New Work City

Moving Blog Platforms

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:54:12 -0500

Hi everybody!

We’ve moved our blog over to WordPress for a variety of reasons. Check it out here:

http://nwcny.com/blog

We’ll post one more time in a couple of days for folks who might miss this on their RSS feeds.

Again, update your RSS links! We won’t be blogging from here anymore. Head to the link above for fresh updates!

Best,
Mayor Tony

Day 6 Recap

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:51:00 -0500

- I’m enjoying being the first person here, working on catching up, when two guys I don’t recognize walk in. “I’m told we can work here?”

- Sebastian and Phillip from TripWolf.com, our first drop-ins out of the blue.

- I introduce Mike, who came in next, to them.

“We should talk,” he says. “What startup are you in?”
“Tripwolf”
“Oh, I know you guys! I read about you in TechCrunch!

- I try to ask the newest members for their suggestions for music for the space, and Sebastsian suggested Kruder & Dorfmeister (as what he describes as a “cultural export”). Great ambient music.

- Gathered around the LCD and watched Gary Vee prank call a beer merchandise businessowner to illustrate how to monetize a video blog on an artibrary subject.

- Whitney giving Gregory some free UI consulting on his site. “Prepopulate content… Flickr has a ‘recognized’ and ‘unrecognized’ home page…”

- Gregory considering doing a video to introduce his site.

Tony idea: Wouldn’t it be great if WTFisTwitter.com were a platform for people to post videos explaining anything? WTF is (startup name). I’d love to post a video describing Greg’s product too.

- Talking about people with booked schedules. Tony getting more and more interested in the idea of sponsoring people’s time.

- Mike brought us Financier cookies. If you haven’t had these, then you don’t know what you’re missing. They’re incredible gourmet pastry cookie things, and were a great cap off to yet another amazing day.

Today’s overall attendance: 9 people (3 FT, 2PT, 3 Dropin, one Mayor)

LTLprints at New Work City

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 16:04:55 -0500

After signing the letter of intent for New Work City’s space, the first purchase I made was, at first, perhaps an unnecessary one. I got a giant sticker of our logo.

Kendall Schoenrock, founder of LTLprints, has been a friend of the community for a long time— he was one our first (and only) paying customers at CooperBricolage, and introduced us to Richard at Gramstand, a fantastic cafe to work in. We ended up moving the community there and having a lot of great times over the past year there.

So when it came time to get started moving into our new space, I talked to Kendall about getting some signage for the space. Since I didn’t want a sign that was too humongous, Kendall offered to print a bunch of smaller stickers with the remaining material on the sticker sheet. These smaller stickers were indispensable in directing people to our kickoff party (sadly, no photos of this).

As you can see in the photos below, the print really brings character to the space. And thanks to some early testing from Alex at IndyHall, we now know that these suckers are virtually indestructible. If I ever needed to, I could peel this thing off the wall, roll it up, throw it on a wall elsewhere, and have no doubt that it’d work fine.

Thanks Kendall and the LTL Prints team! Best of luck on your launch and success!

Recap of Day 3

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:12:00 -0500

This is the first in a series of posts that will recap what we did, learned, and shared throughout the day. So far, every single day has provided us with great new ideas, knowledge, and good times!

- Charlie Oliver brought us cupcakes and signed up her assistant for membership!

- We discussed hours and the membership model, and came up with a really interesting idea for expanding NWC’s operating hours by letting members take shifts to keep the space open during evenings and weekends. Much more on exploring that idea soon!

- Gregory suggested we listen to the Black Keys today; they’re an excellent blues/funk/garage rock band of whom Tony is now a fan.

- We got paid a visit by Dana from NYC Wireless, who fixed the NYCW router in our space and learned about membership. He’ll be returning tomorrow with his team to try it out!

- Electronically introduced Gregory to Muna, a lawyer who works with small businesses and entrepreneurs.

- Fredrick & Tony continued to work on getting the printer back online. Still no dice.

- Whitney suggested we buy a cheap dustbuster instead of doing lots of manual labor sweeping up our new carpet tiles. Good idea!

- Tony showed Gregory & Whitney Behance Notebooks and Action Method Online, much to their enjoyment.

- Whitney echoed earlier discussions on having profile pages for each of the members, which led to:

- Todo: Migrate blog to WordPress & give members author accounts.

- Finally, Whitney took one step further an idea Tony was working on: a regular “recap of the day” post, the first of which you are reading now :-)

- Met Mitch from ExamBuilder.com and talked about membership, usability, and pronk :-)

Much more to come!

New Work City open for business, 9:00am Monday, November 3rd

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:59:20 -0400

Join us Monday, November 3rd and check out our new digs!

We’re still working out a few kinks, including absorbing noise, upgrading our connection, and building out a phone booth room— but in the meantime, New Work City will be ready for people to come work!

We just might spring for some breakfast and coffee to celebrate our first day. See you there!

Charlie Nails It

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:21:00 -0400

One of New Work City’s goals is to help foster entrepreneurial activity in New York. Charlie O’Donnell, founder of Path101 and NYC tech’s best and most active online community, NextNY, recently testified to the NYC City Council about how to improve the city’s technology/small business sector.

