Cooperative office space

BY GLENN RITT

You can purchase anywhere from 40 to 160 hours a month at multiple locations

Scenario: You have a home office. It’s wired and filled with all the technology you need to communicate with anyone anywhere. But something is missing – that company office environment, the experience of working alongside colleagues, grabbing a cup of coffee and comparing notes about the Sox or the stock market.

And what happens when you want to hold a meeting or do a presentation? Do you really want everyone coming to your house?

Scenario: You find yourself traveling more and more, setting up meetings once or twice a week from Orleans to Boston, with stops in Plymouth and Brockton. Sure, you have your laptop and BlackBerry. But wouldn’t it be even more productive if you actually had offices in all these locations – without worrying about costly leases, telephones, insurance or any of the hassles associated with commercial space?

In recent years, Peter Karlson, founder of NeuEon, a technology and advisory services firm, encountered many professionals dealing with these and other challenges as they balanced new-age opportunities with the liabilities. Eventually, he had an “Aha!” moment: Create an office-sharing cooperative.

Earlier this year, he and two colleagues launched Venture, with its slogan: ‘Think Together.’

Their first offices were on the second floor of a Cove Road professional building in Orleans. Within months, the trio exponentially expanded with a state-of-the-art location atop Fitness 500 in downtown Hyannis. Plans are under way for offices in Plymouth County and the Boston metro area.

Each Venture location includes high-speed wireless Internet connections at separate carrels, seating areas for collaboration, access to conference and meeting rooms, LCD presentation monitors and a café-like hub for coffee, tea and snacks. An electronic card provides each member secure access to both the Orleans and Hyannis offices – and eventually the other locations. Members purchase from 40 to 160 hours per month, which are coded in the card.

Much like a Charlie card on Boston’s T, your hours are deducted based on the time spent between swiping in and out of any office at any time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Individual memberships begin at 40 hours for as little as $199 per month and go to 160 hours (the equivalent of a full-time office) for $399 a month.

Venture also offers group memberships beginning at 100 hours monthly for $349 a month to 500 hours for $749 a month. All the group plans and most of the individual ones require a minimum six-month contract, discounted as an incentive.

Each plan comes with a minimum number of hours allocated to the conference rooms.

Befitting the company’s reliance on technology, businesses can join online and purchase hourly plans at www.venturethinktogether.com. They will automatically receive a PIN number for future registration.

More recently, Venture has begun adding workshops and events for members as a benefit. Topics have ranged from how to build your own Web site and blog to best practices for setting up a virtual company.

Consultants, freelancers, small business owners, entrepreneurs, homebased workers, and startups can all be served by the memberships, noted Karlson. Most of them have one thing in common – the desire for more professional space and collaboration on a budget that usually is cash-flow based, said Kristen Utt, one of Venture’s three partners. “I think there are a lot of people who work independently on Cape Cod who are very alone,” she said.

At the same time, commercial office space can be very limited – and often too expensive. That was certainly true for Peter Mello, founder of Rainmaker Technologies, a software company in Sandwich with clients around the world – and Venture’s third partner.

While the Orleans office was a modest retrofitting of Karlson’s original NeuEon operation, the trio’s Hyannis complex at 540 Main St. is a very ambitious step up – financed themselves – with all the risks that attend a startup, especially during an economic downturn.

So far, so good. Within weeks of opening its Hyannis doors, Venture counted nearly 20 members, ranging from the computer to the music industry. Utt – who moved to the Cape in 2005 after the Philadelphia company she worked for was purchased by eBay – observed that some members already have partnered with each other and taken consulting jobs together. That sense of collaboration is built into the physical layout.

While a member can be assured of privacy, Venture’s design encourages individuals to connect – either at the café bar area or casual group spaces. “The ultimate goal for Venture is to create an engaged, collaborative community where someone could walk in with an idea and walk out with a viable business,” said Mello.

Cape & Plymouth Business spoke with Karlson, Utt and Mello to learn more about Venture and their perspective on business-to-business in the Internet age.

What has inspired you to create Venture?

Utt: The search for community amid technology. When I first got to the Cape, I obtained a job with an interactive marketing agency whose entire staff telecommuted around the country. I really did not like it. I was sitting in my home office working for people all over the country, but I was not connected to Cape Cod. I wasn’t meeting peers here, nor was I able to easily explore opportunities, both from a business and personal standpoint.

Mello: I had this idea about an Internet café. I worked around the area, and constantly found myself in places like Panera and wired coffee shops. But cafés were a thing of the past. I personally wanted to share office space with others. Peter’s ambition was much greater. He envisioned a community and members; a place that could protect independence and nurture entrepreneurship – but in a communal setting. We all understood the need for people working from home who craved going to the coffee shop, feeding off the energy of others.

Karlson: The idea is to collaborate if you want or be by yourself if you need to. It is not a traditional executive suite. Those are anonymous offices with isolated areas that may share a secretary and high-speed network. This is community space that respects the free agent, but encourages collaboration in the same way that you might in a larger corporate setting.

How do you know what members need?

Mello: We actually held focus groups with a series of 26 questions trying to figure
out what would work. We learned that potential members were less enamored of day plans. Instead, they very much wanted to purchase plans by the hour. The key was flexibility – the opportunity to drop into an office any time day or night. They also wanted convenience – to be near other resources such as restaurants for business lunches or breakfasts. We also share a building with attorneys and CPAs.

Utt: That was very much on our minds when we had the opportunity to occupy this space above Fitness 500. There is great synergy between Venture and a fitness center. We are considering reciprocal benefits and discounts. And health club members are prime candidates for us. They immediately understand the membership model, of course.

What is your business model, and can it work especially during such a tough economy?

Karlson: We opened up the Hyannis facility knowing we need only 32 members to break even. Orleans was cashflow positive after day two. We have used cash from Orleans to help us finance Hyannis. That is critical. Businesses that are reliant on borrowing in this environment are immediately under the gun. It is hard to find financing; and even then, rates and requirements are stiff. We are finding that those who have signed up for a minimum 40-hour-a-month package are mostly re-signing for a six-month commitment. We also can rent the conference room independently if we need to, as long as it never interferes with the needs of members. Down the road, we anticipate that some larger companies – especially those with a regional sales force – may wish to join as group members so they can have all their sales force use the different offices at various times.

Utt: We plan to have one of us here at all times Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. We orient members and, of course, help sell new ones. The key card and entry system allows members to use the offices around the clock, seven days a week. In that respect, we operate on trust. Technically, someone can lend a card to someone else; but so far, we find that this is not the case.

Karlson: Over time, we hope our space attracts such a diverse community that members will be able to help each other, from business plans to actual startups. Somebody may walk in here and say, ‘I want to create this product or start this business.’ And nearby is an attorney or an insurance expert who might help. At other times, members can sign up for classes and workshops we will be hosting or running ourselves at various times.

How does the swipe card work?

Utt: When you swipe your card, you log into the system and it monitors the time you spend per session at either office – and eventually our new ones in Plymouth County and beyond. Also, an Intranet stores and updates your profile. It includes your photo. As a result, other members can learn about you and more easily network. At the same time, individual computer stalls will signal whether you want to be left alone or are open for conversation. Every member has access to the complimentary coffee and tea as well as wireless printer. It’s about independence and freedom, but also responsibility and trust, so there should be no abuse of the privileges. ■


Published in Cape & Plymouth Business September 2009