I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Greg Gibson, one of the founders of BetaHouse, a CoWorking group here in Boston. The premise of BetaHouse is pretty simple: For $400 a month, you get a desk, WiFi, access to a fully stocked (beer, caffeinated beverages and fatty snacks) refrigerator, a barbecue every Friday, music, and — most importantly — a group of other geeks with which to network, socialize and bounce around ideas.
The idea is to provide a creative environment in which techies and entrepreneurs can develop their ideas and bring them to market — and of course, get funding.
One idea that Gibson himself has developed in the BetaHouse office is PrayAbout, a social networking site based around support and prayer. Once you join the site, you can put in prayer requests that other people will answer, effectively creating a support group community to help you deal with your challenges.
The site appears to perform a useful social function and attracts people from around the world. One thing that Greg noted was that a number of people who have received support (such as a suicidal man in South Africa) have in turn become more involved with the site, providing support to others.
PrayAbout is quite different from other social networking sites in that it’s not ad-supported — all revenue is derived through subscriptions. It currently has some 14,000 subscribers, and that number is growing.
As for BetaHouse, time will tell how well this works. One issue I see is turnover. Once an idea is funded, the developers behind it will likely move to new offices in order to accommodate an expanding team, continually leaving BetaHouse with empty desks that need to be filled.
11 comments so far
12:45 PM PT
“One issue I see is turnover. Once an idea is funded, the developers behind it will likely move to new offices in order to accommodate an expanding team, continually leaving BetaHouse with empty desks that need to be filled.”
Hmmm…. Isn’t that the whole idea of an incubator? The ones that are ready to fly moves on for new “eggs” ready to be hatched.
4:22 PM PT
We just recently had our grand opening for our coworking implementation in Bryan/College Station, Texas. The name of our space is “The Creative Space”… found at thecreativespace.org. We’ve had a lot of success so far and everyone is really pleased with what we are doing in our city.
I think the best way to implement the coworking idea is to modify the idea just ever so slightly so it fits your needs. We couldn’t do an “open all the time” because of the building we got the lease from, but that didn’t stop us from doing what we want to do.
4:34 PM PT
A group of us have founded a CoWorking space in Bryan, TX (thecreativespace.org) that is exactly as you describe. We have gotten around the possibility of people leaving by having rights to the entire 5th floor of the building that we are occupying. If more privacy is needed, instead of moving out, companies can move to a more secluded part of the floor, preserving the resources of the space. There are currently three companies and two freelancers in the space, we’re hosting Refresh (refreshbcs.org) every month, and we tentatively have BarCampTexas scheduled in January.
5:33 AM PT
For more info. on coworking (and to see if there is a facility near you) visit coworking.pbwiki.com
9:32 AM PT
Independents Hall, a coworking space in Philadelphia, PA just opened this weekend. Check out the whole operation at http://www.indyhall.org
Thanks for covering the coworking concept, Om. We totally <3 coworking!
10:37 AM PT
[...] a few people, or an informatics service company with hosted software and/or content, working in a co-working situation and using computing services from a company like Amazon, Sun, and or Rackspace can go a long way. [...]
6:29 PM PT
I’m not much of a fan of incubators - they make life too easy for startups. It’s all nice and cozy, which isn’t what the real world is…
6:34 AM PT
Don, I don’t agree, I think incubator serve a purpose and may well work for some people.
Some people work better with others, who can serve as a sounding board for idea and support when things are challenging.
Having worked on my own for a better part of my career, I can certainly see the attraction, but life in an incubator can also be distracting.
2:56 PM PT
I’ve been there a few times, its awesome, I recommend everyone check it out if they can.
3:10 PM PT
I don’t believe that Beta House could be called an incubator. It is not for sick babies and no one is providing life support. These guys are on their own trying to break a deal or build a product. Not like the ill fated Cambridge Incubator, Reach or 100x from the 2000’s. Boston badly needs the type of entrepreneurial, vibrant community supporting efforts in next gen Web technology that the BetaHouse fosters.
2:06 AM PT
Betahouse - Coworking für Startupgründer
Vor ein paar Tagen habe ich das betahouse im Web entdeckt. Beim “betahouse” in Cambridge, USA geht es um eine Möglichkeit als Gründer bzw. unabhängiger Webentwickler Office Space, Infrastruktur und “soziale Verbindungen” in A…
Leave a Comment