#weworklabs

Where were you before this? What made you decide to start/working for a co-working space?

Marissa Feinberg (@marissafeinberg):  I was working in social design. The Green Leaders Global group I organized enabled great dialog on sustainable topics.  We wanted a place to meet and work alongside one another every day, which led to the development of Green Spaces.

Ted Kramer:  I was working at a startup called Efficiency 2.0, and last spring we had our exit.  I loved the idea of working with startups and acting as a mentor to them.  Being able to share my experiences and expertise was very attractive.

Jason Saltzman (@SaltzmanJason):  I have been an entrepreneur my whole life. I worked mostly in different verticals such as real estate and marketing, but hated it. Made a ton of money, but I lacked a real sense of purpose in my life. Through one of the many businesses we created, my business partner Jonathan Ende thought it would be an awesome idea to destroy paperwork.  With the financial backing of a commercial real estate attorney, David Galanter, we started Seamlessdocs. When we started pitching the product in NY, we noticed a huge gap in the co-working market in Midtown. The area is prime for taking business meetings, and through validating the market, we knew we could get it done. I jumped on it and started marketing the space. That was one year ago, and now we are completely full and in the process of negotiating for more space.     

Benjamin Dyett (@BenjaminDyett):  My story is one originally rooted in necessity. Before I started Grind with my partners, I was a real estate investor and lawyer. I was just like any one of our Grindists, working for myself and in need of quality workspace. One day while working out of a windowless, dreadful, office at a business center in Manhattan, I became fed up with the space operator. I marched back to my closet of a workspace and cranked out a business model on Excel for what, a year and a half later, would become our first Grind location.

Who is the typical person that walks into your co-working space?

MF:  An entrepreneur with an idea to make our world better.

TK:  Someone who has a particular skill set but knows they can't do it all on their own.  WeWork's goal is to empower entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed.  We do that through our facilities, community, events, and diverse group of support staff.

JS:  AlleyNYC has an very diverse startup community. When vetting the people that apply to our membership program we do not care about how much money you make, or who your investors are, we care about you. We care about how collaborative you are, and if you’re an awesome person. We hate douchebags; we leave them at the door.