In the midst of the next startup bust (apparently), entrepreneurs are seemingly struggling to raise capital now more than ever.
A very frequently asked question I’m hearing, sounds something along the lines of, “should I just take the terms of the local incubator?”
But what troubles me in such questions more, is not the desperation leading founders to secure terms under questionable circumstances, but the frequency with which variations of that question reveal that we aren’t always raising money from the right places.
From Where Should One Be Raising Capital?
Struggling to raise capital, step 1 requires that you step back from the noise and rethink your approach. Are you raising capital from the right sources?
As capital continues to constrain, through the inevitable 2017 economic collapse, now more than ever you must make the most of your time. Questions such as that headline, if you should be raising capital through an incubator or Angel investor, is a question that reveals you’re not.
What’s the difference?
From where matters. We’re over simplifying, but think of two different groups of the providers of that which startups need. Then think of those two groups in a progression from ideation to exit. Those groups look sort of like this:
Startup service providers
Mentors
Advisors
Freelance
Incubator
Consultant
Accelerator
Agency
Startup capital sources
Friends and family
Debt
Angel investor
Crowdfunding
Venture capital
Private equity
Now though, appreciate that not only is that progression NOT so black and white so you get the idea of why where matters but consider how you may be struggling by missing the alignment of your needs with what those providers offer. Technically when it comes to funding, we need more of a complicated matrix such as this one I whipped together with Texas State Advisor Paul Wright. Debt or advisors are certainly applicable too at later stages but then again, something like an incubator is not. Think of those lists as hinting at when in your development those things become valid but that they can remain so for whatever period of time is appropriate. There is certainly overlap, Angel investors, for example, should also be thought of as one of your seed stage service providers in that you should be drawing investment then from folks who know your space and can help in some way (be that as advisor, informal BD, etc.).
A ha! Yes, service providers blend with capital sources such that one begets the other and perhaps you’re struggling to raise capital because of a lack of credibility, experience, or capability by way of those helping you succeed.
Blended together, our resource list from start start to exit would look something like this:
Mentors
Friends and family
Debt
Advisors
Freelance
Incubator
Angel investor
Crowdfunding
Consultant
Accelerator
Venture Capital
Agency
Private Equity
But blended our list is a little overly complicated and confusing… what if you need a freelance professional now? Couldn’t you raise from a crowdfunding source from the get go?
This is a way in which to help realize why you’re struggling, not a hardfast rule to how it works.
An easy way to keep this progression in mind and why it matters, is that one usually begets the other; or is only applicable at that later point.
Asking friends and family for money, without a mentor, is certainly doable but inadvisable as I’d think your family would prefer you have some valid guidance. Consultants and part time Execs are invaluable and often overlooked resources because “they cost money” but they’re far more impactful than earlier stage resources given their specific role and attention; merely, at a cost that’s different from other stage resources.
Yes, EVERYTHING in those lists costs something, it’s just a question of how and your ROI.
Thus, final thought. Many try to distinguish those service providers much more stringently. After all, isn’t an Advisor completely distinct from a Consultant?? Isn’t an Agency completely different from the Accelerator that says it wants to help?? Isn’t an Angel, Venture Capital? Think about it in terms of mere capitalism for a moment and appreciate that no, they’re all just businesses that provide services. The only differences are the form of engagment, the degree of experience/specialization, the stage, what you get, and the way in which they get paid. Make no mistake, you’re hiring an accelerator (not getting accepted) and you’re hiring a mentor (even though they may be freely available) in that there is always a cost if only of your time, attention, maybe some equity, or in their giving you bad advice.
So when seeking funding, ask first how you’ve invested in your business and ask if your investments are consistent with the expectations and costs of the sources from which you’re seeking venture capital.
