
Followup on SF Bay Area Startup hub, vote up if interested! - startupstarter

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RyanGWU82
Well, the photos of the place looks good, I can see potential for this to be
really useful for many people. But I wonder if a Burlingame location is a
symptom of trying to appeal to too many people. In the process I'm concerned
that it won't appeal to anyone.

To me, convenience is still the most important aspect of this office space,
since office space is optional for the startups and individuals you're
targeting. My hunch is that Burlingame is too far from both San Francisco and
Silicon Valley -- not convenient to people in either location. (Is it near the
BART/Caltrain stop? That could help.)

I'd suggest you check with others near SF to gauge their "location
elasticity." You might get a much better response with a location in the city,
even at a higher price.

Hope this helps -- good luck!

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startupstarter
Hi Ryan, First of all, sorry I didn't reply you in my previous YC post. I was
going to but got sidetracked looking in the startup hub thing.

Thank you for the advice. To me Burlingame is not far at all from SF. I was
thinking I'm forgoing all the south bay people since it's quite a drive from
down there. But from SF, it isn't too far, especially when this location is
right off the 101 freeway exit. But more importantly, I was not really trying
to suit everyone. Actually, yes, I _was_ trying to suit most people at first.
But after not getting much replies, I figure I had to go a different route. I
figure that I may have to choose a location first, and then let them decide if
that's what they want. So I try to look at different locations available and
imagine what I can do with the space. Once I can imagine what I can do with it
(how I can setup and divide up the space), I let everyone know about it. Those
who happen to be close to that location will be "lucky". Those who aren't will
have to decide whether they want to make the commute or try to setup
carpooling or forget about it. So if this location doesn't work out (still not
too much response so far), I'll see what the next location brings. That may be
in SF or further south. Hope you get a better idea of what I'm trying to do
here.

oh, yes, this Burlingame location is right between 2 Bart stations, but I
won't call them close by since it's like 1 mile away from each station.

thanks again for the reply, john

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RyanGWU82
Yup, that all makes sense. I bet the San Francisco response depends a lot on
whether or not you own a car. My impression of San Franciscans is that none of
them own cars, and don't want to drive, because my 3 or 4 Frisco friends are
like that. If most of your target market does own cars and is OK with a
commute, then my hunch is totally wrong. ;-)

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missrogue
A recent survey we did of over 120 people on the coworking list stated that
location, location, location was crucial. Oh...and that meant close to public
transportation and not a big commute (on buses and trains) from their homes.

Survey results here:

<http://blog.coworking.info/2007/04/21/the-results-of-the-coworking-survey/>

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missrogue
Hey gang...there is already a 'hub' in San Francisco. The Coworking movement
(that Cafe Bricolage in NYC is hooked into) started here with Chris Messina,
Brad Neuberg, Ryanne Hodsen, Jay Dedman, Ted Tagami and myself (Tara Hunt).

We currently have several coworking spots in the city:

<http://www.citizenspace.us> <http://thehatfactory.net>

and you can see much more discussion on the work we are doing around the world
(as well as collecting all sorts of data in surveys, etc.) here:

<http://www.coworking.info>

Tara

p.s. there are spaces being started up and down the peninsula, too

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startupstarter
details at: <http://fuzzythinker.blogspot.com/2007/04/to-all-sf-bay-area-
startups-after.html>

please up vote so more people knows about it so we can get started sooner! My
last post regarding this only got 3 votes so it was buried in less than half a
day.

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Sam_Odio
At some point, I'll be definitely interested in this...

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startupstarter
great! let me know when you do.

