CooBric Makes A Comeback
Coworking group CooperBricolage has temporarily set up shop at a new cafe in the East Village/Union Square area. Starting today, the 'CooBric' folks -- designers, entrepreneurs, etc. -- plan to work out of Gramstand on Ave. A between 13th and 14th Sts. CooBric's Tony Bacigalupo says they are still looking for a long-term space -- last month the group got booted from the restaurant that had housed them since July after it changed management.
At the present time, the CooBric Comm have been speaking with various individuals/organizations who are interested in supporting a dedicated/shared space, but need a business model for clarity sake (charity is not something that happens easily) and there are some other concepts being discussed (David Rose might be able to speak on this).
Gramstand is a pioneer and founded by an entrepreneur as well - and our conversations are growing. The challenge is that the need for coworking - whether it be dedicated space, JIT space, space for travelers to our fair city - all have value propositions that need to be vetted and determined. Being all things to everybody usually leads to failure.
CooBric as a concept and a team is about addressing some of the needs - and I am proud to be a member of the team. But please - join us in this search for solutions. We are always looking (and listening) for fresh voices and ideas. Send us an email at sanford/tony/jhall at coobric dot....well, you know and we meet on Tuesday nights at 6-6:30pm for dinner.
I agree about the location-- it's the biggest downside by far to the current space.
But that said, the intent of this particular incarnation is to fulfill the needs of the casual/social/cafe side of the coworking world-- the people who don't need white boards and conference rooms.
And for a lot of them, this spot is great. We had a good ten people today, which is not bad since I only posted about it last night. Most of us are planning on coming back tomorrow simply because we had such a good time today. And there's no financial factor at all here, so there's no real pressure in terms of success or failure. It's simply a cool place to hang out.
That being said, a lot of my personal passion is still directed toward that more permanent space-- the "corporate coworking" so to speak. As expected, that takes a little more time.
So this time around we're not trying to kill two birds with one stone-- we learned a lot about what people want during our time at Cafe Fuego. If the Gramstand deal sounds good to you, then it's cool. If it doesn't fit your needs at all, then it's probably next on my list :-)
I also read and enjoyed Charlie's post-- he's definitely got a great idea going there. I hope more companies take notice!
I still like my idea of corporate coworking :)