The sweet smell of collaborative success (Brought to you by coworking)

During a recent weekly meeting, our team was considering what peripherals we could offer to coworkers. There’s the obvious list — monitors, chargers, that sort of thing. But when the question was put to me — What is it I’d most like — I said silence. To which Julie immediately responded noise canceling headphones.

I mention this conversation because it’s interesting to me how one space is going to be able to meet an array of very different needs, some of which seem mutually exclusive. A big part of the idea of coworking is that it collaboration and camaraderie are highly encouraged. Which involves talking. So why would someone like me, who loves working in complete silence, even go to a coworking space?

That’s easy. Just because I like quiet doesn’t mean I like isolation. I dig having others around, also working. For one thing, it helps me keep my butt in the chair (as opposed to frequent breaks from the my office at home, during which I do such productive things as try to teach my Boston Terriers to dance to The Girl from Ipanema.)

As I often do, I was telling my boyfriend about this work discussion. And, as he often does, he gave me his thoughts on the matter. For him, the most appealing aspect of coworking is precisely the opposite of mine. He thinks the collaboration is the most promising aspect of coworking spaces. And he pressed me to come up with some success stories about how collaboration in coworking spaces is leading to greater things.

So I posted a note at the coworking group on Google asking folks for just such examples. Does it really happen that people from different disciplines meet each other in the spaces, put their heads together, and come up with great new ideas? (As I type this, I am thinking of the old TV ads for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups — remember where one person is walking along with peanut butter and another is walking along with chocolate and they collide and discover that, potential concussions aside, they’ve come up with a great combination?)

As they often do, my virtual coworkers, Alex Hillman of Indy Hall in Philly and Tara Hunt of Citizen Space in San Francisco were quick to respond.

Alex wrote:

We’ve historically got at least two high profile projects to emerge from 
IndyHall collab. There have been a number of organically formed teams form around projects 
that were less visible, or client related, as well.

One of the high profile projects Alex refers to is iSepta, to help folks navigate Philly transit via phone, created by Randy Schmidt, Chris Conley, and Jason Tremblay. The other is Ripit, a simple DVD ripper for Macs, created by Jason Allum, Johnny Bilotta, Dave Martorana, and Dave Speers.

Hats off to the organic success stories, people!

Tara wrote:

A couple of people stopped in from Toronto the other day. As they were settling, I asked them a bit about their product, so they gave me their 
demo. I was blown away! A couple of days before, I had lunch with a really awesome VC in the valley who asked me to keep my eyes peeled for cool stuff 
happening. As soon as I saw this, I dropped him an email. The next day, they 
went for lunch and are now in negotiations for their first round of funding! Without them stopping into coworking, they may have not had that introduction.

Then, I found this post by Paul Campbell, who is in Ireland, and who got turned on to coworking last year after a visit to Citizen Space. He in turn opened TL01, the first coworking space in Dublin. While working there, he and fellow coworker Eoghan McCabe decided to go into business together, which they’ve done.

Writes Campbell:

The last nine months have been some of the most productive, inspiring months of my life. Eamon Leonard and Eoghan McCabe took on the coworking philosophy and wore it proudly. Last February, Eoghan and I decided to go into business together. We share similar ambition, goals and ideals in business and in what we do and our skills complemented that wonderfully. Last week, we announced and formally launched Contrast.

So the (sort of) bummer is that they’re leaving TL01 behind. But I have to say this is a great example of how coworking is bringing folks together in ways they might not have come together before. Congratulations to Contrast!