I recently had the honor of sharing the stage with Austin’s elite in the coworking community. Texas State University’s Spectrum program asked Kerry Rupp, CEO of DreamIt Ventures; Brandon Marker, Managing Director of Tech Stars Austin; Kevin Koym, Co-Founder of Tech Ranch; Ryan Field, Research and Information Manager at ATI; Stephen Frayser, Executive Director of STAR Park; Kris Looney, President of Emergent Technologies; Alex Smith, Longhorn Startup and Capital Factory Mentor; and Brian Schoenbaum, Founder and Creative Director at Vuka, to join me in distinguishing the differences between the nearly 25 startup resources that now serve the Austin area.
More than that esteemed panel, I, and nearly 125 entrepreneurs, was joined by Dai Truong of OpenIncubate, Shari Wynne from The Incubation Station, and Claire England with Startup America and RISE. Could you have asked for a better slice of a community, one of the most entrepreneurial communities in America? Not enough juice in one room? Ted Shrader and Jonathan Libby of Austin’s IBM Innovation Center were gracious enough to sponsor the event and host us at their incredible space.
But enough about the panel, you can read more about the premise that led to our discussion here. This is the second time I’ve had the honor of joining Dick Johnson, Donna Taylor, Peggy Richmond, Mike Breck and their nearly philanthropic team. In the past, we’ve discussed the role of team and culture in the success of your venture; this time, I shared the opening remarks, which we’ll review herein, exploring how the way we work is evolving.
The Role of Coworking Spaces, Incubators, and Accelerators
Of course,this post won’t do our talk justice but I’ll attempt to walk you through the slides here. To keep the conversation going, please, share any questions or thoughts in the comments below.
The Way We Work is Evolving
I love this idea, and I want you to simply plant it in your head as such as this isn’t a talk of how work is evolving but of how our demands, as individuals, are constantly forcing the ecosystem of work to evolve. To wrap your head around this idea, I want you to think of the Galapagos Islands and how that community, isolated from the world, evolved in unique ways to address the resources and demands of life there. The same is true of how and where we work, and it’s true of the community in which you work.
If we look at the environment of an office over the last couple hundred years, big picture, we can see this happening.
We’ve evolved from the Industrial Revolution, and awful work conditions that though were created to fill the demands and needs of the era. As companies replaced sole propretorships (think back further to how everyone use to work for themselves – as boot makers, accountants, bar owners, etc.), and technology changed the need for labor on farms, industry put people to work and though the conditions were poor, it was an evolution out of necessity as the alternative to working in such conditions was often far worse.
I’ve talked about this before, in an exploration of the “Dark Ages of Work.” As people gained wealth and power, industry evolved into company. People demanded better working conditions and unions emerged, wage disparities started to close and it was no longer acceptable to put children to work. We evolved and for a time, that new work environment was celebrated.
The company was replaced by the corporation and like rats in a maze we moved into gray cubes. Cost, equality, productivity, and ergonomics became the name of the game; improvements all, though we look back on it with disdain, because they were in fact an evolution from what preceded.
To understand where we’re going, think now about how these conditions changed. Many would cite capitalism and our constant drive to further commercialize and monetize business. I want you instead to put yourself in each of those environments and think of yourself as one of Darwin’s Finches. While there are many factors that drive the evolution of work environments (costs, technology, opportunity), etc. at the heart of the evolution is the individual, you; who at each stage, demands something better. Like the finches of the Galapagos, you evolved to suit your environment but unlike finches, when you evolve, you have the capacity to demand better. We, entrepreneurs, force the evolution of how we work by demanding better. By seeing gaps and problems with the environment in which we work, and inventing the new experience.
And no where is that more evident than the emergence of coworking. The first of the three environments we’ll explore further.
If you look at an architectural layout of work environments over the years, you see evidence of how each era affected the environment in which we worked. From the controled and structured layout of industry to the jam packed space in which efficiency was favored in the company, we evolved. From that the corporation restored some structure with cube farms, but it also created open environments and campuses on which companies could thrive. My personal startup mythology is born of that experience, my first job was at a little startup called Yahoo; my experience working with entrepreneurs bore witness to sleeping bags under our cubes next to refridgerators stocked with beer. From that environment of the late eighties and early nineties, we’ve evolved; look next at today’s coworking-like layout, open, accessible, fluid, flexible… exactly how we want to work, no?
