Coworking Spaces in Cambridge
Cambridge, located just across the river and a short tram ride from Boston is a powerful business hub. It has just as much to boast when it comes to innovative collaboration and coworking spaces. The two cities, together, have taken the lead to support and lead the mobile work shift movement in New England.
The Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) is the granddaddy of progressive workspaces in Greater Boston. The CIC was founded 13 years ago in Kendall Square by yet another forward thinking entrepreneur, Tim Rowe, and continues to be a place where workspace evolves.
The CIC offers several levels of office space including a coworking membership at the C3 Cambridge Coworking Center. The C3 is one of many successful workspaces launched since the founding of the CIC. Others include the Anything Goes Lab and Critical Mass, both accelerator and incubator-like programs for startups. Much has changed over the last 13 years, including the opening of C3, but Tim Rowe’s story is based on the same needs and frustrations that have continued to drive new spaces to open years later.
In an Xconomy article in his 10th year of business, Tim remembers: “I was helping [my wife] do her startup, and I realized that we needed office space and phones and Internet, and all this stuff was a pain in the butt. Verizon would take two months just to install a phone line. You’d have to sign a three-year lease just to get a copier. All of our other friends were doing startups, and they wanted places for their companies too... One thing led to another, and we never looked back.”
One of the main focuses of the CIC and similarly the C3 workspace is to help new ventures gain access to funding and venture capital relationships. To achieve this goal, the CIC houses and partners with several venture capital firms such as DFJ New England Fund and New Atlantic Ventures. These partnerships support much of the educational programming and networking events at the CIC and enable startups to “shoulder-rub against the investors.”
Each Thursday, the CIC also runs the Venture Café, an innovative networking event carefully designed to bring together the CIC community, invited guests and venture capitalists. The Venture Café is where chance encounters are no longer based solely on chance and where serendipity is well crafted.
Close by and founded by the startup Intrepid Pursuits, is Intrepid Labs. Intrepid Pursuits’ story began when it outgrew the C3 workspace after their team rapidly grew from 3 to15 and had to leave. They started Intrepid Labs after experiencing firsthand how difficult it was for large startups, like themselves, to find a coworking space that would not only allow but also encourage them to grow.
After they left C3, the found out that their only remaining option was to sign a traditional 3-year lease and commit to significant overhead costs – A less than ideal sentence for any startup to serve. They knew they were not alone. What Boston lacked was a space that offered the flexibility of coworking, at an affordable rate, and could support the size of growing stratups. They decided to secure a large space for themselves and at the same time, fill this market gap by opening Intrepid Labs.
Tucked away in the unique Cambridge neighborhood known as Inman Square, is the Geek Offices workspace. This is one of two office locations, the second of which is in Newton, MA. Geek Offices has a diverse member community consisting of consultants, digital and web designers, mobile technologies, and cloud services, among others.
The Geek Offices Cambridge location is approximately 15 minutes by foot from the Central Square T stop but members of the Hubway bike-sharing program in Boston can ride over and conveniently park at the nearby Hubway station. John Hayes, Geek Offices founder, shares the story of how he got started:
“I was ramping up my consulting business, and looking for some small office space. I started working with brokers who showed me what they refereed to as, "plug and play" offices, where the tenants had just gotten up and walked away. After seeing some two dozen of these spaces, I realized that with all the freelancers and consultants out there, there’s a need for shared spaces. I tried pitching my plan to several brokers but the commission was too insignificant for them. It wasn't until I started working with building owner Michael Grill, who liked the concept, that the plan started to come together and make sense."
The entrepreneurs that started these spaces have all been part of a much larger coworking movement within Boston. While individually they needed a space to work, collaborate and grow their businesses, together they’ve given thousands of other business owners the opportunity to do the same. So how do you know which space is the right space for you?
Aaron Radez of Boston-based Beacon Hill Partners gives his fellow coworking professionals this personal tip, “Selecting a space is as much about the amenities and geography as it is about the community. A good coworking space offers an ecosystem you can feel when you walk through the door, one that makes you feel like you’ll be able to contribute and get back in return, what you put in. Like the perfect pair of jeans, you should keep looking until you find the right fit for you. You'll know it when you try them on.”
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The author, Evona, works as community manager at Workbar.
