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Ever think about where early-stage startups got their first taste of culture? For entrepreneurs in Greater Boston’s coworking spaces, much of the cultural influence originates from the unique environment and diverse group of people at places like C3 at Cambridge Innovation Center, Collaboratory 4.0, Greentown Labs and various other coworking destinations. Unprecedented resources, events, and networks are a product of startup culture and are available to the community via coworking spaces!
Not all coworking spaces in Greater Boston are limited exclusively to dues-paying-members, on the contrary many serve to bring together the population of talented entrepreneurs and a vast support network. Earlier this week Greater Boston Startup Culture Meetup hosted a conversation with Kit Maloney, Founder of Collaboratory 4.0, Geoff Mamlet, Managing Director at CIC and President and Founder at HUB Boston, and Emily Reichert, CEO and Executive Director at Greentown Labs to hear about how to best contribute and benefit from the area’s coworking spaces.
The conversation was intense and even mentioned the evolving nature of corporate culture. Large corporations like Amazon are housing a portion of their companies at CIC to become immersed in the startup culture. Corporations are often vying for tours through these coworking spaces, just to get a glimpse of startups at work. This routinely results in the zoo effect.
There’s a lot of exciting things happening with local coworking spaces! Greentown Labs will be moving to their new digs in Somerville this fall (you can support their expansion here!). HUB Boston is a new coworking space that will soon be home to entrepreneurs fueling social change and is a part of CIC. Collaboratory 4.0 has weekly programs open to the community: lunches on Wednesdays and pitch sessions on Saturdays and is also offering Collaboratory Living, guest rooms for entrepreneurs visiting Boston on business.
Our discussion touched on components of startup culture in coworking spaces; the importance of natural light, having the accountability and presence of others to motivate you, trust, respect, and the value of collaboration. We ended the discussion with this advice to folks in coworking spaces:
“Take out your earbuds.” – Kit Maloney
“Hang out in the kitchen.” – Emily Reichert
“Have lunch with a new person everyday.” – Geoff Mamlet
Join us next time for a discussion on more startup culture stories from more of Greater Boston’s Founders and CEOs!
