The Incubator & Co-Working Space Revolution

I’m pretty fired up about all the activity with incubators and co-working space for startups and entrepreneurs. There is a bit of this going in in Los Angeles, but it’s really happening in the Bay area, Seattle and New York. I’ve started organizing my travel schedule so I can visit these places wherever I go. I’m giong to try and keep a log of what I like and don’t like and share it here.

Tuesday July 12, 2011

TechDwellers Working Space – 6100 4th Avenue South Seattle, WA

Was able to stop by TechDwellers in Seattle today. I wasn’t super impressed. It’s more of a short term office space type environment. The space itself isn’t bad, lots of glass which is nice, but it’s not really co-working and it’s definately not an incubator. It’s just executive suites with common areas. They do have some big spaces though, so for an actual startup that needs cost effective space in a cool building, it may be a good fit. They have one unit that was vacant about 4,500 SQFT which was one big open area with all glass, it’s own bathroom with shower and a kitchen. Great view. That would be a solid space for an emerging startup. Very far from downtown though. Food is near in Georgetown they said, walking distance, but not nearly as cool as where Techstars is for example.

Photo Here

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Friday July 8, 2011

I/O Ventures Startup Incubator and Co-Working Space – 780 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA

Really great environment; I love it. The bottom level has a full coffee bar with food too (beer and wine coming soon they say). This is essentially a co-working space, although free because it’s part of the coffee shop. The tables are genius, very efficient. You can pack them in. One failure however is that they don’t have plugs built in, in fact I couldn’t find plugs anywhere really. Also interesting, and rather random as it relates to this post, much less use of Macs there than I would expect. In LA at places like Coloft it’s all about the Mac, I’d say 7 to 1 ratio, but it was about 3 to 1 ratio PC at I/O. Upstairs are the incubated startups. I think they have about 5 at any given time. Either they are in-between sessions, or someone was out because there was very little action up there. I was expecting to see people humming away (ala @davemcclure tweet about guys working past 1AM on a Thurs). But still, the space was sick; big rollup doors in front, high bow-truss ceilings, glowing robes, striking.

Photo Here

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Weekly Visits (Member)

Coloft Co-Working Space – 920 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA

This is the default LA co-working space for entrepreneurs and tech. The space is not huge, it’s not built out as good as it could be (hey, it’s a startup too), but it’s got way more energy and vibe than any place I’ve been thus far. Even at 3AM, and people are ALWAYS there are 3AM, it’s buzzing. If you’re smart you’ll spend time there. Give it to Avesta and Cam who run the place (although they’re never there during proper business hours, probably  because they are doing the LA party scene too (see FB for details), they made a great place. They have good Aeron chairs, lots of them. Not sure how they scored that, I’m guessing some startup failure hand-me-down. They have roaming flatpanels for use by anyone. I’m here right now, it’s a Sunday at 11AM, and people are here banging.

Photo Here