Coworking – It’s about the people

This blog post originally appeared in techvibes.com as part of a series about Coworking around North America.

This is the second part of our series on the growing Coworking movement and some of the spaces that have embraced the philosophy, both locally and abroad. The aim of the movement is to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents.

In 2008, Patrick Tanguay and Daniel Mireault noticed the lack of spaces that catered to its independent workers, freelancers and entrepreneurs. “We first started toying with the idea as we were both freelancing and were either working from home, at our clients’ or in cafes. We wanted our own place – a professional yet cozy place where we could work and be surrounded by like-minded individuals without feeling guilty of sipping our latte for 3 hours just to be able to use the local cafe’s WIFI network.” So, just as the Coworking movement was emerging, they introduced Montreal to its first coworking facility and named it Station C.

Station C is situated in an area known for arts, an indie music scene and rich cultural heritage, giving their space a cool, relaxed vibe and to pull in a mixture of entrepreneurs.

Aside from the apparent practical benefits of being in a space designated for work, members of a coworking space soon discover the unexpected benefits of being part of the community.“The key contributing factor that makes coworking appealing is the people. [They] make most of what interaction and opportunities possible [because] collaboration is a big part of the coworking movement,” says Daniel. Their space has enabled freelancers and entrepreneurs to have focus, gain resources and create connections. “Some have said they work better, have better concentration, have more motivation. Some made new friends.” Besides coworking, Station C holds various events at their space such as BarCamps, meet ups and the occasional informal cocktail evenings.

The environment that Station C has created supports an open community that encourages collaboration and gives entrepreneurs opportunities and projects they wouldn’t normally have come across. There is a constant energy at the space that sparks creativity among the designers and web developers. Getting a number of smart, passionate, like-minded individuals in the space creates a buzz around the office as they bounce ideas off one another. “Having access to a bunch of talented and smart individuals on a daily basis is also a bonus when you’re looking to fix a bug in your script or trying to figure out which page layout is more intuitive,” says Daniel.
“Where we differ from most coworking space though is the amount of effort and money we put in selecting and designing the space.” Being designers themselves, Patrick and Daniel had custom tables made for their space and furnished it to their standards. “Pat and I wanted to make sure people feel comfortable and enjoy their work environment enough to want to stay for several hours a day,” explains Daniel.

Patrick Tanguay and Daniel Mireault have successfully put Station C on the coworking map by creating a space where individuals can connect and build a community of support.

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Camaraderie in Coworking

This blog post originally appeared in techvibes.com as part of a series about Coworking around North America.

The future of work is evolving. The recent economic downturn has encouraged the growth of independent knowledge workers and entrepreneurs willing to strike it out on their own. This group of workers, armed with their laptops, smart phones, and web apps, can work from their homes or coffee shops. However, an alternative option has been gaining popularity amongst this group over the past few years. Referred to as ‘Coworking’, it’s a movement to create a community of cafe-like collaboration spaces for developers, writers and independents. Pioneered in San Francisco by the Hat Factory and Citizen Space, these places provide a space for web workers, consultants, freelancers and entrepreneurs to work independently, together. In the coming weeks, we will be highlighting a few spaces that have embraced this philosophy and its new breed of workers.

A perfect example would be Rachel Young and Wayne Lee. Seven years ago they were freelancing out of cafes with friends and local writers for, what they called, ‘creative’ sessions hoping to get out of the isolation and rid the distractions of working from home. Realizing that they were building the same foundations for a business, they recently launched Camaraderie, a coworking facility located in Toronto.

“Wayne knew firsthand the value of co-working, so we decided to open a space we could both work from and open it up to the community,” Rachel says, “because cafes have their own set of issues. “There’s the expectation to purchase something every hour so it’s not considered loitering, the noise of the coffee grinder whirling mixed in with the music in the background, and to face the dilemma of what to do with your laptop when nature calls.” And when you’re working from home, “sometimes the video games call too strongly or the bed is too comfortable, says Wayne, “regardless, isolation is still an issue any freelancer has to deal with. While it can be great to focus, we are still human and still need some sort of social interaction to maintain balance.”

