NYC Entrepreneurial Space – Open Source

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.

After about 45 days of dealing with multiple properties and looking at term sheets and arrangements, I decided to pass on this idea, but that does not mean that this idea should die… which is why I’m sharing my thoughts and notes with everyone so maybe they can be used in some other capacity.

My overall vision after having it refined by multiple close friends and colleagues was to create an early stage inspiration space for entrepreneurs to come and conceptualize and incubate their ideas.  This is not the type of space you’d run your ad-sales team out of or code 24/7 with your entire coding team, but rather a bright space that inspires creativity and the place where you can begin writing your business plan, work on selecting co-founders, talk about raising capital, meet your next lawyer/accountant, etc.  My ultimate goal was to create an entrepreneurial network for digital media and technology and have multiple spaces around the world so that people can use them in whichever major city they were traveling to.

This space would have couches, desks, wifi, white boards, bean bags, sofas, coffee tables, but not cubicles or permanent desks that you would sit day-in/day-out for months.  There was a software component that we were going to build that would allow you to reserve space and coordinate when you were going to be there with others – so you could maximize your time in the space by seeing if other likeminded individuals were going to be there at the same time.

Think of this as an entrepreneurs social network with physical space in multiple cities.  You would pay a monthly fee but would have access to great people and entrepreneurial space that would help you get your startup off the ground.

All of this sounds grand and I was ready to take this all on.  I was going to build out the software with my team and create deals with vendors on a revenue share basis.  Unfortunately, the lead space I wanted to work with was moving much too slow and showed disinterest over time due to a few corporate issues.  Could I have gotten this up and running had there been readily available space?  Probably – and could launch it in 90 days… however, my resource is being spread too thin now and will be fighting battles elsewhere.

If you want to pick up this idea or talk with me about it, I certainly welcome it.  I have learned much while talking to different people relevant to this and could impart anything I’ve learned…even a collection of domain names I was going to use for this project.

If you’re looking for some extremely cost efficient space and want a cool atmosphere in the mean time, check out Sunshine Suites who are opening a new location in Tribeca.  The principals Cheni and Joe are friends of mine and I was fortunate to be a tenant… these guys know how to create a community for their tenants and I’ve referred many nextNY’ers and blog readers to their space and all have thanked me.  You can check them out here.

Long live the NYC entrepreneurial scene…

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 8:38 pm and is filed under Darren Herman, Startup & Venture Capital. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.