As I attend events as part of the first-ever Boston Startup Week, a nice series of events put together on the subject of startups, it occurs to me just how big co-working spaces have become, especially in the Boston area. They are starting to become quite commonplace, at least in Boston and Cambridge.
I already knew about Workbar, which has a few locations around here. Harvard Business Review held a couple of events I attended last year at one in Central Square in Cambridge, and the event space was nice; I didn’t get to see any actual work space. This week, I’ve thus far gone to events at Alley in Cambridge, which is a few minutes from Harvard Square. There, I’ve been able to see the work spaces, and while they’re fairly basic, I’m sure they work well for the very small companies using it.
Alley includes not only office space, but conference rooms that I have noticed. It has the space to host events like some of the ones for this week, and it looks good. Alley is powered by Verizon, and the big telecom is not just lending their name or money to it – anyone there has access to much more from them.
Well-known entrepreneur Daymond John is in the game with his blueprint + co workspaces, which is a great example of how popular these are becoming. Who knows, someone may go from one of those spaces on to the Shark Tank!
Kidding aside, though, it was nice to get to see such a space up close and personal after hearing much about them. I’m sure it won’t be the last time I see one, and come to find out, there are similar places in Manchester and Portsmouth – and if my idea that the Manchester-Nashua corridor can grow a good deal in high-tech is accurate, we may see plenty more.