Vibe Coworks and the City of Poulsbo, Washington formalized a Memorandum of Understanding designating the coworking space as a tertiary operational site under the city’s Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), signed October 27, 2024. The agreement enables essential municipal functions to continue at Vibe Coworks if Poulsbo City Hall becomes inaccessible during catastrophic emergencies, with the facility providing conference rooms, gig-speed fiber internet, wired ethernet connections, projector and panoramic webcam equipment, whiteboard walls, wellness room, private phone booths, and ADA-accessible infrastructure.

City Administrator Rob Gelder and Vibe Coworks Director of Operations Amber Sallay emphasized the partnership adds redundancy to emergency management frameworks while demonstrating how coworking spaces function as vital civic infrastructure through public-private collaboration.

Vibe Coworks has launched Matchstick Lab as a separate entity focused on supporting startups and businesses in Kitsap, WA. Alanna Imbach, Vibe’s founder, will lead Matchstick Lab, while Amber Sallay takes over as Director of Operations for Vibe. Both Vibe and Matchstick Lab have expanded their teams to support these new initiatives.

Vibe Coworks is exiting its Bremerton location, The Spot, to support the U.S. Navy’s expansion in the area. The Navy will take over the building as part of a $21 billion modernization effort at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, creating jobs and boosting local growth. Vibe Coworks is proud to have played a role in this transition and will continue to serve clients at its flagship location in Poulsbo.

Neither had Alanna Imbach. But last week’s internet outage put the Vibe Coworks team (Amber Sallay and Andreina Ramirez), space and WiFi to the test, seeing record numbers of locals pouring in to use their space – so much so that they had to unfortunately turn people away.

Great to see the coworking space spring into action and become a "nexus of community camaraderie". Nicely done, I hope those who got turned away pop back to visit when it’s not so hectic.

Alanna Imbach shared that Vibe Coworks have turned an old ‘back-of-the-napkin’ idea into a partnership wtih NavalX Northwest Tech Bridge to build more pathways between Naval technologists and the emerging regional startup ecosystem.