He offered some fantastic advice. One excerpt:

Innovation comes not from technology, but from people—and New York City technology has a people problem. Local schools, with few exceptions, are not consistantly developing students focused on creating value through entrepreneurship and technological innovation. You can build all the incubators you want—unless you’re seeding students as early as high school or junior high with the idea that they could build the next Google here in New York, and giving them the learning tools to accomplish that, it’s never going to happen.

Read the rest here.

Charlie breaks down actionable steps that can be taken by the city to help create some real, sustained growth.

Kudos to Charlie for continuing to work toward helping grow NYC’s startup scene!

First round of construction complete!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:04:10 -0400

Ikea shipment arrived, friends came to help, and before you knew it, we had tables and chairs!

Thanks to Fredrick, Nidhi, Dave, Steve, and JP for coming by to chip in and help out!

New Work City Kickoff Party, This Saturday at 8pm!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:57:00 -0400

We’ve got a special evening lined up for you this Saturday! Join fellow New Workers along with some of the leaders of the global coworking movement as we celebrate the opening of New Work City!

Itinerary

Here’s a breakdown of what we’ll be doing:

8:00pm - Pre-party warmup discussions: Coworking coaching session with Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach!

9:00pm - Toast and party kickoff

10:30 - 11pm - Move to the Four Points Sheraton, around the corner

Here’s the info:

Address & Directions

Address:
200 Varick St, Room 507B
New York, NY 10014 (Map)

Tell security you’re there for Rom 507B, Element N. This is the company hosting us.

Directions:
Take the 1 to Houston Street.
Take the ACEBDFV to W. 4th Street.

RSVP

RSVP on Facebook

RSVP on Gary’s Guide

RSVP on Meetup

Contact

If you have any trouble or any questions, contact Tony at tony [at] nwcny [dot] com or 631-513-1680.

Sponsor

A very extra-special thanks goes out to ITAC, who is graciously sponsoring our event! ITAC is a fully government-funded nonprofit whose central purpose is to foster small business growth in the New York metro area. Needless to say, we love them! At the event, we’ll briefly review one of ITAC’s friends, the Small Business Innovation Research program, which is a government initiative to connect their research and development efforts with those of small businesses.

See you there!

Build This City!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:32:00 -0400

The Ikea order is in! The furniture is on the way!

Join us this Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 to help us assemble the desks and chairs and help make New Work City a whole lot cozier.

Comment below to let us know if you’re coming! We’ll update with an exact time once we hear back from Ikea.

Cheers! It’s time to build a coworking space!

Open houses throughout the week!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 13:15:39 -0400

We’re working on getting furniture into the space this weekend— more on that soon— but for now, we wanted to let you know that all next week you will be welcome to come check out the space and talk to us.

Contact us if you’d like to come check out the space!

Tony

Tweetup: Ikea Trip + Swedish Meatballs!

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:17:00 -0400

I have a hunger. A hunger for lots and lots of furniture and also for delicious Swedish meatballs.

And the only cure is IKEA!

Join us tonight.

6:10pm. Pier 11.

Free water taxi takes us to Ikea in Red Hook.

We shop.

I put in the order for New Work City’s furniture.

Then we feast on delicious Swedish meatballs!

Are you in? Tweet it up!

Email or DM or @ or comment us to join up!

New Work City Kickoff Party, Saturday November 1st!

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 12:03:00 -0400

Want to find out how many people we can fit into this space?

Me too!

Next Saturday, November 1st, we officially take on this space and New Work City will officially have a home!

The event starts around 8:00, we’ll give a talk and a toast around 9:00, and later on we’ll move to a nearby bar.

The address is 200 Varick St, Room 507B (Element N). Come check out the space and rub shoulders with some of the leaders of the coworking movement as they join us to celebrate coworking’s newest space!

We are also seeking sponsorships! Let us know if you’re interested in sponsoring this event; we’d be happy to discuss options.

These are exciting times… stay tuned for so much more!

RSVP and details here!

Stuff We Need

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:18:08 -0400

We’ll be updating this along the way, but while we get ready to fill up the space with desks and chairs and love and awesomeness, we thought we’d share a few things that we either need or would benefit greatly from.

If you can help us find any of the below either by donation or cheap sale, we’d be eternally grateful (seriously, we’ll post our thanks to you somewhere visible)!

- A couch

- A coffee table

- A long table

- A projector (and screen?)

- Rugs

- Possibly some sound-absorbing material

Stay tuned for more and thanks in advance for any leads!

TechDrinks VIII - Come celebrate and meet fellow New Workers!

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 10:42:21 -0400

Our community’s been running a happy hour for almost a year now, and TechDrinks VIII promises to be a special one— come join us as we celebrate the birth of New Work City!

TechDrinks is a casual happy hour for our community. There are no presentations, no networking, just good people and good times. We do TechDrinks at Lunasa Bar on First Avenue and St. Mark’s Place, which offers a special happy hour deal of half-price beers and discounted appetizers until 7pm.

