For those of us who work at home, getting up in the morning and sitting down at your desk in your jammies with your coffee is pretty awesome, but it has its drawbacks. Those of us with kids run the risk of being on the phone when a crying toddler comes in demanding demanding a piece of gum. And those of us with dogs know that when they so much as sense another dog walking past the house--even if it's on the other side of the street--they're going to go crazy, and God help you if you're on a conference call when that happens.
NextSpace has devised a solution to the problem facing the country's three million full-time and 20 million part-time telecommuters by creating what they call "coworking space," and on Wednesday the company announced that it has raised $425,000 in angel funding from a mix of investors.
By "coworking space," NextSpace means it provides work space (which includes resources like WiFi, conference rooms, utilities, etc.), and a space where freelancers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who would normally work from home can convene and mingle. The telecommuter's life can be lonely. You start the day off with a plan to tackle your workload, and next thing you know it's three in the afternoon and you're still in the sweats you slept in. With locations in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, NextSpace offers a place where telecommuters from different backgrounds and industries can congregate and possibly even collaborate on new ideas.
The company was founded in 2008 by former Santa Cruz economic development manager Jeremy Neuner, former Santa Cruz mayor Ryan Coonerty, and Caleb Baskin, a local attorney and business leader. Originally, the project began as a non-profit endeavor to get young locals more involved in civic life, but eventually the team veered in the direction of creating a new option for telecommuters. The Santa Cruz location launched in 2008 with 200 members, and in 2010 the new San Francisco location launched with 140 members.
“NextSpace was built specifically with the new, independent professional in mind.This new funding will enable us to accelerate our mission to create open, sharedareas that foster group collaboration as well as individual productivity,” said NextSpace president Jeremy Neuner. “As we grow and invest in the company, more people across California will be able to experience the advantages of leveraging infrastructure and community without the burden of overhead.”
The team plans to use the new funds to double the size of their San Francisco location to 7000 square feet and expand into Silicon Valley and southern California.