To appreciate why I’m proposing that we, the entrepreneurs, are at the heart of this evolution, we have to put ourselves in the mind of all entrepreneurs. By 2020, less than 10 years from now, MBO Partners forcasts that 60% of the workforce in the United States will be “unteathered” to a corporate office. Today, only 30% of people working are unteathered. Imagine that… in 7 years, the amount of people working in places OTHER than a company office is going to double. Why? oDesk asked in a survey earlier this year: 72% of job holders in companies have a desire to be independant. Evolution. Or Revolution?
If those trends are an indicator of where our global economy is going, a glimpse at the trends for coworking reveal from where this evolution is being driven. 3 years ago, I moved from Silicon Valley to Austin, TX, not fully realizing the potential that Austin holds for the future of entrepreneurship, innovation, and our economy, but now I’m thrilled by the prospect that the evolution in the way people want to work is gaining the most ground, here in Austin. Evidence of that, in the last 30 days, I’ve had 27 conversations with independant investors, commercial property owners and brokers, incubators, national startup accelerators, economic development professionals, and more, exploring one simple question: what’s next in Austin?
71 percent reported a boost in creativity since joining a shared work space and 62 percent reported that their standard of work had improved. Also 64 percent were better able to complete tasks on time and 90 percent reported an increase in self-confidence because they now worked in a supportive community.
And it’s not hard to appereciate why that’s the case when you read that conclusion of a survey of coworkers by Deskmag’s, that’s their interpretation of the results of the survey, the benefits of coworking. It sounds very much like the very definition of what it’s like to work in Austin doesn’t it?? Creativity. Improved standard of work. Better able to work efficiently. And a focus on the people, you; in this case, our self confidence, professionally. Austin is the very definition of the future work because it reflects what’s at the very heart of what entrepreneurs want.
Evidence of that demand to understand what’s going on in Austin and how to be a part of what’s next, is the trend for coworking relative to office space. Let’s explore not just the idea of coworking now, collaborative work environments that encompass the multitude of incubators, accelators, and coworking spaces; when we look just at the demand for coworking space relative to office space, we see that the indexed demand for office space had been cut in half, more so, over the past five years. Developers and property owners considering more office space should take note: your business model is dying. And though relatively small, the demand for coworking space is still nacent; that demand has been doubling every year for going on a decade.
The challenge for entrepeneurs, the challenge for cities, the challenge for those working in economic development, politics, or human resources, is NOT in being aware of these places. It’s the very reason we gathered for this discussion; the challenge is in knowing which place is right for you.
Where matters more than IF you get into an Accelerator
By the time you read this, this list of known spaces in Austin alone, will undoubtedly have changed: Workshop Hyde Park, Capital Factory, Open Incuabate, Incubation Station, Posh, Emergent Technologies, STAR Park, Link Coworking, Conjunctured, DreamIt Ventures, Perch, IC2, Space12, Tech Ranch, Longhorn Startup, ATI, Techstars, GoLab, Opportunity SPace, Make+Shift, Soma Vida, Chicon Collective, HubAustin, Brainstorm Coworking, and Center61. Which of you has time to figure out wherein you should fit? Which of you, with limited resources and time, can investigate dozens of opportunities and find the right experience for you?
The initial Boston operation of Y Combinator was closed, out of frustration with New England’s typical investment style; making it difficult for Y Combinator’s consumer, web-based ventures to to receive funding. Where, is more important than if, you get into such an experience as the culture, ecosystem, passion, and program therein is what determines the impact such spaces have on your success.
