Week 31, 2022

Tracey Warren shares a copy-paste letter template for employees stuck working-from-home to send to their bosses to make the case for using a local coworking space.

Phil Kirschner shares then when it comes to the workspace user experience, "the clock is ticking on societal tolerance for a gap between personal and work experiences."

He mentions that if we can tap a watch to get into the NYC subway, then why are offices still printing visitor slips, handing out key cards or having to use specialized tech platforms?

This is actually a topic we covered in all three panels at the recent Immersive NYC event, you can see my summary of that here. In short: tech and data-syncing is improving drastically, making it increasingly seamless for individuals and teams to go ‘from curb to suite’.

Coworking is. Obviously. It sits alongside Traditional Offsites and Retreat-style Offisites – the other two ways Dropbox employees intentionally gather.

Melanie Rosenwasser, Chief People Officer at Dropbox shared some notes about how Dropbox’s Virtual First operating model is decidedly not virtual-only, and how intentionality is a ken tenet of their approach for creating a flexible experience for employees.

Interestingly the firm has two ‘forms’ of coworking, based on team needs: "General coworking" which includes working day-to-day projects or things like product launches. For more collaboration across functions, they’ve also introduced "anchor weeks" for larger working groups to collaborate. You can learn more about each in the last link in Melanie’s post.

Tapua Tunduwani, from SaGE Workspace in SF, reminds us just how many tech giants started and grew from within the walls of coworking spaces in the city.

Have you hosted a giant, unicorn, or troop of ninjas? Have you blogged about your part in their journey? If not, why not?!

Google updated its Google Business Profile (GBP) listings policy to provide more clarity to its terms for coworking space owners and virtual offices. Google wants what we all want – HAPPY CUSTOMERS!

ICYMI: In 2021 Google updated their policy on signage/access requirements to add a business listing based within a coworking space. From what I can see they’ve now clarified this on their guidelines document and included a clause blocking virtual office customers from creating map listings. From a quick search this has always been their policy, it’s just going to be enforced more moving forward.

The dialogue around brokers, operators and whether to disintermediate (or not) continues, this time with an "open letter" form of communication addressing deteriorating relationships with real estate brokers in the flexible workspace sector. In this letter, Michael Dubicki, outlines problematic broker behaviors including claiming indefinite client ownership, pursuing renewal fees on long-term members, sending poorly qualified leads, misrepresenting products during tours, pressuring for enhanced fees, and gatekeeping client communication.

For a while now, TWIC has been covering the up and down dynamics between brokers and operators. Many insights and opinions have been shared on what the future of flex brokerage looks like and most importantly the role technology plays in that future.

Many acknowledge that structural flaws incentivize "parasitic" behavior while also calling for transparency around client ownership and incentives, better lead qualification, fair fee structures, and industry regulation to establish common standards. There’s a lot of talk, but not a lot of action. What is the best way for brokers and operators to evolve these partnerships around accountability and long-term value creation?

In an unexpected twist, WeWork went from not getting involved with "coworking things" to now running a campaign calling August 7th as "WeWork Day".

Claudio Hidalgo does say this is their first ever WeWork Day and that it is a kick off for celebrating International Coworking Day (which is August 9th). But I’m curious to hear what you think…

Cat Johnson shared an eight-step Thought Leadership Framework to help professionals clarify their market position and value proposition. The framework covers vision, mindset, positioning, unfair advantages, expertise categories, target audience, communication channels, and publishing cadence.

This structured approach addresses everything from identifying purpose beyond profit to establishing consistent content systems.

Bernie Mitchell shares 5 big mistakes a lot of coworking spaces make with their weekly newsletters. From inconsistency, to only sharing promotions, it’s a great list to run over if you’re sending out newsletters. And it’s an even more important list if you’re not sending out regular newsletters yet.

In this newsletter, Cobot gives you 11 tips on how to ask your members for Google Reviews (both online and offline) without coming off as pushy.

It also includes a free checklist to download as PDF

The Optix team sat down with Mitchell Purdy to learn about his journey into coworking, his philosophy on community building, and what it takes to operate Suite Genius, a successful network of coworking spaces, for over a decade.

Many operators open spaces with the intention of welcoming customers of all shapes and sizes, but find it difficult to land enterprise accounts. Whether that be from brokerage firms or direct outreach. Kayley DiCicco from Expansive shares her experience in developing a profitable enterprise sales vertical from scratch over five years, starting with cold calling Fortune 1000 companies despite limited brand recognition in the flexible workspace market.

The strategy development process involves defining the market, shaping product offerings, crafting targeted messaging, building sales processes, establishing credibility, and scaling through iteration with operations and marketing teams.

Bryce Hill shares that Office Evolution Denver members are getting a new amenity: complimentary e-bikes for their use throughout the day.

This is not only a great way to quickly pop out of the office, but also expands the hyperlocal economic impact radius of each participating space. Are you offering anything like this?

