An Entrepreneurs Dream - NYC
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?
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April 6th, 2007 at 7:45 am
this sounds awesome d…
man, what you are doing here in nyc with stuff like the darren salon and now this darren space project just rocks spurring community, thought and creation….
you go!!!
April 6th, 2007 at 8:24 am
Awesome
April 6th, 2007 at 8:44 am
[...] Darren Herman wants to start a new space in NYC for early stage entrepreneurs/companies: [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Darren - I didn’t know you’re interested in real estate business!
Count David Chen and I in!
April 6th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
[...] NYC-based entrepreneur/celeb Darren Herman unveiled his plans to put a coworking space in the ultra-cheap and accessible Financial District. He has good company [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
“$200-250/pp”
is this per month?
April 6th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
Darren - thats a really impressive project. New York’ll really benefit from it. Congrats. Philip
April 6th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
Starting Up in NYC? Looking for a Home?…
Check out Darren Herman’s plans to have a space where startups can co-habit, network and generally feel the love. When I was at Live365 and travelling frequently to NYC, I operated out of a similar kind of space in Tribeca….
April 6th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
[...] Now this is slightly different in the sense that it is not a bootcamp backed by VCs. This idea is more of a co-op, a place where multiple startups can collectively share office space, resources, and each other. [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
[...] points to a new effort to find co-sharing space for start-ups in New York City. Share/E-mail | Sphere | Print | Topic: The Daily | Tags: cosharing space [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
[...] Herman has launched a business incubator/workspace hybrid in New York City. It’s an open workspace that [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
[...] Rags points to a new effort to find co-sharing space for start-ups in New York City. [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
this is really neat. we’ve been talking about doing something like this in Miami, any tips for finding the space and funding for it?
April 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
don’t forget to post this to the coworking email list!!!
April 6th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
This isn’t a new idea at all. Think Essex Street Studios and every hipster art space in Williamsburg. I think the Financial District is too far south. Why not something closer to Soho, Tribeca, or the LES? Why not Brooklyn?
April 6th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Darren, Thats great to hear. Congrats on putting this together!
KLH
April 6th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
[...] Rags points to a new effort to find co-sharing/co-working space for start-ups in New York City. [...]
April 6th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
You could try Joel:
would be interested http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/03/26.html
April 6th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Having recently moved out of NYC, I can definitely say this is a great idea and much needed.
Does anyone know of a similar type of space in San Francisco? Seems like we need one here too.
April 7th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Great Project, good luck!
April 7th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hey James,
Check out Citizen Space over in SF. Don’t know whether they are still accepting new citizens though.
http://citizenspace.us/
April 7th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Kudos re: GigaOM. Great post. If you need any PR help, contact me. Know a lot of real estate reporters here in NYC who would be interested in covering your efforts. Jim Bruni/ Bruni PR brunipr@aol.com
April 7th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Just wanted to reach out and say THANK YOU to everyone who has shown so much enthusiasm for this endeavor. Whether you’re looking to help plan it, or looking for space for your early stage idea/company, all your compliments and criticisms have been extremely helpful. Feel free to reach out… will be following this up with a post shortly.
April 7th, 2007 at 10:59 am
[...] an overwhelming response. Everyone from Om Malik to Rags Gupta to Cafe Bricolage picked up on my blog posting about new entrepreneurial space here in Manhattan and there has been incredible interest from folks [...]
April 7th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I wanted to echo Noel and invite you to post your work to the Coworking community wiki — where we’re endeavoring to set up a network of such spaces around the world to serve the needs to independents and self-starters.
We’re off to a great start and would love for you to both learn from our experiences in setting up and running these spaces as well as contribute from your experience to the work of the community!
April 7th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
[...] DOLLARI ed ho assunto 100 PERSONE senza aver la minima idea di cosa fargli fare….” oggi ho letto un articolo in cui un imprenditore newyorkese mette a disposizione di nuovi imprenditori o di start-up degli [...]
April 8th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
Is this like Techspace? http://www.techspace.com/officespace/newyorkus.aspx
Best,
Brian at PropertyShark.com
April 8th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
[...] Darren Herman - Marketing, Advertising, Media and Technology Blog » Blog Archive » An Entrepreneur… I wish I had access a space like this about two years ago. Unfortunatly NYC is still WAY behind San Francisco in having a environment that supports entrepreneurs. (tags: I wish had access a space like this about two years ago. Unfortunatly NYC is still WAY behind San Francisco in having environment that supports entrepreneurs. entrepreneurship startup) [...]
April 9th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Living in Queens makes it even tougher to find places like this — sometimes we have to improvise and use non-convential spaces to accomodate a creative itch. Although, as most are, the most creative ideas usually originate in the most inopurtune moments and spaces, creating a communal creative atmosphere would be great. There is an a similar idea/option offered by Laguardia.. found here: http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/lgincubator/
April 9th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
[...] is an entrepreneur’s dream in New York City. I like the idea of being in a place, working, knowing that the people around me [...]
April 11th, 2007 at 9:44 pm
The ability to share a space with other creative entrepreneurs is exciting. There are so many people out there that would benefit from sch an atmosphere.
April 12th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
[...] An entrepreneur’s dream - NYC - DarrenHerman.com People don’t scroll…emails - 37signals.com Ideas Worth Spreading: Hans Rosling from TED 2006 - on GoogleVideo [...]
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
I recommend Long Island City if anyone wants a cheaper coworking option that’s one stop from midtown.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/lic/lic1.shtml
The city has designated an area for new business development that would be perfect for one, and probably cheaper than you’ll find anywhere else.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
[...] to what YCombinator or Techstars have been working on. Actually it might be more in line with The Hive from Andew Luter or workspace idea for NYC by Darren Herman. Only difference is that developers don’t need to [...]
April 25th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I’m a virtual ad agency, and I love coworking. I was involved in a coworking situation in the 90’s and it’s a perfect approach to my art/business hybrid lifestyle.
I’m interested in meeting anybody who wants to cowork and collaborate. My specialty is online games, flashed out interfaces, flash animation, stunning flash business presentations and all other cutting-edge visual eye candy.
My site is:
http://www.kliknosis.com
May 21st, 2007 at 8:38 pm
[...] Back in early April, I alluded to some entrepreneurial space that I was thinking of building out and it got picked up across the blogosphere with overwhelming response. Had I been a real estate agent here in Manhattan or had already built out this space, I could have filled it up rather quickly. [...]
November 21st, 2007 at 2:21 am
Great work Darren, similary we are providing in UK, it really help companies getting appropriate place without any hassles!
December 11th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
So tell us Darren! Did it work?? Are you set up? If so where is the space and are there any openings?!!!
Fantastic idea, a creative orgy! wishing you the best of success with it,
Angie
April 12th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
[...] in April of 2007, Darren Herman announced his desire to make a similar thing to our dream, and 45 days later realized the challenges that accompany this [...]