John and I, a current and former coworking space owner, are tired of seeing friends close their coworking spaces. It just happened again last month with a friend in Washington. It’s been happening for years now as more coworking spaces turn 3,5, or even 10 years old. Most of the spaces that are closing aren’t losing a lot of money, or making a lot of money. The spaces are closing because they fall in the break-even area and the coworking business is not the sole focus of the owner.
It’s a side hobby. The spaces were started because the owner wanted to create a cool place for a community to form, and make some money. However, leases come up every few years and they have to make a decision. Is running the space worth my time? Can I keep putting in effort into building this community?
More often than not, if the owner decides they can’t put in the time / effort / emotional energy they just close the coworking space . The community that has been built over the years, the friendships that have been created, and ideas hatched between coffees are dispersed and go in search of a new home.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We, the coworking industry, need a matchmaking service. We need a place that will help match owners that love coworking but are ready to move on to new opportunities with people that are excited to keep the business and community moving forward.
That’s why we spent the last few months creating DenSwap. It’s a marketplace for space owners to list their coworking business and be matched up with existing space owners, property owners, or others that are excited about the coworking movement. DenSwap will help spaces determine the value of their coworking business, understand the community, and what the owner’s priorities are in their exit. We’ll then take all of that info and help matchmake them with a buyer that has the same goals.
Right now, DenSwap is pre-launch phase as we line up spaces and investors. People can sign up right now to list their space or register as a buyer. Once we have enough spaces signed up, we’ll launch the marketplace. We expect that to happen in September. We already have a few buyers in the system.
Please check out DenSwap and reach out if you have any questions. My partners and I are passionate about the coworking industry and want our communities to succeed. We think having a matchmaking service from people that understand the coworking industry is an important part of the maturing industry.
If you want to see how much your coworking space might be worth, go to www.denswap.com/calculator.html