RSVP and more details below:

RSVP at Meetup

RSVP on Facebook

RSVP on Gary’s Guide

See you there!

Tony's Ten

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:54:00 -0400

Danny Ocean needed eleven people to rob three casinos. To make an incredible coworking team, we only need ten!

New Work City will have space for ten full-time members and a yet-to-be-determined number of part time members.

If we can get 7-8 full-time members and 3-4 part-time members, we’ll be able to break even. Now is the time!

Below, we’ve listed times to meet up, discuss membership, and show the space. We’ll be available at the times and days below, and can make accommodations for other days and times if needed. Contact us to confirm!

Wednesday, October 15th
12-5:30pm - Open House
5:30pm - Membership Meeting! All are welcome.

Thursday, October 16th
3-6pm - Available upon request

Monday, October 20th
3-5pm - Available upon request

Tuesday, October 21st
3-5pm - Available upon request
5:00pm - TechDrinks VIII - A casual happy hour for friends of the coworking community! Join us to celebrate our new space!

Beyond
We’ll be available later on in the week as well. Contact us!

Location
200 Varick St, Room 507B
Tell security you’re there for Room 507B, Element N (that’s the name of the company hosting us)

1 train to Houston St.
ACEBDFV trains to W. 4th St.

Join us Wednesday for the NWC Member Sign-up!

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:20:00 -0400

We’ve updated our membership agreement; download it here!

If you’re interested in membership, please join us at 5:30 on Wednesday, October 15th, at 200 Varick St (Room 507B, Element^N). We’ll discuss the agreement, and any questions you might have.

If you’re ready to commit to a membership, bring your checkbook and/or a PayPal account - this will be your first chance to sign up for a membership!

Afterwards, I will buy a beer for each person who signs up!

To confirm your attendance, please email us at info [at] nwcny [dot] com.

If you can’t make this event but are interested in signing up for membership, please contact us to set up a time. We will be available several times throughout the week to show the space and discuss membership.

Otherwise, we’ll see you there!

New Work City has a home!

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:39:00 -0400

That’s right! After a long year of figuring out the business model, building interest, and looking at space after space, we’ve finally arrived at 200 Varick Street!

We’ll be sharing the space with element^n, who have graciously given us a very flexible deal and a chance to get on our feet.

The building has lots of other young, creative companies in it, and will be a great environment. The entrance, hallways, and elevator have all been recently renovated and look great (there’s even an LCD screen in the elevator!).

The neighborhood is great, with tons of restaurants, cafes, bars, and little parks to explore. Adjacent to 200 Varick is SOB’s, a famous latin dance club. On the other side, Chipotle. The cafe downstairs, attached to the entrance, is Deb’s. It pumps in salsa music nonstop and has wifi.

We’ll be getting the first set of keys this week, and will be able to do tours in the next couple of days, but our official occupation date will be November 1st. There’s a whole lot to be done between now and then, including a trip to Ikea, signing up the first members, and, of course, a launch party.

Stay tuned right here for updates on all that and so much more.

We never would have made it this far without your continued support and excitement— both here in NYC, and around the world. As we move forward, New Work City will continue to be shaped by your needs and your input. It’s here because you want it to be here, and will continue to exist to serve your needs.

The workplace is changing, fast. The twentieth-century office enviroment is on its way out, and a newer, better, greener, happier, more productive workplace is taking its place.

The new workplace is everywhere. It’s in coworking spaces, cafes, parks, at home and elsewhere, and we all get to be a part of it.

This is the new way of doing work.

Welcome to New Work City!

Helping Laid-off New Yorkers

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:40:59 -0400

Okay, I know we don’t actually have a space yet, but I’d love to see if there’s a way we can help the talented, hard-working folks who’ve been left out in the cold by the recent financial crash.

One of New Work City’s objectives is to help foster entrepreneurial activity in NYC, and the recent job loss may be an opportunity to help people who don’t want to go back to working for a big company get on their feet working for themselves.

So how might we go about helping these folks? We’d love to host an event to gather these people together and help offer them resources for them to get back on their feet, and maybe in a better situation than before.

With bad news like this comes opportunity. For those affected by the crash, this is a chance to re-evaluate career choices and, maybe, take a more independent path.

What do you think? What should be done?

Delays, delays

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:07:08 -0400

We were hoping we’d be signing papers to close the deal this week, but some back-and-forths on communication seems to have pushed it to Monday.

Once it’s confirmed, we’ll be ready to start accepting memebership applications and hope to open in just a couple of weeks beyond that.

Stay tuned!

Membership Agreement

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:24:44 -0400

At our event last week, we handed out initial copies of our Membership Agreement and Terms of Use. The agreement is modeled after those of some other coworking spaces, including Indy Hall and Station C, and should cover everything that needs to be covered.

That said, the Terms of Use could certainly benefit from a trimming. There’s a discussion in the global Coworking Google Group about crafting a cleaner agreement, but for now we have one that we know will work based on the precedents set by existing spaces.

We’ve already incorporated some feedback into our agreement, and would love more feedback as we get closer to opening up!

Check out the current version of the membership agreement here!

What do you think?