GigaOM » Loosecubes

Opportunities and risks in the share economy

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 06:55:27 +0000

Owning physical items — cars, apartments, office space — has both lost some of its luster and will be increasingly inefficient for a global market. It is shifts like these, combined with catalysts like mobile technology, that are driving a greater interest in the share economy, which can broadly be defined as a marketplace where business models are built around consumers choosing access rather than ownership. Key sectors in the share economy include car sharing, vacation sharing, office sharing, and ride sharing. Each has its own set of companies to watch, as well as its own opportunities and risks.

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Coworking spaces get serious about curation

Jessica Stillman — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:01:03 +0000

The number of freelancers is on the rise with estimates of their eventual numbers ranging from more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020 to 1.3 billion worldwide by 2015. All of these mobile workers obviously have to set up shop somewhere. Luckily, the coworking movement is growing at a breezy pace as well, but will supply of workplaces keep pace with demand so that finding a space remains relatively straightforward?

Not exactly, if a recent report on NPR is to be believed. The story by Kaomi Goetz for Morning Edition looks at the evolving coworking movement and suggests some spaces are getting far pickier about who they admit as members. “More companies are adopting a selective approach known as ‘curated coworking,’” says Goetz, offering Grind in New York as an example.

Joining the space is no simple matter of filling out a brief form and handing over your credit card. “If you write two words and two sentences [on your application], you’re probably not going to hear from me. But if you write two pages about why you want to work at Grind, I will bring you in for an interview,”explains Benjamin Dyett, a Grind co-founder who Goetz describes as the “company’s chief gatekeeper.”

But getting past the coworking velvet rope isn’t a matter of coolness or what you have to contribute to the networking pool, Dyett insists, but serves a nobler purpose. “None of it is to be elitist and exclusive. It is to create a strong, cohesive community,” he told Goetz. Whatever the exact reason for the somewhat arduous selection process, it’s not turning off potential members – the space has a waiting list of 100. Meanwhile, Loosecubes‘ Campbell McKellar says the app also vets potential members for fit, likening the process to dating. “There could be 10 men in Brooklyn that have brown hair that are in my age range, but I really would only like one, for reasons that are very hard to describe. It’s about chemistry,” McKellar says.

So what does the changing process for seeking admission to spaces say about the coworking movement? In one way it’s good news as it shows spaces are maturing and making money, and are able to turn away potential paying customers. Others might object that the practice is leading the movement away from its communitarian roots by creating a cool kids club, indicating a scene that’s left its heady early days and moved into a more mature, less idealistic (perhaps less fun) phase.

How does this more intense vetting of potential coworking space members strike you?

Image courtesy of Flickr user JeffMaysh.

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Steve Case’s firm backs office sharing startup Loosecubes

Katie Fehrenbacher — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 15:52:39 +0000

The investment firm created by AOL-founder Steve Case, Revolution, has invested in office sharing site Loosecubes. Case discussed the investment at GreenBiz’s Verge conference on Friday and a spokesperson for the firm told me the size of the investment has not been disclosed.

Loosecubes is a website that enables companies to rent out office space and extra desks by the day — think of it like the Airbnb for offices. The startup is part of the growing trend of collaborative consumption, or using the web and mobile to help people share “stuff,” like cars (Zipcar or Getaround), apartments (Airbnb) or even dogs (Dog Vacay).

Case, through Revolution, has pioneered the web-sharing economy, and has invested in car sharing company Zipcar and luxury home sharing company Exclusive Resorts. At the Verge conference Case explained how car sharing couldn’t exist without the Internet and cell phones: “it’s only possible because of the first Internet revolution.”

Collaborative consumption also has a sustainability and efficiency aspect — if more people and workers share office space, less buildings will be built. Essentially the sharing economy is about more efficiently using resources, which is something that a world of 9 billion by 2050 will need to embrace.