My career with Yahoo led to another technology startup, a somewhat larger venture called Hewlett-Packard. Therein, my perspective on the evolution of how we work was shaped even further. Most aren’t familiar with this garage, it’s the garage in which David Packard and Bill Hewlett built an audio oscillator, an electronic test instrument used by sound engineers. In the moment HP was born, so too was this bit of startup mythology in my ethos, the garage in founders toil away at any cost to bring their dreams to life. And though my career started with Yahoo, the “Rules of the Garage,” ideals at the heart of HP, continue to define who I am as an entrepreneur to this very day: Believe you can change the world.
Coworking, this revolution of how we work, is the startup garage of the future. We’ll look back in 10 or 15 years at today, and your startup mythology will hearken back to the names DreamIt, ATI, and Vuka. Where once startups were born of garages, apartments, and cramped offices, now they are born of coworking environments. Proof of that? 87% of people working in such environments affirm that they have started something with someone they met through coworking.
So what is coworking anyay??
Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. Individuals are usually not employed by the same organization.
Coworking enables a group of people who share values, and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with like-minded, talented people, in the same space.
And people are not simply starting things in coworking spaces. To those of you who think you or your team can’t work from a coworking space because of all the distractions, the open environment, consider this… people working in coworking environments have reported a 38% increase in their income, a 75% increase in their productivity, and an 80% increase in their business network. How can you not help force the next evolution and move in?
What Makes an Incubator Different?
Good question. I’m glad you asked, it’s why we’re here. Incubators accelerate the successful development of startup and fledgling companies by providing entrepreneurs with an array of targeted resources and services. Oof, that’s a mouthful. Think of it this way, incubators provide more structured and vetted resources than space alone, in exchange for a share of your success.
Incubators generally, and I’m going to get disagreement on this as they are ALL different, but generally:
Provide a principal mentor / coworking space do not
Develop and manage various services
Help you network with, and perhaps even fund, other skilled professionals
Provide space and low or usually no cost
Can help you find working or seed capital
The opportunity for you is that Incubators are usually free but share in your success by taking a size-able share of the equity available. Coworking spaces are merely an iteration of office space and therefore, certainly, cost you rent. If you can get into an incubator make sure you appreciate the costs as that equity can be significant BUT you benefit from formal education programs, vetted mentors, trusted networks, and supportive staff. That’s not to say the same can’t be found too at a coworking space, but again, generally, that’s the difference.
A simple way to think about how to find WHERE you belong? Incubators usually align along economic development goals related to an industry; they search Health, Wireless, Bio-science, Internet, Small Business, etc. By contrast, when searching for the right coworking space, you’re going to want to focus on the right culture, the right feel; it’s a community.
How is an Accelerator Different from an Incubator?
According to Paul Bricault, cofounder of LA’s Amplify Accelerator, “An accelerator takes single-digit chunks of equity in externally developed ideas in return for small amounts of capital and mentorship. They’re generally truncated into a three to four month program at the end of which the start-ups ‘graduate'”
Simple right?
Accelerators usually provide many mentors
Rather than services offered, they tend to have a formal program you have to follow
Resources are again available, vetted and often funded by the accelerator on your behalf
Space should be available to you at very low or no cost
In this case though, capital should be invested by the accelerator in the work you’re doing
The differences are subtle but they are there. You might think of an accelerator as being appropriate at a state later than wherein you might consider an incubator. Because they are investing, they should expect some measure of traction: a product, customers, partners, etc. They aren’t incubating your business but accelerating it’s growth.
As a result, the commitment, by both parties, is greater. They’ve invested in you at a later stage, so generally the equity stake they have is smaller than that of an incubator, but in exchange for that investment, you are required to participate in their 3-6 month program designed to accelerate an aspect of your business. Hence the somewhat later stage.
A favorite perspective of mine is that of Dr. John Sullivan, Professor of Talent Management at San Francisco State University. Sullivan helped me understand that the usual suspects that different cities cite in trying to explain why Silicon Valley results in such significant companies born of seemingly crazy ideas, things like capital, comfort with risk, talent, etc., those suspects are all misleading when trying to appreciate what makes Silicon Valley tick. He shared:
“If you don’t live in the Silicon Valley, you might not know why so many successful firms like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Apple start or relocate here. The compelling reason is because of the energy and the competition that exists when so many smart and innovative people work and interact in a relatively small geographic space… Obviously having so many great firms so close together also creates intense wars for talent but that one detrimental factor is more than overcome by the positive value of the competition felt with employees from other firms.
