Darren Herman

I have been trying to figure out what is needed within New York City to accommodate early stage entrepreneurs/companies. When talking to early stage folks, they lack a place to work with a creative atmosphere. Most of the time, we work out of our homes and do not have the tools at our disposal to really harness early stage creation such as white boards, break-out space, etc. In NYC, space is at a premium, so tiny studios, 1 bedrooms, or the corner office at our accountant/lawyer suffices.

I am in the process of securing space here in Manhattan for entrepreneurs/early stage companies who want a communal atmosphere that fosters creativity and execution. The space will be equipped with cubicles, couches, white boards, desks, etc – all in an open formation, that a participating ‘member’ would have access to, 24/7. Internet access would be included as well thru a private WIFI network. The space is meant for collaboration and work, not really a cafe/hang-out space. Everyone participating would be working on a project (or in a team that is working on a single project) and could ideally help each other out in different capacities (marketing, technology, operations, hr, etc). Ideally, an ecosystem would evolve within this space.

To keep membership within this ecosystem, a nominal monthly fee would be charged of $200-250/pp. To cancel, you would have to give 30 days notice. The price would cover the space and all the amenities and would weed out the less serious folks. We would allow 25-30 people as members at any given time and would create a directory of members to everyone can learn about each other for networking possibilities. Each month, we would host a different workshop such as business plan writing, raising capital, marketing, technology roadmaping, etc – and would bring in outside speakers to the group. It would be free for members of this ecosystem, but would cost a nominal fee for outsiders.

The space is located in the financial district (easily accessible via Subway) and is meant for technology/marketing/digital media/publishing companies.

If you are interested in helping me launch this OR signing up yourself or your company, please contact me. I am looking to launch this space in June 2007 but need at least 20 people to sign up. I figure I can do this with 5 companies of 4 people, or 20 single person companies. I look forward to hearing from you!

Feel free to promote this post as I’d like this to reach as many entrepreneurs in NYC as possible.

*** Update 2:15pm EST ***

There has been overwhelming demand for this and I’m stoked. Lots of questions have been raised and I’m going to take a stab at creating a FAQ portion of this project. Stay tuned as I’ll be posting this later today or early tomorrow morning.

For those nextNY members out there who know Nate’s fantastic Cafe Bricolage concept, this is not competitive, but rather complimentary. Nate wrote a great post about this at his new site, cafebricolage.com and we are trying to find synergies between us. Over at Y Combinator, there is a great conversation going on about this regarding the NY scene. Any NY’ers want to chime in?