Week 27, 2022

Ubique Innovation AG are promoting access to 70 workspaces across the country (through flesk) as part of their employee benefits.

Looking forward to seeing more employers promoting workspace access as a big remote-work benefit.

Craig Baute pens a compelling argument why smaller coworking spaces that serve their immediate (15-min travel radius) neighborhoods are great bets for balancing risk and reward.

As Craig is both an operator of 3 such spaces through Creative Density, and a partner at DenSwap, I’d definitely dig your teeth into this piece if you’re looking to get started with coworking investing, or expand your coworking brand’s footprint.

Tobias Kremkau follows on a thread I started in last week’s newsletter on whether libraries shifting towards workspaces a good or bad thing for local coworking operators.

Having followed this trend since 2016, Tobias digs into how they can be an opportunity (more awareness of coworking principles) and rarely a threat (free space during the day vs paid memberships or day passes).

It’s an awesome post full of insights, check it out.

WOTSO CEO Jessie Glew took to LinkedIn to share the company’s focus on micro coworking spaces, describing these smaller footprint sites often located in retail centers or lobbies as simple by design but offering convenience, connection, and local community. She emphasized that quality in coworking is increasingly defined by user experience rather than premium fitouts and A-grade space, noting that the industry’s "flight to quality" trend doesn’t necessarily require larger spaces.

WOTSO has been in the news a lot lately for their experimenting with different flexible workspace concepts and models, proving the argument she’s making in the post that bigger isn’t always better, particularly when spaces are positioned in the right locations with proper intent.

In a LinkedIn post, Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier shared his recent experience hiring for an AI Automation Engineer role. Foster defined the emerging role as part strategist, part builder, and fully fluent in automation, with expectations including deep domain knowledge, ability to save teams hours weekly, and improving AI fluency across organizations.

You know what role in a coworking space acts as part strategist, part builder, and can benefit from automation while in the trenches? Community managers. If you’re considering how AI can help your business, check out this thoughtful post and schedule time to discuss AI needs and challenges with your operations and community team.

Gregoire Schwebig shared in a panel that due to existing infrastructural problems in Africa, the future of work on the continent could be distributed offices (a company having multiple offices around cities) vs going fully-remote.

Brad Hargreaves, founder of Thesis Driven, explored how three booming coworking concepts (Switchyards in the Southeast US; Work Heights in Brooklyn; and Patch in the UK) are proving that growth is coming from neighborhood-focused models that prioritize proximity over prestige.

These neighborhood models leverage cheaper Class B real estate, management deals with landlords, and eliminates large security deposits while targeting local community integration over business travelers.

The strategy reflects permanent remote work adoption and demand for community without long commutes, positioning multiple small neighborhood locations as more viable than single large downtown hubs.

Bernie Mitchell reminds us that many (many many many) coworking space websites say the same things, instead of focussing on what makes your community and space unique to specific businesses or individuals.

Do you really need to tell people you offer free WiFi in 2023?

April Dunford, one of the world’s go-to professionals around positioning for B2B cos, shares her answer to a frequent question they get: "How do you position a completely undifferentiated product that operates in a very crowded market?"

If we’re very honest, this could be asked by any coworking practitioner, and be a good question. As with any good question, the answer is usually also a question. In this case April asks "why are current customers choosing you?"

In short, if you’re winning deals in a crowded market, marketing’s job is to understand why and then amplify that.

Your community manager is the face of your coworking space, your coworking community, and your coworking brand. And they’re close to burnout. Cat Johnson dives into what we can do about it.

Marta Moska from O4 Coworking gives a masterclass on calling out and celebrating their team after a hectic month.

These posts are great for team morale, promotion of your space, connecting of your community and humanizing your brand. Post yours, often.

Amazon has expanded its partnership with WeWork by leasing an entire 141k sqft building in Santa Clara, California. WeWork signed the full-building deal in late 2024, with occupancy beginning in the coming weeks, following Amazon’s continued strategy of using WeWork as an operator for quick expansion, while maintaining flexibility.

The Santa Clara lease follows recent similar Amazon-exclusive arrangements including a 304k sqft deal in Manhattan and 217k sqft one in Mountain View, CA.

Helga Moreno quizzed Rubin Beckner about Venture X, their origin, their model, their challenges and their growth.

I love taking a look behind the curtain to see what fast-growing concepts/platforms and brands are doing from a marketing perspective.

Kayley DiCicco shares 4 valuable lessons picked up from being EXPANSIVE’s employee #1 and spending 10 years at the same operator. Not many folks have a decade of experience in flex, so I def took each lesson to heart.

In short they were to work hard, but stay humble; often the grass isn’t always greener; not to take things personally; and the power of planting seeds and cultivating relationships.

Thanks for sharing Kayley, and congrats on the milestone!

Cat Johnson shares 16 life-changing lessons about community learned from almost 4 years of leading The Lab (a virtual community for indie coworking space operators).

