Recently I’ve been exploring different buildings and areas for an Atlanta Startup Village (see Physical Atlanta Startup Village Idea and Physical Atlanta Startup Village Components). This is a nice-to-have type project that would be great to do but would have to be a no-brainer financially (e.g. a really good deal). So, assuming the area and building have the desired components, how would the actual structure work? Here are a few ideas:
- Large co-working space with one interior conference room and one phone booth room for every 15 desks
- Full event room that supports 100 attendees
- Complete training lab with laptops and large screen TVs
- Individual office pods with between 1,000 and 4,000 square feet per area including:
– LED screen outside the pod entrance with company name and logo
– Mini kitchen
– Interior phone booths with glass walls (1 per 1,000 ft)
– Interior conference room with glass wall and large LED screen (1 per 2,000 ft)
– 5 desks on exterior windows - Moveable, large sliding glass doors between pods with locks on each side that can be opened to combine pods as startups grow (see moveable glass walls)
Overall, the goal is to be a central village for the startup community as well as provide flexible space for startups to grow from one founder to dozens of employees, all with minimal effort and minimal customization. Too much money is wasted by startups on ill-fitting long term leases and heavy customization (most offices have traditional layouts that are inefficient and not startup friendly). The startup village building would have to be designed unlike any building currently available.
What else? What are some other considerations for a building to be startup friendly and efficient?
David Cummings on Startups 
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