Not the competition

I heard about Intelligent Office, a franchise outfit that bills itself as “the leader in virtual officing and phone reception.” They’ve got locations in sixteen states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Austin’s got a location, in the Frost Bank Tower at 4th and Congress, a fancy, schmancy building some folks think looks like a giant pair of nose hair clippers.

So I got up the other morning, and headed down to check out what they were about. Since they offer temporary office space and sundry amenities I wanted to see how they compared to what we have planned.

I had another business appointment scheduled for that morning — I’m working on a piece for the New York Times — and so I dressed in my business/journalist clothes. Which for me, living in Austin and all, includes Levi’s, a Gap shirt, and a few layers of brightly colored hand-knitted articles since, brrr, it had dropped down to around 55 degrees, freezing by my standards.

I mention my outfit for a reason. I’m not self-conscious about what I wear unless I realize, too late, I’ve walked into a setting where what I wear gives others pause. In this case, wandering into the shiny, highly polished lobby of the Frost Tower, a honeycomb of workers who understand the concepts of how to tie a tie, the purpose of dry cleaning, and what an iron is for, I felt like the proverbial fish out of water.

I zipped up to the fifteenth floor in an elevator that can go zero to sixty quicker than my four-cylinder car. And I stepped into office land. Intelligent Office is very much an office space. I took a little tour. They’ve got fifteen offices, with doors, and a couple of conference rooms, one large and one small, each featuring table, chairs, and a white board/video screen combo. Safe, generic framed “art” is placed carefully. It had that Starbucks sense to it—like I could probably visit any of their other locations and find the exact same setting.

Which is fine. There are folks in the world who like uniformity, if not, we wouldn’t have Walmarts and Targets and Chili’s restaurants, right?

The sales rep gave me a tour. I was very straight with her, told her I worked for LaunchPad Coworking, and that we were opening a space nearby. My honesty (and maybe my outfit) netted me less information than if I’d shown up in a business suit claiming to want to rent a space. But LaunchPad Coworking is as much about transparency as anything else, and I didn’t want to BS the rep. She, in turn, said she couldn’t give me a sheet listing exact prices since I wasn’t seriously interested.

Well, I was seriously interested in hearing their full offerings. I did manage to get out of her that the pricing structure involves some sort of membership fee, upon which other charges are added. The membership fee, she told me, ranges from $65 to $1895 per month. That’s a pretty broad spectrum. Apparently the low end gets you an answering service, so that if you are working under a bridge or in your bedroom or at a gas station, you can still give clients the idea you have a fancy office. Pay more — she wouldn’t say how much — and you can get an office. On Fridays they bake cookies for the occupants.

But there’s not a common area for coworking. No collaboration here, except maybe what regular renters have to say to each other as they pass in the hallways.

By contrast, shared space is what LaunchPad Coworking is all about. Do you have to talk to the person at the next table over? Nope. But if you want to, you can know that others who’ve gathered are open to the idea of spontaneous brainstorming. (And we’re coming up with a way for coworkers to indicate when they are open to chatting and when they are deep in uninterruptible thought.)

Plus, while you’re welcome to wear a suit if that makes you happy, we won’t kick you out for dressing like I do, a sort of cross between high-end homeless chic and a seventies lesbian. In fact, we love diversity. Which is the biggest differential that I could see. Austinites might be tired of the phrase “Keep Austin Weird,” but there’s a nice truth to the expression that captures how this city encourages folks to make their own way, figure out what works best for them. That’s something LaunchPad Coworking understands.

We’re unique to Austin. And, because we’re taking the best coworking ideas we can find and adding our own spin, we’re unique in the coworking world. And we’re ready and waiting anytime the Intelligent Office Mates need a break from stuffy and want to just come on over and hang.