0 Shared Office Space Continues to Grow

Posted on April 9, 2016 by Wil Catlin

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.

0 Boston’s Big Corporations Tap into Shared Startup Office Space

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Wil Catlin

WeWork South Station shared office space

Credit: BBJ

Why do Liberty Mutual, Silicon Valley Bank (Nasdaq: SIVB) and IBM (NYSE: IBM), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Constant Contact (Nasdaq: CTCT) take temporary office space form providers like Work Bar and WeWork? In short, management wants certain aspects of these business to think like a startup and not like a lumbering giant.

From the Boston Business Journal:

“It allows us to get (access) to new ideas and new talent,” said Sandeep Gupta, a vice president and head of innovation at Liberty Mutual. “You can do that pretty easily just rubbing shoulders in the hallway.”

Liberty Mutual’s entrance into WeWork this fall coincided with the launch of the Solaria team. The incubator has a broad mandate: developing new products and services with “transformational potential,” that may or may not have anything to do with insurance.

At the moment, the company has two offices in WeWork that can fit a combined 32 people. Right now, the rooms are home to about a dozen Liberty Mutual employees and members of two startups, end-of-life planning company Cake and drone maker Xactsense. Liberty Mutual offers the companies free space, as well as human resources and other types of support, while the startups offer advice and connections in two areas of keen interest to the insurer.

0 WeWork Gains Traction in Boston and Beyond

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Wil Catlin

Credit: BBJ

What would it be like to leave your office and work at WeWork?

WeWork is an American company which provides shared workspace, community, and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers, startups and small businesses. WeWork designs and builds physical and virtual communities[6] in which entrepreneurs share space and office services and have the opportunity to work together.[7] The company’s 30,000+ members have access to health insurance, an internal social network, social events and workshops, and an annual summer retreat.[8][9][10]

From the Boston Business Journal’s website:

WeWork is one of many companies in the Boston area that offer co-working space for the city’s burgeoning startup scene, including Worklab, Coalition, and the Cambridge Innovation Center. While its membership prices are on the costly end, ranging from $45 a month to more than $450 a month per desk, the price is not a deterrent for entrepreneurs.

For a relatively modest cost, entrepreneurs say they get a ready-made office space complete with a sense of community, an internal social network and the enriching and collaborative startup culture that prospective employees want when they sign on to work for a startup.

0 Is WeWork’s $5 Billion Valuation Justified?

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Wil Catlin

Credit: Bloomberg

Is WeWork onto something here or will this be a passing fad? Time will tell, but if the 90,000 glasses served last month are a litmus test of the future, WeWork is onto something that could transform how “Justin in time” office space is used.

From Bloomberg:

At a basic level, WeWork is a company that sublets office space, taking care of many of the time-consuming hassles involved in self-employment. That’s not the factor, though, that has captured the fancy of venture capital investors, who have pushed the five-year-old company’s valuation to a giddy $5 billion…WeWork has cast itself as a new kind of workplace for the post-recession labor force and a generation that has never known a cubicle. It aspires to make your job a place you never want to quit.