StartDock launched a new episode of their "StartDock Chronicles" podcast focusing on the history of their original coworking location at Herengracht 420 in Amsterdam. The Golden Age canal house previously served as a residence for Amsterdam’s elite before becoming a bank, with the former bank vault now functioning as a meeting room within the coworking space.

There are so many coworking spaces housed in unique and historic places (including banks). Don’t forget that historical storytelling makes for great marketing for coworking operators to promote their spaces by highlighting the unique heritage and character of their buildings.

Clubhouse Work & Golf shared some snaps and membership tiers (no public pricing yet) from their upcoming center, which provides golf lovers both a social area and a dedicated area for getting work done.

Coworking consultant, Jana Greer shares that for investors and owners alike, choosing the right location is often the single most critical factor in a CRE project’s long-term success. But how do you distinguish between a good location, an okay one, and the right one?

The process begins long before you start touring properties — it starts with clarity.

Read over the summary of OfficeRnD‘s recent webinar, in which Miro Miroslavov and David Adato, the CTO at Downtown Works, discuss considerations and observations about the technologies actively reshaping payment processes in flex spaces.

Great to see content from Workbar highlighting 3 ways in which their suburban hubs empower caregivers who are grappling with the chaos that is childcare.

From flexible and supportive environments, to collab opportunities, and the reduced commuting and stress – there’s a tonne of benefits – and more spaces should highlight these in their messaging.

Free pro-tip for spaces servicing working parents? Look into hiring babysitters during school holidays.

Cape Town-based coworking and coliving operator AfricaWorks was ranked fifth in the Financial Times’ 2025 "Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies" list, making it the only coworking company in the top tier based on growth between 2019 and 2022. Founded in 2019, they operate over 25k sqm of office space across 15+ locations in Dakar, Accra, Lagos, Abidjan, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Lusaka.

AfricaWorks achieved revenue growth of over 3,500% during the measurement period, multiplying revenue by 40x to reach approximately $5M in 2022, while employing 150 people (or $33.3k p/employee). The company serves over 1,000 corporate clients including Spotify, TikTok, L’Oréal, Mastercard, and Flutterwave, and this marks its fourth consecutive year appearing in the FT ranking.

In this post Dave Cairns looks at why they believe "work clubs" will become the most common workspaces besides the home. It’s an interesting look at how (and why) more relaxed and social third spaces may be growing in popularity.

I don’t believe these kinds of spaces are necessarily alternatives or competitors to great coworking spaces, but the term and positioning may be a great new opportunity for those who own it and make the space + experience worth a premium or possibly corporate membership.

COO of Hub Australia, John Preece, wrote an article drawing parallels between Tokyo’s urban management and scaling strategies for coworking spaces.

He presents seven key lessons for operators including designing dense but flexible modular layouts, building reliable invisible infrastructure, fostering culture-based compliance rather than rule enforcement, and creating polycentric networks of locations rather than single large spaces. He emphasizes Tokyo’s approach of decentralized neighborhoods, each with distinct character but connected by efficient transit, as a model for coworking operators to create location families that serve different audiences and needs.

John’s analysis positions Tokyo’s resilience planning, third-space curation, and balance of innovation with tradition as essential frameworks for sustainable coworking growth.

Virtual mail offerings are driving huge revenues for many operators, and have consistently done so even through the pandemic. But how do potential spaces find you? Rose Rivera from PilotoMail digs into 5 ways coworking spaces can market virtual mailboxes.

Examples are shared for social media, content marketing, email campaigns, referrals and SEO.

A creative and insightful LinkedIn post from Clockwise Offices‘ Scarlett Benton positioned "working from home" as the flexible workspace industry’s biggest competitive threat, drawing parallels to Netflix’s founder calling "sleep" their main competitor.

The post highlights the ongoing challenge five years post-2020 of convincing workers to choose office space over home comfort and convenience, particularly when companies commit to 12-month licenses but worry about low utilization rates.

She emphasized how Clockwise’s strategy focuses on building community-led, experience-driven programming including events and networking opportunities to create compelling reasons for members to choose office attendance over remote work.

Jeff Eckert shares the 2 things (according to JLL) that tenants want from flex workspaces.

Spoiler alert: they’re seamless tech and sustainable solutions, but shares a video featuring Kez Anderson digging into 5 things tenants want from flexible office buildings.

Ok this one link was sent to me by a few people across coworking, flex and proptech.

So what do we know? Collette Club is very exclusive (just 300 memberships) and is pretty expensive ($165k year one then ‘just’ $35k per year.. per member).

But… what catches my eye is that the $130k buy-in ‘club share’ to become a member can be sold on when it’s no longer needed, or for the right price. I wonder if they’ve considered using an NFT, or if that would be too public for the clientele they’re looking to host.

CNN takes a look into the results (so far) from the huge 4-day work week trial happening in the UK right now.

The six-month pilot commits 3,300 workers across 70 companies to work 80% of their usual week in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity.