Price is about 20% higher than the per-person cost of our first office in Chicago's Monadnock building, but our office didn't have the amenities. Is this roughly what co-working spaces cost nationwide?
A membership in a coworking location in DC runs about $300 month, and you don't have a dedicated desk, at least in the place that I was a member. However, the social interaction of the place and other amenities made it worth the cost (if for no other reason than all the referrals I got through there).
This sounds suspiciously like the kind of thing people are inclined to tell themselves because hanging out with the geek crowd at a coworking space sounds more fun and more ego-gratifying than getting some bleak office somewhere. Starting a company gets bleak. Deal with it. It only gets bleaker if you don't.
If I wanted social contact, I'd (a) start or attend meetups, and (b) work out of a coffee shop or the library. I wouldn't pay a $100-$150/mo(!) premium for it.
$200/mo sounds like a decent price for this, though, especially if I wasn't super-committed to my company.
I'm really having trouble following your logic. Are you advocating working in a bleak environment just because it's cheaper? The implied contract of a place like this is a desire to interact with other professionals on a daily basis, that's very different from strangers at starbucks.
I would find this valuable if I was self employed. I'm the type of person who currently has the choice to work from home or the office every day, and 95% of the time I choose the office.
Yes. That is what I am advocating. Or, to hit my sentiment more precisely: I'm advocating not spending 50-75% more per month on working space simply for the benefit of hanging around like-minded people.
I'm not advocating avoiding like-minded people; that would be silly. I'm saying there are ways to get that benefit without shelling out cash for it, and, for that matter, the control and stability that comes from having a 6mo or 1yr lease instead of a month-to-month arrangement.
If it's so hard for you to get the networking and cross-pollination you need that you have to pay $150/mo(!) to get it, I have bad news about how hard it is to acquire customers, partners, and investors.
I don't know about other people, but I don't really care about the environment when I am working - be it coding or designing or researching. All I need from the envolironment is for it be quiet and have good lighting.
Agreed. Plus, you need all the quiet time to focus and concentrate that you can get. I've found coworking spaces to be full of distractions. Spend your non-working time socializing/networking instead of your working time.
One thing that bothers me about coworking spaces is the "anti-office" mentality that assumes the world would be a better place without any kind of working privacy.
I hope it's obvious that I agree strongly with that. It'd be hard to imagine a bleaker space than we started out in (the unventilated warehouse attic of the Haymarket Square building in the West Loop). It was still fun to have a space.
