Hi everyone! Before I started posting ideas and comments I, Alex Lavidge, just wanted to introduce myself and my partner on our coworking project, Betsy Crouch.
We're both in our late 20s and are currently planning to put a "coworking space / social lounge / learning lab" called "Altrupreneur" together in San Francsico. In the meantime we've been helping our friends pro bono at Sandbox Suites here in San Francisco with their shared office space business and have been learning a lot. The term "altrupreneur" is the name of a book that I'm currently writing. It's about idealists under 40 who have reached a level of financial freedom where they can maintain a simple, eco-friendly, and sustainable lifestyle without having to work for an employer. Instead, they define wealth not by "status symbols" or by their net worth, but rather the amount of free time they have under their control to work on the things that are important to them but not always rewarded well economically in our society for independents. This includes but isn't limited to: public interest reform, consumer advocacy, personal development, work in the arts & humanities, scientific research and development, community building, nonprofit work, and teaching. A few of our distinguishing characteristics: 1. At the moment, we're 90% certain that we'll be operating the space under the business entity of a co-operative. 2. Our goal is to get 100 members paying $50 to 100 / month for flexible access to the space. Once we reach a certain critical mass of folks who can pledge that amount, we'll secure a space. 3. These members are a part of an intentional community that brings together screened professional indpendents, professionals, social innovators, entrepreneurs, and cultural creatives who support our [evolvoing] principles and can commit to helping others in the community with their goals for personal development and world betterment. The overarching goal is to provide members all the benefits of working for a corporation without actually being a corporation. If you like, I can go into more details later. But in general, we're going about our project with the attitude that a great coworking space is more about having the right people than having the right space. 4. We want to be near a BART station in downtown San Francisco. 5. While it's a place where one can work at large tables (akin to a coffee shop), by design it'll be set up in such a way that fosters relaxation, collaboration, creativity, and community development. 6. We're planning to host ongoing classes, seminars, book clubs, and events on life design, entrepreneurship, and social responsibility. We're also currently developing a Web platform that can assist with scheduling these events. 7. Through the community we'd also like to find someone to help us organize social events both inside and outside of the space. We'll be posting more details on our website, http://altrupreneur.org in a couple weeks. As for backgrounds, I've been passionately studying coworking spaces (and working out of one as well on 20th & Mission in San Francisco) for just under a year. Recently I visited NYC and Boston and met with some of the coworking spaces there and taped some interviews with the tenants and founders. In addition, I've been visiting business incubators around the world for the past couple years and since then have been thinking a lot about how we can provide the benefits of an incubator in coworking spaces for independents and the self-employed. I used to work in residential property management back in the Midwest for three years and before that worked in human resources, public relations, web development, environmental lobbying, film, marketing, advertising, journalism, and just a bunch of other stuff. Like a lot of creatives, I'm all over the place. Feel free to join me on facebook if you like: http://www.facebook.com/p/Alex_Lavidge/14806124 Betsy is a personal financial consultant to over 80 clients has worked in sales, coaching, and has an extensive background in nonprofit work. Lately she's been studying a lot about the psychology of community development. She's also on facebook where you can learn more: http://www.facebook.com/p/Betsy_Crouch/828410374 Thanks everyone and I look forward to chatting more soon! Be well, Alex Lavidge --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
