Capital Ideas: Pros and cons of shared work space
Startup Edmonton members and visitors chime in
“The best thing about working in a collaborative environment is it allows you to expand your business idea with other people’s influence. No one is an expert at everything... but if you concentrate on your best skills, you can always find what you’re lacking through other people’s talents, and that’s probably the number one reason to work in an open environment like Startup Edmonton.” — Anthony Abinader, co-founder of Resort Tour Guide (resorttourguide.com) “You run into a lot of interesting people and have those conversations that you probably wouldn’t schedule, but that just happen off the cuff... It’s quite reassuring to see other people in the same situation as you and be able to relate to what they’re going through.” — Justine Barber, co-founder of Poppy Barley (poppybarley.com) “Being around other people... keeps you motivated and [provides] validation and feedback on what you’re working on. Entrepreneurship can be really isolating, and when you’re working on something new, you need to be able to talk about it. The beauty of a co-working space is that it gives you a place where you can have conversations with people about what you’re doing and what problems you’re trying to solve.” — Ken Bautista, co-founder and CEO of Startup Edmonton (startupedmonton.com) “I work from home, so it’s not as inspiring for me. Here there are other people working, and there’s just more motivation.” — Stephan Bociurkiw, freelance marketing professional (stephanbociurkiw.com) “The biggest thing for me is just getting into the work mindset, because I used to work from home and it was really easy to get distracted. At Startup Edmonton, you see everyone hard at work developing their businesses, so it’s easier to get motivated and keep working.” — Patrick Boyd, freelance software developer “You get to meet different people from different walks of life, usually with similar interests... Once people know how the space should be used and how interactions should be carried out, things can work very well in a collaborative work setting.” — Joseph Carreon-Macedo, web and graphic designer at Simple Cloud Works (simplecloudworks.com) “I very much endorse the shared space concept... It’s very important for the startup community. It’s innovation. It’s sharing. It’s collaboration. It embraces everything that our industry is and should be and will be if it’s going to be successful.” — Sarah Cassedy, founder of Cohort Informatics “It’s collaborative... and [allows people to] share ideas about their businesses and help each other... The downside is that it can be distracting when people are noisy, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.” — Luke Charlton, CEO of Zag Coaching (zagcoaching.com) “I only started here last week, but it seems like a really good community with lots of like-minded people around to talk to. It’s better than working alone at home, because it has the ability to send you in the right direction when you’re stuck on something.” — Steven Crawford, IT contractor “There’s great mentorship in this open space in particular... because you have access to many people who have gone through similar steps as you, only in a more advanced way. As for a disadvantage, things are usually busier in this kind of environment, which can sometimes make it difficult to get a lot of work done.” — Sean Kopen, co-founder of Cinder Inc. (cinder.io) “The [benefits] are the ability to meet people who are working on a wide array of things, and building those relationships over a period of time. It’s hard to say what cons are.” — Marynika Lozowska, owner of Spice Box Studio (spiceboxstudio.com) “The only real con I’ve ever heard about shared work spaces is that people tend to get sick in clumps. The pro is the communication that happens between your team, which is usually pretty fantastic.” — Mike McClenaghan, founder of Sideline Consulting (sideline.ca) “If you’re working around other people, you can often be exposed to different ideas or thoughts... Shared environments can work, but it depends on your personality and how your brain works. Sometimes I can get a lot of work done, but other times I just want to be at home or with headphones on and just zone out.” — Fletcher Nichol, software developer at Heavy Water Operations (hw-ops.com) “We like to socialize and bounce ideas off each other because we think that’s where creativity and innovation comes from... One of the big pros for us is being able to see what other companies are up to, talk to them if we need help, get ideas and inspiration, and access new talent. We found our first hire by virtue of the fact that he was sitting 10 feet away.” — Pieter Parker, co-founder of Cinder Inc. (cinder.io) “There’s an energy within the building that’s infectious, versus working at home where you question your sanity and whether you’re doing something that’s actually impactful. The cons are that you measure yourself against the success of other smaller companies within this building... We want to set the bar really high and compete against bigger, global companies, so it’s hard not to fall into that trap when you work in a collaborative space like this.” — David Quail, founder of Zenlike (zenlike.me) “I would say that for me, [shared workspaces] don’t stimulate enough productivity. It can be a great place to share ideas, but at the end of the day, I think you need to act on everything that you’re doing without distractions.” — Emily Salsbury, retail strategist (emilysalsbury.com) “My only concern is about disclosing your business strategies and business model to others... If they are entrepreneurs, they can pick it up very quickly. Other than that, there’s lot of advantages, like meeting new people and networking.” — Selva, founder of Bodhi Solutions (bodhisolutions.ca) “The pro is being able to talk to people who are dealing with similar work-related issues... because having conversations helps generate that creative spark. I haven’t personally experienced any cons, but I imagine that it could end up being distracting for some people.” — Ryan Troock, freelance animator and illustrator (ryantroock.com)