The same can be said for the increased creativity that firms find by locating in major arts and entertainment areas like New York City and Los Angeles. The same increase in innovation and idea-generating can occur using “corporate coworking” when your employees are co-located with strangers from startups and other corporations.”
The highlight therein is my own. Silicon Valley is coworking, on a macro-economic scale: the entire region acts like a incubator, developing and nurturing ideas into business; as an accelerator, funneling entrepreneurs through a “program” of growth; and as a coworking space, with a culture of entrepreneurship and extensive network of services, resources, and experienced professionals.
When trying to understand how and where you fit in to such experiences, ask first what you REALLY need. All entrepreneurs need space, capital, talent, mentorship, & influence, the answer to my question is deeper than that. Start by asking yourself if you have enough of a product or service developed to start talking. At what stage do you find yourself and what kind of resources, services, and community do you need? Next ask if you can be distracted and consider that it’s not the coworking space in which you’ll find distraction, in fact, therein, you’re more likely to be far more productive; rather, it’s the dedicated attention required by an accelerator that will distract you from other opportunity. That might be exactly what you need. I just want you to ask those questions first as getting some working capital, getting some mentors, getting some influence with the press or partners, or simply having some exciting office space, should not be at the root of your exploration of this evolution in the way we work.
Know the differences in the types of resources; know that they are different where you live, from those that are here in Austin,, TX; look at them from a 30,000 foot view, determine WHERE you should be, and move in.
Not long ago, the Austin Business Journal’s Chris Calnan explored the economic impact of business Incubators in Austin, remarking that the support system for nascent companies is stronger than ever thanks to the explosive impact of these resources. Interestingly, this growth follows on the heels of Austin’s explosion of coworking space, leading to a series of great questions such as if and how the growth of coworking might have predicted or led to the rise of incubators, whether or not these evolutions can be studied for the sake of economic development, and practically, where does one fit in??
As our experience with acquiring working capital evolves, from the comfort with risk on the part of VCs in your town shifting over time to the introduction of Crowdfunding as a serious source of capital, entrepreneurs everywhere are trying to understand not just how to connect, network, and collaborate, but how to develop relationships with the right investors. Incubators, accelerators, and coworking spaces are the place to start.
“Investors of all shapes and sizes are getting a piece of the action by putting small amounts of capital into budding businesses,”
Calnan, “The goal: To do what Paul Graham did with Y Combinator in Silicon Valley. That seed accelerator has pumped cash and other resources into more than 500 startups in about seven years, taking about 6 percent equity along the way.”
Simply put, Calnan adds that whether an angel with a few thousand dollars, or a VC with hundreds of millions in a fund, incubators enable investors to get in at the beginning. Still, with an incredibly diverse set of incubators (and coworking options), Calnan lists the following incubators in Austin alone, Tech Ranch Austin, Dreamit Ventures, Longhorn Startup, IC2 Institute, Door64, Austin Startup, Austin Technology Incubator, Napkin Venture, Incubation Station, and Austin Tech Live, should you simply leap into any that accepts you or should you be considering first, the right fit?
Finding the Right Fit: coworking, incubator, or accelerator?
As we’ve explored here before, culture trumps strategy, every time. Finding the right fit for you as a person, your team, and your passion, is critical. To wit, the initial Boston operation of Y Combinator was closed out of frustration with New England’s typical investment style; making it difficult for Y Combinator’s consumer, web-based ventures to to receive funding.
Suggesting that where, precisely, matters more than if you get in, no?
