Coworking spaces went virtual, but many miss the face-to-face - Boston Herald

Coworking spaces — shared workplaces — allow members to rent out desks, offices or suites and typically offer amenities like free high-speed internet, office supplies and coffee. What makes coworking spaces attractive isn’t just the cost-savings but also the innovative environments they cultivate.

Some have attempted to capture the benefits of these business incubators online with mixed results. And as social-distancing requirements stretch on, many in the startup community fear that a generation of entrepreneurs is being denied an essential ingredient of success: each other.

“I often think of entrepreneurship as a roller coaster,” said Jennifer Maher, CEO of the Philadelphia coworking space 1776. “There’s ups and downs, and you need other people that are going through those same highs and lows to kind of balance out what you’re feeling.”

Since the pandemic started, Maher and others at 1776 have tried to make that community virtual. They created a new membership level for online-only resources while the offices remain closed, providing access to exclusive programming, a mentor database and an online portal to connect with other entrepreneurs.

But the transition to a virtual community hasn’t been easy. “When you’re not physically coming together, you lose the social aspect of that water cooler chatter, of people just getting to know each other,” Maher said.

CIC Philadelphia, the local branch of a national network of coworking spaces, faced challenges for members using their laboratory space. “We actually never fully closed,” said CIC Philadelphia Director Sally Guzik. “We had several companies that were deemed essential businesses, sometimes because they were lab scientists researching the COVID vaccine, so that kept us open.”

One program that CIC took virtual was their annual 36for75 initiative that allows 36 entrepreneurs free access to the coworking space for 75 days. Gaurang Bham, a recent Drexel graduate and founder and CEO of Phoodie — a smart food delivery app startup — was a member of the 2020 class.

Before the pandemic, Bham enjoyed having a centralized location for his team. “If a developer has to understand system architecture ideas, it helps to be in the same room with a whiteboard,” he said. “You can only do so much over Zoom.”

Regular access to resources like these in-person communities, or even to reliable internet and office space, can bring a budding engineer closer to a breakthrough, argues Fox Business School professor Alan Kerzner.

“A very good way to be financially independent is to start your own business,” he said. “It sure doesn’t guarantee financial success, but if you find it, you’re basically controlling your own destiny.”

Progress is hindered, however, if communal working groups are limited to online. “If you don’t have regular connectivity, it can be a real issue,” Kerzner said.

Even a highly productive work-from-home environment can only take new entrepreneurs so far. “I still believe doing that face-to-face is much more effective.”

— Tribune News Service

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Coworking spaces went virtual, but many miss the face-to-face - Boston Herald
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