

Co-Working: Please Build This Space...  - anguslong
http://roblong.posterous.com/please-build-this-co-working-space

======
sjf
Are his kids really that loud? Why doesn't sound proof his office and
discipline his kids for being too noisy. (I'm sure this would please his
neighbours as well).

~~~
dmm
My parents would just banish us outside for the afternoon if we got noisy.

~~~
thirdstation
I was on a sales call once when my neighbor's kid burst into my house and
started shouting in Bengali.

I managed to hit the phone's mute button while furiously gesturing at him to
be quiet.

Because I don't speak Bengali, I had no idea what he wanted. I had no idea how
he got into my house either. He stopped shouting, looked at me and scampered
out the front door.

Turns out he was looking for his sister, who was playing with my kids, who I
had banished from the house for being too loud.

------
izak30
I feel like this idea is best executed with a co-op instead of a profit model.
That's honestly how I feel about most co-working spaces. I don't really want
to work somewhere where I don't have a say in who's there (if I'm paying the
rent).. unless it's an 'executive suite'

------
dustyreagan
I can tell you that what makes coworking magical is it's ability to connect
people and create friendships that would otherwise not happen.

Coworking's weakness is the landlord business model is extremely low margin.
In the suggested model in the article, $400 per member X 20 members = $8,000
per month. Now consider the rent of a warehouse downtown, utilities, paying
someone to run the place, and buildout. It's a quick way to go out of
business.

Now, if the coworking space is run as a loss leader for another business,
that's another story.

At Conjunctured our other business is happy hours at Rio Rita's. We haven't
found out how to make that profitable yet, but we're gonna' keep trying by
god! :p

-Conjunctured Co-Founder

------
rksprst
There's a great space in Santa Monica called CoLoft (<http://www.coloft.com>)
that sounds like exactly what you want. Startup weekend was just hosted here
this past Saturday.

If anyone is in the area stop by; I've been working here for around 3 weeks
and it's been great. Definitely a lot more productive than at home, and the
environment, people, and networking is great. Has two conference rooms, a
"kitchen area", free organic coffee...

------
ekanes
I _love_ the idea, but I'd be surprised if nice space like that can be built
in Austin, for $300-$400/month, with room for profit.

<Brainstorming>

Do you have a garage? (Or, could you build another?)

Amortizing your monthly allowance, you could put some cash into the garage,
and you're improving something you own.

~~~
jsiarto
We run into the same issues here in Chicago. Rent is so high that having a co-
working space is just as expensive as leasing your own office--the ones that
are cheap aren't much better than working from a home office.

I really think these spaces need to be non-profit and supported by the workers
that use it. If you insert a for-profit entity, it just doesn't work...

------
sharpn
This looks like the same idea as the hub:

<http://kingscross.the-hub.net>

It's a little more expensive, but that's London for you...

------
ahoyhere
The only thing that makes the coworking model work is the community ties.
That's also what makes it better than executive suites.

This guy just wants a cave, but a cave outside of his home.

That's not coworking, that's desk rentals.

