David Cummings on Startups

Takeaways from an NYC Coworking Expedition

Written by

David Cummings

in

Today we went on a great six hour expedition of different coworking and high tech spaces in NYC. It was a quick trip and we saw General Assembly, TechSpace, Ace Hotel, and WeWork. Surprisingly, they were all very different and strong in their own ways.

Here are a few of my takeaways from today’s trip:

  • Community is different from simply providing high tech office space and needs to be intentional
  • Interior glass walls do wonders for making a space feel open and maximizing the natural light
  • Hardwood floors bring a bit of nature into the space and are better than polished concrete floors
  • Phone booths (tiny conference rooms for one person) are more popular than expected
  • Integrating a coworking facility, private rooms, and modular suites is a unique concept (spaces today had one or two of those but not one had all three options)
  • Energy and excitement in the large open spaces is palpable

Today’s trip was well worth it and provided several new ideas we’re going to incorporate into the Atlanta Tech Village.

What else? What are some other cool things you’ve seen in coworking and high tech offices?

Comments

2 responses to “Takeaways from an NYC Coworking Expedition”

  1. Daniel Roberts Avatar
    Daniel Roberts

    I like all these things. Especially the phone booths and hardwood floors. Smaller the room, the more focus you have. Whiteboard/cork on the phone booth walls would be handy when making a call.

    Speaking of glass walls, I wonder about using glass between desks somehow as a way to add whiteboard space yet keep the place feeling open.

    Totally agree on the community aspect. I like the interviews y’all are already doing, but it’ll be interesting to see how the occasional bad apple that slips by will be handled. I’ve never seen a great corporate culture that was afraid to fire a bad culture fit.

    Reply
  2. friendlyhuman Avatar
    friendlyhuman

    I like all these things. Especially the phone booths and hardwood floors. Smaller the room, the more focus you have. Whiteboard/cork on the phone booth walls would be handy when making a call.

    Speaking of glass walls, I wonder about using glass between desks somehow as a way to add whiteboard space yet keep the place feeling open.

    Totally agree on the community aspect. I like the interviews y’all are doing, but it’ll be interesting to see how the occasional bad apple who slips by will be handled. I’ve never seen a great corporate culture that was afraid to fire a bad culture fit.

    It’s already an amazing place to work. I feel deep gratitude and excitement every time I walk through the door. I can’t wait to see what the coming months bring.

    Reply

Leave a reply to friendlyhuman Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More posts