Coworking History
Today, co-working may seem to be a common format of work. Co-working is a popular choice for many people who freelance, run startups or work from home. It allows them to save money and have more flexibility. Co-working is a fairly common business practice, but the beginning of the process and how it began may be something you’ve never heard of.
Brad Neuberg, a San Francisco software engineer, was the one who started a collective workspace in San Francisco. In 2005, he opened his first coworking space. Since then, the nature of coworking is very different.
Before coworking
Neuberg was motivated to create a co-working area after reading about C Base, one of the very first hacker spaces in Berlin that was created in 1995. Hacker spaces have been credited as a catalyst for co-working locations. The community aspect and space area are what sparked the idea.
Neuberg faced some financial issues in 2005. He wanted to find a way to combine freedom and independence with working in a community. Neuberg worked with a coach to develop a plan that included a sense of community, structure and cohesion.
He created his first workspace with a feminist group called spiral Muse. Elana Auerbach, the founder of spiral Muse, agreed to rent Neuberg’s space at $300 per month for two hours twice a week. Neuberg rented space for the first few months in the San Francisco area coworking space, which was manned by his father. Soon, Neuberg would pick up coworkers such as Ray Baxter, a startup developer. The organization eventually moved to the Hat Factory, which became the first co-working area in the world.
Co-working spaces are an evolution of the model we have today. As demand increases, we will likely see co-working continue to evolve.
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