Not every company is an easy-to-launch-for-$30,000-social-media juggernaut with no employees. Therefore not every company benefits from a mere 3 month series of introductions,” says Wayne Barz, Manager of The Ben Franklin Technology Partners TechVentures incubator in Bethlehem, PA. Of their diverse collection of medical diagnostic, advanced material, semiconductor, and electronic device companies he adds, “These companies require significantly more time to get up and running. Companies in our facility are there for 12 months at a time. We ask many to depart for lack of execution before they reach a 5 year maximum.”
Vijay Anand, Founding Partner at The Startup Centre, suggested a bottom line on the distinction between incubators and accelerators:
Incubators and Accelerators are not terminologies to be used Inter-changeably. They both mean very different things.
We need both the Incubator Ecosystem and the Accelerator Ecosystem for the Larger landscape to remain a healthy one
The process and learnings from the faster iterations of Accelerators would fuel the larger incubator ecosystem as well in the longer run.
Accelerators as a Model, work only for “Fringe” opportunities for Software and Software-based Startups
I’m still a little unclear about the difference though, aren’t you?
“The conditions Y Combinator enjoys are not present in Austin and other parts of the nation, making it difficult to get the same results with the same business model,” shared Austin-based bootstrap evangelist and author of “The Human Fabric,” Bijoy Goswami, with Chris Calnan, “In short, the size of Silicon Valley’s investment and startup community eclipses Austin’s. The Bay Area counts VC investments at the end of the year in the thousands; Austin by the dozens. And while the University of Texas and other local universities are prized talent generators, they’re outgunnned — especially tech-wise — by the collective power of Stanford University, Cal Tech and dozens of other schools in the Bay Area.”
“People are trying to replicate the [Y Combinator] model without understanding all that supports it,” Goswami added.
A ha! Every community, your city as well as mine, is unique, with as many variables as Goswami’s mind map of Austin lays out. What might be an incubator in your town may not be the same where I live. Where entrepreneurs may best be served by getting involved with the coworking space down the street, your venture, in your town, may be better suited to the accelerator downtown. Wherein do we understand all that’s involved? All that supports it? We have to experience them all and simply ask, “what makes you distinct and right for me?” Rather than merely applying an crossing your fingers in hopes of getting in to such programs, qualify their role on your behalf – are you right for me?
And that’s why I’m incredible excited that many of the leaders of such spaces in Austin, are getting together to explore the very question of WHERE.
The Texas State SBDC’s Spectrum program blends mentorship, education, and collaboration to assist innovators and their technologies from ideation to commercialization using the tools and resources that already exist in the technology eco-system.
Some topics we’re going to explore
Where does innovation begin?
What is the role of incubators, accelerators, an office, or coworking? How do I know what’s right for me? How do the services you all provide weave together to foster success for business owners?
Are there hybrids of coworking and incubation, or office space and classes? If so, why?
Austin likely has the highest per capita % of coworking spaces in the country begging a question such as what that means for commercial office property owners. Why is Austin’s culture and community (and yours) moving into shared work space?
How do such spaces seed not just ideas and collaboration, but work collectively to attract capital, talent, and attention to your market and industry?
Brian Schoenbaum; Founder and Creative Director at Vuka
To know where and how you fit, you have to explore your community from the 30,000 foot view and first ask why. What role does your space play? How does it benefit me? And why should I get involved? If you’re in Austin, I hope you’ll join us: register here
Without a doubt, one of the most exceptional new services brought to us by the interweb is airbnb. An incredibly obvious service (in hindsight); the website connects people with unique spaces that can serve as an accommodation, to travelers looking a distinct, personal, and comfortable experience. As they put it, “Airbnb connects people to unique travel experiences, at any price point, in more than 26,000 cities and 192 countries.”
What seems incredible is the result of the collaboration of skilled architects, developers, and designers. Something that is simple and elegant to you, the user of the experience, is rarely indeed simple to create. That’s so because the brilliance is not just in the web service that airbnb provides but in the entire experience created for both hosts and travelers. Starting with 6 Golden Rules, airbnb creates for both parties, an elevated set of community standards above which everyone is expected to strive. As a result, airbnb ensures not only an exceptional experience for the wayfarers and hosts, but with their own service – you can be assured of great places to stay through airbnb.
airbnb for Entrepreneurs
In developing startups, we like to simplify the story behind a venture as greatly as possible; this is referred to the High-Concept Pitch. Such a statement, simply conveys that an innovation is Like X but for Y: Amazon.com is like Walmart but online (though they probably hate that I just said that), the iPhone is a computer in your pocket… you get the idea?