Having been part of The Lab from day one, and seen the expressions of generosity, courage, business savvy, resilience, humanness, vision, service, kindness, strength, humor, creativity and intelligence first-hand – I’d def recommend noting down some of these lessons for building a community within your spaces or around your businesses.

Real estate expert Paul Stanton shares his take on how OpCo-PropCo structures depend on track record, asset class maturity, check size requirements, and capital source preferences, ranging from fee-light partnerships to fully integrated platforms.

For flexible workspace operators, this highlights how different capital structures can unlock yield enhancement and scalable funding based on individual operator profiles and real estate experience levels.

WeWork has exited bankruptcy and resumed normal operations on June 11. What does the new WeWork look like? And what happens next? Deskmag condensed the key information from the company’s bankruptcy filing into a 5-minute read.

Whether you’re an owner, operator, investor, landlord, or new team member, OfficeRnD‘s new "flex space glossary" is designed to bring clarity and standardization to our industry.

This looks like a valuable resource for anyone involved in coworking and flex spaces.

Founder of Coworking House, Kristin Hardwick, shared that she’s kicked off the first Discovery Day for the first franchisees of her "CoHo" concept.

Discovery Days are where potential franchisees dig into what the low-overhead recurring-revenue people-first business model really looks like with the franchisor team. Learn more about franchising for coworking in this podcast episode.

Mike Kriel shares how Launch Workplaces worked with a landlord to convert a suddenly-vacant floor into a coworking space, for just $8 per square foot. By assessing what was already in place, and what needed to be done (paint, carpet, tech, small appliances, etc), they turned a vacant 25k sqft floor into a ready-to-go shared workspace business.

Once again, as experienced operators, you’re primed for opportunities in helping landlords activate their suddenly empty floors. Excited to keep following your, Mike’s and Launch’s progress in activating more spaces as office supply skyrockets.

TheRealDeal shares a profile on Jamie Hodari, and how Industrious may have "won the flex office race" with WeWork by playing it safe.

“In the Adam Neumann era, we felt like we had to be more adult than we even were, specifically because we were trying to combat a certain reputation in the industry, now that hopefully that reputation is going away, maybe we have more license to be a little quirkier.” Love this quote, and excited to see what a quirkier Industrious looks like.

Zoe Keenan shares how more and more Australians are seeking out coworking spaces and communities to avoid working from home (which has become a chore) and to find community and connection as solo workers.

Note: Keep reminding remote workers in your neighborhoods that it isn’t just WFH or ‘the office, and that you’re there to provide something different (read: better).

Michelle Nicolaisen shares how MuteBox (a meeting pod and call booth solution provider) are opening a new showroom in Berlin, within a coworking space through a partnership with Unicorn Workspaces.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen furniture companies partner up publicly with accessible coworking spaces like this. It’s a no-brainer, especially if the space has an easily accessible lobby or lounge area.

Tyler Evans answers a short Q&A on franchising service brands. Tyler co-owns 7 coworking franchise locations (6x Venture X, and 1x Office Evolution).

It’s an interesting quick look at an alternative method of franchising and entering the coworking industry.

Cobot shares how Content Calendars help coworking operators and owners who are trying to create organic content on social media.

They explore the best structures of a content calendar, how often should you populate it, dig into to some tool recommendations and give tips on balancing, batching and insta profile optimization.

Chelliah Nakeeran makes the economical argument as to why coworking could help employers support their teams who are feeling the pinch from inflation.

It’s a good positioning. Lower capital expenditure on real estate commitments frees cash flow to reinvest into employees, who also benefit from lower commuting costs (and the higher prices of eating out or grabbing coffee in big city centers).

Hanbury Hall Coworking shares a post about their Deep Work Club, how it helps and what people focussed on last week.

This made me think, that with the surge in first-time coworkers, have you begun introducing your events like lunch-and-learns, pitch karaoke, and deep work sessions? Remote workers may not have heard of them, or had the opportunity to participate, before.

Emilie Lashmar shared a thorough recap of GCUC UK’s last Manchester event, which she co-hosted with Georgia-Kaye Berry (from Colony).

The recap runs over the data shared by Jordan Saleh (CBRE), Ryan Jans (WeWork), and Tanya Grady (Allied London); what makes a workspace stand out by Nicola Jones (GPE), Lucy Pickavance (Phoenix Resourcing), Ana Bernardo (Work.Life), and Ben Newton (Patch); some indie-vs-big-pocket insights from Lisa Cations (JCR Advisors), Shannon Burke (managed.), Tom Almas (Wizu), Rebekah Lloyd-Beere (Landsec), and Gareth I. Jones (TownSq). Alongside workshops led by Samuel Warren (technologywithin), Manuel Conti (PONT), Claire Carpenter and George Tilbury; Lisa Quait ran the Women in Flex Luncheon. The event was then rounded out with sessions from Nicholas Drew (urbanbubble) and Sammy Dukes (Yardi) on operational intelligence and Pauline Roussel (Coworkies) and Jonathan O’Byrne on community.

Why did we highlight all the speakers above? To elevate the (many new) voices who took the stage in Manchester.