Randomness and Why I am No Longer a Fan of Coworking Spaces
It wasn’t long ago that I was envious of others working at coworking offices. I was living in New Jersey traveling to New York City for meetups. I was jealous of those working at The Hive at 55 or New Work City. I wanted to be in an office with cool startups and be a part of “the scene”. After I moved to Boston, I doubled my freelance workload and soon felt comfortable enough to purchase space at a coworking office in Boston. Workbar Boston was the new home of all of Robert M. Cavezza’s enterprises. I was excited. I was finally able to call someplace home other than my house or random coffeeshops
When I started at WorkBar, I thought I would meet new people everyday. I thought there would be fresh new startups. I thought I would be a little more hip than I already was (hard to believe, right?). It turned out that the same people were there everyday. It was rare someone new showed up. Most of the people working there weren’t working on startups, but were freelancers. Instead of getting a startup feel, I felt like I was working in a fortune 500 company. :-(
Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe I thought a coworking place would make all my startup dreams come true – like hanging out with @Jason and Dave McClure (Man, that’d be awesome). Either way, I came away disappointed from my experience at a coworking space.
I can still comfortably choose to work at a coworking facility, but now I prefer coffee shops.
I don’t have anything against coworking facilities. I think they are a great choice for people in many different circumstances. I just don’t think it’s a great place for a startup. There just wasn’t enough randomness…
I love randomness. I thrive for randomness. I think randomness is something that makes great startups great. I love being the guy in a coffee shop that butts in a conversation. It’s awesome! You can meet someone in an entirely different industry. You can never predict these random chance meetings and good things almost always come from them.
For the next few months I plan on ditching coworking space while spending much more time at random coffeeshops.
As a side note: If you want to try a coworking facility, but don’t think you have enough money, you’re probably wrong. Add up your coffee receipts from last month. Odds are you spent around a $100 on coffee. Consider that most coworking hotspots give you free coffee and only cost $150 and you may be surprised that you can afford some office space.
Bob Cavezza lives in Boston and is currently building EasyUnsubscriber.com
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