Based on years of facing these challenges, the two made sure their space provided a perfect harmony of seclusion to find focus and communication for networking. At coworking spaces, you can expect to meet a diverse community of outgoing entrepreneurs and freelancers with many opportunities to participate in open source projects. “It’s a productive work environment where one could hold client meetings, leave their laptop when they run out for lunch, and drink unlimited coffee or tea. Most things that an entrepreneur or freelancer would need is already here, plus more. All they need to do is walk in with their work implements, take a seat, and get going.”

Camaraderie’s large workspace includes two meeting rooms and a communal kitchen surrounded by white walls and dark floors. Adding to that, tenants are welcomed to a stunning view of a beautiful park right by the building. Transportation is also made easy as the nearest subway station is in walking distance. Rachel and Wayne plan to get a transit pass discount program for their tenants and even want to work on healthcare coverage for their full time members!

Camaraderie truly presents a great relaxed, organized, idea-driven, resource-sharing workspace by integrating the basics of a cafe in a functional environment so lonesome entrepreneurs and freelancers are able to mix and share ideas to progress and gain… camaraderie.

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Are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur?

Before you start your business, consider this question “Are you a freelancer or an entrepreneur?”  The answer to this question will help determines your vision and lays the crucial framework for decision making. 

What is the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur?

According to Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin,

A freelancer sells her talents. While she may have a few employees, basically she’s doing a job without a boss, not running a business. There is no exit strategy. There is no huge pot of gold. Just the pleasure and satisfaction of making your own hours and being your own boss.

An entrepreneur is trying to build something bigger than herself. She takes calculated risks and focuses on growth. An entrepreneur is willing to receive little pay, work long hours, and take on great risk in exchange for the freedom to make something big, something that has real market value.

Atomic Media went through 2 founding partners in its first 2 years because we didn’t ask ourselves this crucial question.  My first partner is a programmer and oh boy did he ever love to program.  One time, we spent a couple of hours trying to figure out the algorithm to determine the pattern of the barcode of the Vancouver Public Library cards.  My second partner is a designer and he absolutely LOVES to design.  He worked for bigger companies such as Starbucks, Wal-mart, etc…  He doesn’t want to do any thing but to do perfect pieces of art.  As we progressed as a company, there was more and more fight about little operation details. 

Every single time we fight, we always agree to step back and stay small so we can focus on quality.  It was a huge mistake to keep staying small, we should have figured out….what is keeping us small?  The truth was my partners love doing the work and they will work work work until the cows come home.  They love it…they LOVE working on their craft.  I, on the other hand after many nights of working alone in my room to program and design – I decided I want to go big.  I wanted to have a multi-national firm reaching people from different continents and also be able to make money when I am sleeping or on vacation. 

I wanted to grow, to hire and to step back from the daily operations.  My partners couldn’t understand why….   They thought I was “corporate” and “greedy” but I wasn’t – I wanted freedom and I wanted to envision an entity bigger than what the three of us can do by ourselves.  My mentor always said, “Minna, it is not failure you fear it is the success you fear because it is an unknown” and she was right.  I didn’t want to challenge and speak out against staying small because I wouldn’t know what to do if we were successful, I was more comfortable in being mediocre and tucked away from any important decision making. 

I don’t remember when but slowly the fights got to be too much and my first partner left us.  We were Cerberus Studios and we re-branded to Atomic Media.  After last partner left me, I kept the name Atomic Media and ran the company by myself for another 2 years.  It was a tough two years because when my partners left, we still had obligations to our clients that we had to fulfill.

With my new partners for Atomic Media, we have a clearly defined vision that we all agreed on.  It has been 6 years now since Atomic Media first started but the first 4 years were mostly about learning lessons.  Only the last two years did we really grow and it was because we now have a clear definition of who we are and what Atomic Media needs to be.

Avoid the pain…. have that conversation with yourself now, “Am I an entreprenuer or a freelancer?”

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