Loosecubes is also part of another trend: a distributed workforce and more people embracing co-working. Deskmag has found that there are more than 1,100 coworking spaces worldwide, more than double the number in 2006. Investors, beyond Revolution, are putting money into new co-working spaces like New York based General Assembly, which raised $4.25 million from Yuri Milner of DST Global.

Image courtesy of Greenbiz and Loosecubes.

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Zipcar looking to disrupt the moving business now

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:17:15 +0000

Over the past decade, car sharing company Zipcar has started to disrupt the way people view car ownership, by offering cars in urban areas as a service. Now Zipcar could start disrupting the moving business, too. Zipcar says it plans to offer full-size cargo vans — dubbed Zipvan — in a pilot project in San Francisco in response to customers showing an interest in renting large Zipcars by the hour for moving stuff around cities. Zipcar will also target small businesses looking for a cheaper way to move goods.

Zipcar actually has seen some success with these specialized vans already, as the U.K. car sharing company Streetcar, which Zipcar acquired, already offers this service. For now, Zipcar is only launching the pilot in San Francisco, and will offer 15 Ford E-150 cargo vans around the Bay Area at a cost of $14.75 per hour and $99 per day. Zipcar says the Ford E-150 vans will be able to fit a queen-sized mattress and will be ideal for picking up furniture, transporting musical equipment and moving apartments.

Zipar’s move into specialized vehicles for moving stuff shows the potential of using its network to expand the sharing of goods and services. Zipcar has 650,000 members that pay per hour to rent its 9,500 vehicles across the U.S., and there’s a good chance Zipcar can get those 650,000 members to pay for other renting services, like vans. Zipcar turned its first quarter profit in a decade recently.

Car sharing is the flagship business out of the trend of collaborative consumption, or using the web and mobile to share goods and services. Other services include peer-to-peer car sharing like Getaround (neighbors renting out their cars to other neighbors), office space sharing like Loosecubes, and even sharing of smaller goods like baby clothes via ThredUp. This trend relies on ubiquitous connectivity, customer comfort with sharing goods via the web, and a growing population looking to share limited resources.

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Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:01:08 +0000

Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically.

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Interest in coworking surges, attracting new players

Jessica Stillman — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:19:16 +0000

Coworking has long been popular in the tech community and as a topic on WebWorkerDaily, but it seems the idea if finally breaking out of its niche beginning and going mainstream. The proof? A lengthy article in the staid Wall Street Journal this week.

Claiming that the coworking idea is starting to attract mainstream attention, the paper lists several facts in support of its claim:

Increased interest from investors in coworking spaces. New York’s General Assembly raised $4.25 million from Yuri Milner of DST Global, and online marketplace for office sharing, Loosecubes, raised $1.23 million last year.
“Creative” space beats traditional office space in some markets. “The total vacancy for a ‘creative’ space with open floor plans ideal for co-working was 2.54 percent in San Francisco in July, and the asking rent ranged from $32 to $53 per square foot per year. Meanwhile, more ‘historical’ spaces with closed-door offices that lack open space had a total vacancy of 10.55 percent, while the asking rent ranged from $21 to $36 per square foot per year, according to commercial listing broker The CAC Group,” says the WSJ.
Office space owners are remodeling to take advantage of the trend. Again the WSJ uses San Francisco as an example: “A building at 115 Sansome St., in downtown San Francisco, started remodeling for a more flexible layout to appeal to high-tech start-ups.”
Money men are taking note. It’s not just techies and creatives at coworking spaces these days, according to the WSJ. Investors are cruising the spaces for their next big money spinner. “At Plug and Play, angel investors, including Sand Hill Angels, Band of Angels and The Angels’ Forum, typically visit every Monday afternoon to review the business plans of start-ups. More established venture capitalists including Sequoia, Menlo Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners, typically drop by every other month.”

Do you agree with the WSJ that coworking is at a tipping point and about to go more mainstream? And is that good news or bad for the movement?

Image courtesy of Flickr user Charleston’s TheDigitel.

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