The age of co-working is upon us: WeWork is now Manhattan’s largest private tenant in terms of square feet. For the uninitiated, co-working describes shared office space that can be rented out per desk, on a monthly basis. In some ways, co-working is a natural extension of the sharing economy: The experience is closer to a membership, with office space and perks being largely shared.

According to Deskmag’s Global Co-Working Survey, we’ll see over 10,000 co-working spaces open by the end of 2016. Co-working has become popular, and for good reason: The monthly subscription model allows for added flexibility compared to typical leases that lock tenants into spaces for years at a time. They are often highly curated and well-decorated, and consider themselves to be collaborative communities.

Via forbes.com >

The idea that coworking is primarily for the self-employed, tech startups and other small firms who can’t afford permanent offices in the world’s expensive cities has been challenged with the news HSBC has moved 300 staff into a coworking space in Hong Kong, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. The bank has rented the workstations in WeWork’s space in Causeway Bay, one of the world’s most expensive districts for offices and shops. The bank has taken out a large scale corporate membership with WeWork for the 300 members of its digital and transformation team. According to the report, a spokesman from CBRE claimed that the move is less about saving money than it is with providing short term flexibility in a time of economic uncertainty. However you view that, the bank is saving as much as HK$2.45 million a month with the move (£240,000 or $320,000). The annual cost savings are estimated at HK$23,640 per person.

Via workplaceinsight.net >

Coworking spaces are officially the new places to do business, with office-rental companies like WeWork (valued at $16 billion) leading the pack.

But across the world, there are new and innovative coworking companies popping up to accommodate remote workers, a segment that’s growing extremely quickly. Intuit predicts that by 2020, 40% of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers (more than 60 million people).

Investors are making big bets on the industry's future. Coworking startup Industrious, with 12 locales around the U.S., just landed a $37 million Series B round last week.

Via gethightower.com >

WeWork, a company that offers shared, flexibile-lease offices in 113 locations in 33 countries, has achieved a position in the "coworking" world similar to that of Starbucks in the coffee world. While plenty of smaller companies offer coworking in a myriad of flavors—focusing, for instance, on designers or startups—they’re not a significant threat to WeWork’s business. No Dunkin' Donuts has emerged. A bigger potential problem for WeWork as it strives to live up to its $16 billion valuation would be if the landlords and companies it works with build their own hip office spaces.

Via fastcompany.com >

Look hard enough and you’re sure to find successful entrepreneurs who’ve built diversified businesses from the ground up. But when you’re launching, it’s hard to find the funds for office space. And working out of the home isn’t always feasible—or fun.

That’s why more and more entrepreneurs are choosing coworking over office spaces that might be considered to be isolated home offices or spendy commercial suites. Coworking offers a great compromise between the two, bringing all the collaborative, synergistic benefits of traditional offices with none of the cost or cultural issues.

Via tech.co >

Moneypenny, the legal sector’s leading outsourced switchboard and telephone answering specialist, is today unveiling its new £15m headquarters.

Designed to create “the happiest workplace in the UK”, the pioneering building reflects the company’s rapid growth and has been built based on the feedback of its 500 employees – many of whom represent the country’s leading law firms and legal practices.

Via legalfutures.co.uk >

Inside the store, the Workbar space is set back from the retail aisles, and there’s a path on the carpeting that leads to its glass doors. Peter Scala, Staples’ executive vice president for merchandising, jokingly compared it to a yellow brick road.

Read the article on bostonglobe.com >

Brooklyn-based co-working company Industrious raised $37 million in a Series B funding round, the startup announced Tuesday.

Riverwood Capital led the round, which also included Outlook Ventures and Maplewood and brought Industrious’ total funding to $51 million to date.

Industrious is one of a handful of firms looking to challenge $16 billion behemoth WeWork in the nascent co-working industry. The firm’s co-founder and CEO Jamie Hodari told The Real Deal that it plans to spend the bulk of its new funds on building out and opening new co-working spaces across the U.S. It currently runs a dozen spaces, including one in Brooklyn at 594 Dean Street, and wants to add 12 more.

Read the article on therealdeal.com >

To launch your own business is one thing; to decide that you're going to create a coworking company in one of the most competitive cities in the world is another challenge altogether. But that's exactly what Gabriela Hersham has achieved in less than two years.

She's the founder of Huckletree, a relatively new addition to London's thriving coworking scene, with her first branch launched in Clerkenwell two years ago, and now another open in Shoreditch.

Read the article on creativeboom.com >

You’ve likely heard of the benefits of collaboration in a coworking space, especially during a business’s early stages. There are many recent studies touting the advantages — 89% of people report being happier due to coworking; 67% say coworking improved their professional success.

Naturally, here at Shopify, we wanted to build one of our own. How hard could it be?

Our Partner Program works with third-party designers, developers, and creatives from around the world who provide services to Shopify merchants. Many of our partners have a hard time finding their first client, and although they have tons of design and development skills, they sometimes need a little help on the business side of things. That’s where the idea for the Shopify Partner Studio came about.

Read the article on huffingtonpost.com >

Co-working spaces are popping up everywhere, and there’s a reason why. It’s not just the growth in freelancers and entrepreneurs, nor their physical need for a desk. It turns out that co-working’s biggest advantage is the intangible part — the sense of urgency, community and peer-to-peer learning.

Read the article on forbes.com >

Manhattan-focused crowdfunding platform, Prodigy Network has launched a collective investment campaign for a property of co-working spaces in Manhattan.

Located at 331 Park Avenue South, the 37,000 s/f NoMad property will become part of a group of buildings know as The Assemblage that provides shared office space for members.

Prodigy Network is currently finalizing the last phase of the crowdfunding campaign for The Assemblage/25th Street, also in NoMad, which is now in its pre-construction stage.

Read the article on rew-online.com >

Conditions are just right nationally and in Detroit for a startup boom, according to a Detroit Free Press article. And that's exactly what we're seeing.

The article begins at the business incubator and coworking space TechTown Detroit, where "the interest is so intense from start-ups seeking space there that the organization may need to find more to squeeze them all in," writes Frank Witsil. "The co-working space … is nearly full at 67 companies; many are start-ups. At this rate, it could eventually overflow."

Read the article on modelmedia.com >

What do you do when you come up with the idea for a business that defies categorization and tried and true entrepreneurial norms? When it comes to going out on your own and starting your own business, the truth is there is no handbook and it's almost always daunting. So where do you find the right support system when you're pioneering new ideas and new ways of doing something?

"That's the thing that is a little bit tough about the moment that we're living in," explains Julia Kaganskiy, director of the NEW INC incubator program. "A lot of the safety nets that used to exist are disappearing—whether it's things like funding for the arts or more permanent jobs. So everything is becoming a bit destabilized in that way, which puts a lot more pressure on the individual to be more entrepreneurial and figure out a strategy for themselves. This is being sold to us as empowerment, but in reality it just means that everyone has to be an expert in business, marketing, PR, design, all of these things, and we can't pretend that it's realistic to expect that of people." Not long ago, all these aforementioned responsibilities were held solely on the shoulders of whoever was going out on their own and venturing into new professional territories but nowadays, institutions and co-working spaces are starting to catch on: many freelancers and entrepreneurs need help. 

Read the article on core77.com >