There are 84M people in the United States who want to be entrepreneurs! That’s half our working population!! And in this era of economic challenges and unemployment, I think it’s fair to say that we as a country, as an economy, are failing in enabling those individuals to cut their path. Of course, there are many reasons people struggle to becoming entrepreneurs and start their own companies; from a lack of capital to simple fear, being an entrepreneur is hard. But it shouldn’t be.
A few months ago, I put my head down for a few weeks with a couple of incredible entrepreneurs and built Cospace. Simply, the idea behind the skunkworks I was experimenting with at Cospace is “airbnb for entrepreneurs”.
Making Innovation Open and Accessible
That second part of the headline is really key in this context. Being an entrepreneur starts with making innovation accessible. We wrestled a bit with this terminology… innovation, after all, is invention isn’t it? Entrepreneurs start businesses; they don’t necessarily create new technologies. Not so fast…
Innovation is the development of new customer value through solutions that meet new needs, unarticulated needs, or old customer and market needs in new ways. This is accomplished through different or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society.
A rather wordy definition that essentially points out that innovation is what drives entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs develop new customer value through solutions that meet needs. Cospace was an exploration of making that accessible to everyone.
Entrepreneurship starts with space
Think about it. Sure, most jump to the conclusion that being an entrepreneur starts with an idea, perhaps some capital, or maybe a partner. But indeed, all of that, comes from WHERE you spend your time. From the right space, you foster a network of peers, collaborate on ideas, and begin to turn innovation into business. The key to becoming an entrepreneur, the key to forging your own path, is getting out. Sure, to some extent that means overcoming the challenge of networking but even networking with others starts with the right space. airbnb for work spaces.
Not unlike airbnb, Cospace starts by helping people discover, connect, and monetize commercial, retail, and campus space by turning their space into collaborative workspace, classroom, and marketplace for entrepreneurs. You have a space that hosts (or could / should host) entrepreneurs? Cospace will help you transform that into a collaborative space with a rich network of local talent, resources, and ideas served by education to help develop businesses.
A cospace provides entrepreneurs and innovators with an entrepreneurial ecosystem-as-a-service — workplace, resources, and education — from which everyone can start, build, and grow.
Entrepreneurship flourishes with on demand, skills based education
Where it starts with space, entrepreneurship really takes off when the right education is delivered in the right context, to the right place. Mining a skills database and identifying the need and demand for specific skills in markets throughout the country, a cospace delivers on-demand curriculum and education to spaces. Where airbnb is teaching travelers and hosts how to excel in their relationship with one another, so too is a cospace teaching spaces and entrepreneurs to collaborate and excel together.
What’s exciting for many coworking spaces throughout the country is that cospaces provide trained, motivated, entrepreneurial hosts to help such spaces evolve from coworking spaces to cospaces. I use that noun intentionally not as a pro-noun; few coworking spaces are truly collaborative, supportive, and resources in communities for entrepreneurship. Cospace transforms such spaces into collaborative spaces starting with the greatest value one can provide to the coworking community – hosts who know how to operate and evangelize the space, the community, best.
The other side of the equation of course is recognizing the idea that Phoenix lacks iOS developers while Denver demands more WordPress professionals. Through spaces, through cospaces, we’re turning on world-class curriculum, employing teachers, and training individuals to meet those needs. Making innovation open.
By procuring and distributing resources in entrepreneurship and education, cospaces foster economic development in neighborhoods, for cities, and truly, finally, makes entrepreneurship… no, innovation, open and accessible.
I hope you’ll join me on this exciting opportunity.
