We live in a time where paradigms can shift so quickly that if you blink, you'll miss it. And let's be honest. Shift happens. Let's start with some history. For folks who are providing 'business incubation,' and those receiving it, here's how everything began. It had been 1959. The Barbie Doll had just made her debut. The U.S. economy was at an all-time high. And yet in Batavia, New York, a conspicuous, warehouse-sized building stood completely empty.
Formerly a Massey-Ferguson plant of 850,000 square feet-the facility closed its doors in '56, driving local unemployment up to over 20%. Meeting rooms in nj a nearby family, the Mancusos, bought the building, then elected family member Joe Mancuso, owner of an area hardware store, to show things around. After trying really hard, he explained that finding one big tenant for the entire space was just "crazy." So, he sliced it up into smaller spaces. Like small to medium-sized businesses could afford to move in.
Joe also provided tenants with counseling and assistance in raising funds as part of the package. His new and varied clients included a charitable organization, a winery, and (why yes...) a chicken company. It is stated that the chickens were everywhere.
"We were out on the way a great deal of that time period, attempting to interest investors and attract companies to the center," he once told the NBIA Review, "so, in a joking way, because of all chickens, we started calling it 'The Incubator.'" The Business Incubator was born.
Now, many wish to believe that the "incubator" was the result of revolutionary thinking from the Wharton School of Business or even MIT. Nope. It had been simply one family's clever means to fix entice not-so-big-tenants to move into an oh-so-big-building. But yes...it did steal its moniker from the raising of chickens.
The Business Incubator has since become the hallmark of growing business startups. Actually, the model can now be found all around the world. Those chickens of 1959 could be strutting about with real pride right about now.
Later, in 2005, an innovative workplace concept with a less catchy name was born. Brad Neuberg opened the first "coworking space" in San Francisco. In expressing the theory, he borrowed the term, "coworking," first employed by Bernie DeKoven in 1999 to explain "working collaboratively" in an online space. Except, what Brad added was real space, brick and mortar and the private interaction so essential for developing human trust.
Coincidentally, today it's generally not very uncommon for those employed in a coworking space to do just that: actually communicate and collaborate on a regular basis with others in the many coworking spaces, online, over the globe. Heck. It's how this information was written.
Coworking has since ascended from an individual phenomenon to a full-fledged movement. From 2010 to 2011 the number of coworking spaces jumped worldwide by 100%. If coworking were a virus, it's now gone pandemic. Fifty percent of the growth was in the U.S.
Coworking is just a design of work that involves independent professionals sharing a work place; usually in a "coworking space." The idea is becoming increasingly attractive to work-from-home professionals, startups (high-tech and otherwise), entrepreneurs, and independent contractors--all up against employed in relative isolation.
So, is coworking the new incubator? Yes and no. Perhaps, if the meaning of "incubation" has changed. How could it not? The 1959 automobile survived the growing pains of high fins and an excessive amount of chrome and thankfully has evolved into something entirely different. The Barbie Doll underwent stylish makeovers. And remember, the PC wasn't even around once the "Incubator of '59" was born.
Not every coworking facility needs to be an incubator. However, it might be a perfect fit for a lot of today's nomadic workers - and the "frugal startup" in particular. Many business incubators themselves are already taking advantage of this mega-trend, and hybrids are beginning to emerge. As witnessed here, probably the "startup" itself needs to be redefined. Why not?
Is not any solo entrepreneur launching a fresh business a startup? Our cafes are filled with them. Katie Couric on CBS asked Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO, "Once you look around a Starbucks, what do you see?"
I see a heavy sense of community," Schultz replied. "We've intended, from day one, to actually sort of build a next place between home and work.
Coworking won't ever wholly replace the business incubator. And yet, incubators per se are facing new challenges currently day, as many exist solely due to public monies. And during this economy, Meeting rooms in nj it's becoming harder to prove quantifiable results with money-in, sustainable growth, or job creation coming out. Whereas coworking redefines job creation. The independent professional has indeed created a job: their own. Later? If expansion seems like 1 to 4 more positions, those, too, are jobs."
Neuner continues on to point out: "...Individuals coworking have figured 'lifetime employment' has simply gone away. So now they work on a job and the ongoing future of their particular making. Do you know? There's this myth that those in coworking spaces are less driven compared to the individuals in, say, an incubator. But, I've never seen a more dedicated, harder-working number of people than those in (our) coworking spaces. It is inspiring."