Get future weekly summaries in your inbox.
📰 Coworking updates.
📯 How the USPS 10-year plan may affect coworking spaces.
Andrew Block digs into how the US Postal Service‘s new 10-year plan (which includes raising prices and reducing delivery times) may affect coworking spaces who offer mail handling as an included, or add-on, service.
H/t Katharine Chestnut for sharing.
🍾 All-remote company goes public on Nasdaq.
This week we saw GitLab go public, hitting a market cap of $15B on their opening day. Since 2011, the firm have pioneered a few ‘crazy’ ideas, including radical transparency and being remote-only way before the world made many explore remote working options.
Rodolphe Dutel reminds you that the next time someone tells you that remote work is just for small teams, ask them to speak with any of the firms’ 1,350 employees working remotely across 65+ countries.
🤔 What if we planned work around our lives, not vice versa?
Adam Grant shares a short, but thought-provoking, post that asks what would happen if we reversed the norm that for generations humans have organized their lives around their work.
It’s definitely struck a chord and has surpassed over 78k reactions at time of newsletter curation.
🇹🇳 Coworking in Tunisia are taking off, says CNN Africa feature.
Mehdi Doghri shares a video from CNN that highlights the growing ecosystem of coworking spaces and communities in Tunisia.
As someone born in Africa, seeing coworking support more people across the continent brings a smile to my face.
🍂 Could hybrid working have unintended eco consequences?
Adam Blaskey shares an article by Cath Everett in Raconteur that looks at whether hybrid working could actually have a net negative effect on the environment.
In short, even if employees are commuting less, do emissions saved surpass those created by powering and cooling/heating homes, offices and third spaces all at the same time?
🏢 Demand is putting all office owners in the flex space business.
John Arenas shares an (advertorial*) post in Commericial Observer that looks into why almost all office asset owners need to either add flex offerings, or lose market share to those who do.
*Although the linked could be seen by some as an advertorial with the mentioned outlet, I feel the content could be useful for any flex operators approaching, or being approached by, asset owners who are looking for assistance in going flex.
🍼 How free on-site childcare slashed employee turnover.
Starr Edwards shares how offering free childcare affected their employee retention and hiring.
Imagine the impact coworking spaces could have on small businesses, if they could offer bundled or free childcare.
🖐 Alliances offer members a network of perks.
The Atlanta Coworking Alliance share a post highlighting to members that joining a participating space comes with a variety of perks from other coworking spaces and partners.
Great content idea for those running, or building, alliances.
🐝 A soft landing for members, after sudden space closure.
With Workplace closing their Manchester venue, Georgia-Kaye Berry from neighbouring Colony Cowork offered all members left without a workspace, access to their space for the rest of the month, for free.
💔 Space closes after 7 years in Annemasse, France.
Our hearts and biggest thanks go out to Marion Séguret Majou and the whole Entrelac community, who closed their doors after 7 years of supporting local freelancers, businesses and remote workers in Eastern France.
Share This Week's Summary
💻 Coworking technology.
💸 Workspace management platform raises $10M Series-A
Techcrunch broke the news about OfficeRnD‘s latest round of funding.
Interesting data-points dropped with the announcement: 2000+ locations are powered by their technology, servicing more than 300,000 employees or members. The announcement also shares some insights into the new tool to help corporates move towards more flexible workspace management.
📱 Two tenant experience platforms merge into $500M business.
Boston-based HqO and European Office App have announced a merger deal to support a combined 170M sqft of office space.
We covered the former back in week 15/2021’s newsletter when they were backed with $60M by investors like Cushman & Wakefield and JLL Spark.
💰 CRE platform acquires tenant experience app co for $200M.
New York based unicorn VTS announced that they’ve acquired Lane Technologies for $200M. Once closed, the former’s apps will be present in 1,400 buildings, servicing more than 2M users.
This comes on the back of the recent acquisition of Rise Buildings for $100M back in week 10/2021’s newsletter.
Access control and security co raises $15M.
Zerv, who offer app-based touchless access control for commercial buildings and other spaces announced a $15M funding round from investors like GreenPoint Partners and Taronga Ventures.
Keep an eye on the access control space, and the integrations around how they will slip and fit into coworking stacks!
🤖 French startup bets on office-cleaning robots.
Axel Hars shares that Myr has raised €2M (~$2.3M) to build a smart operating system for workplaces. Their current focus is on automating the important task of cleaning, by sharing tasks between human workers and robots.
🔥 How the Workspace Tech boom could affect your spaces’ ops.
As funding and mergers in the workspace tech sector heat up, over on the Syncaroo blog I take a look at what this may mean for workspace operators, and their operational stacks.
Coworking data.
🇬🇧 Does the UK have a shortage of large flex space options?
The Instant Group share a new set of data and insights from the UK market. Notably they share that the amount of space in buildings under contract has back up to 80%, and that 85% of the available space caters to small- and mid-sized companies.
The data goes on to show that only 2% of the available flex space can host 100+ workstations, whilst just 13% can cater to orgs needing 25-100 seats.
🇦🇺 60% feel more productive when they can work flexibly.
Dr John Hopkins shares a link to, and insights around, research conducted by the state of New South Wales government and Edith Cowan University.
The insightful study looked at the psychological health of 1,039 employees in Australia.
📊 What 2,300 office workers want when we go “back to normal”.
Bertie van Wyk shares Hassell‘s 2021 workplace futures survey results, highlighting what folks want, but also how age and commute impacted responses.
Coworking market moves.
🛎 SPAC confirmed, shares start trading today.
WeWork shares, now combined with those from Special Purpose Acquisition Company (or SPAC) BowX, begin trading publicly today on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker WE.
🎨 Pioneering aggregator releases new brand identity.
Mark Gilbreath reveals LiquidSpace‘s new brand identity. The new look also comes with a new logo, website and bold new messaging about a future of infinite possibility. Nicely done team LS!
3️⃣ Three companies collab on $17k video conference booth.
Insider shares how HP, Zoom and Room have collaborated to create a prefab office pod designed specifically for video calls.
The pods can be assembled within a few hours, and come with a webcam and a 27-inch HP PC touchscreen pre-downloaded with Zoom Rooms. Other features can include dimmable lights, adjustable desks, power sources, whiteboards, a skylight and an air ventilation/fan system.
Landlord taps partner to power flex space in Montreal.
Ivanhoé Cambridge announce that its new flex space solution at Place Ville Marie – Montreal is powered by, and is in collaboration with, WeWork.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Claire Carpenter and Alex Ahom discuss the future of coworking and the office.
Jamie Russo and Mitch Gray chat about finding great people, even when it feels hard to do so.
Chris Fleisher and Enrico Moretti discuss the effect that proximity in high-tech hubs has on innovation.
Mark Smukler chats with James Pringle and Hector Mason about shifting from banking to software engineering to founding two proptech companies (and exiting one).
Aaron Block (MetaProp), Louise Monger (Schneider Electric), Chris Green (GreenPoint Partners) and Paul Bailey (Charter Hall) discuss technology and innovation, and the future of venture capital partnerships
📆 Coworking events.
💻 FlexWorld 2021 online in October
Oct 21. OfficeRnD have announced the first edition of their FlexWorld Conference, diving into the opportunities and challenges of flex & hybrid work. The event features two tracks, flex & hybrid.
f/d I’m speaking on a panel on future-proofing demand generation.
📸 Coworking + email marketing.
Oct 29. Coworking Convo dives into email marketing for coworking spaces.
💼 Coworking jobs.
Find or post coworking jobs for free here.