5 SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES THAT WERE BORN IN COWORKING SPACES

It may come as a surprise to many, but some of the world’s most successful startups were born and found success in coworking spaces and innovation hubs. It is undeniable that coworking has become a global trend and reshaped the way people work. Coworking spaces and innovation hubs have helped several startups to find the success they needed by providing networking opportunities, support, and even inspiration.

We've put together a list of 5-highly successful startups that were launched from coworking spaces, that grew from a shared office to a big HQ, becoming valued at billions of dollars.


1. INSTAGRAM

In 2010, after only eight weeks of development, founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched the widely-known social platform, Instagram from the coworking space Dog Paths. One day sitting in a conference room of their coworking space, they wisely chose to focus on what they noticed performed best – the old-timey photo filters. Taking advantage of Dog Path’s 24hr access, they spent several sleepless nights redesigning and eventually launching the photo and video-sharing giant we know today- Instagram.

Two years later, the social platform was sold to Facebook for $1 billion, and grew from 30 million users in 2012 to 1 billion registered users as of May 2019. At the moment, Instagram is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion.

2. HOOTSUITE

Hootsuite, a social media management platform created by Ryan Holmes in 2008, is one of the coworking success stories. Working in a coworking space helped Hootsuite founders to make the right connections to execute their ideas.

Now it’s valued at over $1 billion, has close to 1,000 staff members in 13 locations, including Toronto, Bucharest, and Mexico City. The company has more than 16 million users in over 175 countries.

3. UBER

Uber was born in Paris in 2008, when Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp struggled to find a taxi and invented the idea of getting a ride by simply clicking a button on your smartphone. While many people probably know the Uber startup story, few are aware that Uber launched a big part of its operations and nurtured the startup in the coworking space in New York, then in San Francisco.

Uber depended on coworking as a way to keep costs down while making the right connections, and the fact that now the giant is operating in over 250 cities from 51 countries, reaching a valuation of $70 billion, is undeniable proof that coworking was good for Uber.

4. SPOTIFY

Spotify it is yet another amazing tech startup that began its journey in a coworking in San Francisco named RocketSpace.

Right now Spotify’s music streaming service consists of 159 million active users are valued at around $8 billion. The platform generates revenue for ad placements and premium subscriptions. This again shows that the secret to their success is again the coworking trend.


5. CHARITY: WATER

Business ventures are not the only startups benefiting from coworking spaces. A not-for-profit organization: “Water” was founded at a WeWork community in New York in 2006. The NGO is focused on ensuring that every person around the world has access to clean water. Within a decade, it managed to provide over 7 million people in 24 countries with clean water through funding more than 22.000 projects.

Charity: Water is yet another great case showing how companies in their early stages can benefit from coworking; they used shared workspaces in a smart way to expand into other cities at a low cost. Furthermore, as the company was part of a bigger community, they managed to actually receive tremendous support such as donated chairs, tables, and other equipment from their coworking space and even managed to make an official partnership there.


CONCLUSION

The list of successful startups born out of coworking spaces and innovation hubs contains many more names besides the 5 startups presented above. These inspiring success stories continue to act as an example of people’s ability to create success out of nothing. The coworking trend is proving that interactions between people from different backgrounds almost always yield productivity and maximizes the chances for investment, networking, and even inspiration.

Do you know of other successful startups that were born in a coworking space? Share them in the comment section below.



Sources:

https://www.eda.gov/success-stories/innovation-entrepreneurship/stories/university-florida-innovation-hub.htm
https://coworkingmag.com/blog/famous-startups-that-started-from-coworking-spaces/
https://sharedspace.work/9-successful-companies-launched-coworking-space/
https://onecowork.com/en/blog/5-successful-startups-that-were-born-in-coworking
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kittyknowles/2018/05/02/station-f-is-the-worlds-biggest-startup-incubator-could-it-also-become-the-best/#2cf0686a62d0