Taking over cities worldwide, a new type of business is spreading. Shared working space businesses, like the growing American company WeWork, offer other companies a place to work in a professional yet community-driven setting. It is no surprise then, that WeWork spaces are expanding into national, well-known hubs for office space.
Founded in 2010, WeWork's first location was in Soho, New York City. Today, that number is growing past 200 locations around the country and internationally. Offering a better way to start companies given economic crises, WeWork takes advantage of empty buildings to allow freelancers a common place to advance their businesses. By buying renting empty office spaces wholesale, WeWork subleases redesigned smaller office spaces by a membership design. The membership design offers a lower payment for an office space, simultaneously removing the hassle for setting up common services with traditional offices, such as new furniture and wireless services. Known startups such as Reddit, the American social news and discussion website, have expanded their business through the use of WeWork spaces. The growth of WeWork has also led to the creation of subsidiary services, such as WeWork Labs in 2011, which offers an open workspace for startup companies that are still working through business ideas.
Led by WeWork CEO and Founder Adam Neumann, WeWork continues to be on the rise. WeWork relies heavily on funding to make its mark, and first used venture capital firms to raise $355 million USD in 2014. Between 2014 and 2016, WeWork continued to raise almost $1 billion USD from investors, making itself worth roughly 16.9 billion USD. Since then, WeWork has been funded by well-known financial firms such as JPMorgan Chase
The advantages of shared working spaces is simple. With shared working spaces, members can have their own working space already set up with Wi-Fi, furniture and printing. In addition, shared working spaces offer a community of like-minded individuals who also desire to grow their own businesses. This alone can lead to the the projection of innovative business ideas with new roads to business deals along the way.
One shared working space business has redefined the idea of co-working. The Wing, New York City's first all-female co-working space, offers a professional and communal space for females working on their own businesses. Settled in the historic district Ladies Mile, the first area where ladies could shop without the accompaniment of their husbands, The Wing is redefining what it means to build your business as a lady. As a business, The Wing is only spreading along America; the business recently closed on a $8 million USD funding that will allow it to open new areas. The Wing founder and CEO Audrey Gelman explained the growth, stating "We quickly realized the demand outpaced the square footage we had." And this growth isn't a mistake; first starting out with a waitlist of 1,300 women willing to buy a membership, the wait list has grown to about 3,000.
While co working spaces are built on community, it seems likely that the community aspect will become a corporate success. Retail companies are eyeing this enthusiasm for growing co-working spaces, with some coffee shops and even bars offering area for shared working spaces as well. Nevertheless, co-working businesses are changing the idea of communal working, globally.
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2017/04/05/womens-club-the-wing-raises-8-million-series-a-adds-3-locations/#7afc90ac20c0
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-03/people-are-paying-to-work-from-bars-and-restaurants
- https://therealdeal.com/issues_articles/weworks-new-corporate-life/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/24/realestate/luxury-buildings-latest-amenity-co-working-spaces.html
