.

Credit: Boston.com

According to Boston.com, city officials are looking to use crowdsourcing to “help reduce the number and duration of business vacancies, increase community involvement, and promote innovation, according to municipal workers spearheading the pilot program.”

Back bay commercial space at 360 Newbury St. in Boston

360 Newbury Street

We’re using our Twitter feed (@bradviors) to garner opinions on what you’d like to see occupy 360 Newbury Street.

Tweet your suggestions using #360Newbury in your message.

You can see the responses here: 360 Newbury Street

0 Cambridge Co-working Office Space Sends Five Entrepreneurs to Shark Tank

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Wil Catlin

Workbar, coworking space in Cambridge MA

Credit: BBJ

Co-working office spaces continue to create a platform where innovative ideas can turn into companies. Yes, I’m a fan of Shark Tank and I love how the show boils a product pitch down to five minutes from pitch to investment.

Reporting on the local angle on the show, the BBJ notes that “entrepreneurs drove from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to pitch their business ideas at Cambridge co-working space Workbar on Thursday in hopes of getting national exposure on ABC’s Shark Tank…About 100 people were standing in line an hour before pitches started.

The growing interest and relevance of co-working office space in Cambridge is beneficial to both the entrepreneurs, who will spur future growth, as well as the environment and infrastructure that surrounds it.

For details on the five selected entrepreneurs, read the full article on the Boston Business Journal.