Where You Can Find Me

For the next few weeks, I am going to be hanging out a lot at Nextspace River North in Chicago. We recently lost our space manager there and have recently hired a new one. Rebecca is amazing. This week she will be spending a couple of days in California for training. My wife and I worked there all day a couple of Saturday's ago. The space had fallen into disorganization. We straightened up the supply room, changed some light bulbs, and generally cleaned up and organized. It looks pretty great right now.

The are several key things with co-work spaces. You have to have great coffee. Nextspace does. You have to have great internet. Nextspace River North had meh internet, but now it’s got super fast fiber internet. The other thing is the space manager needs to connect and make the space hospitable to members. One thing Nextspace has learned, the Culver City space isn’t like the Chicago space. You can’t do the exact same things, but the basic principles are the same. Rebecca has stepped in and done a great job with the members.

Personally, I have found I get A LOT more done there than at home or in a coffee shop. Less distracted and it just seems like my brain has made a transition to "it's time to work". I also find myself spending less time on my phone and computer when I am not in Nextspace-freeing up time to interact with my family and friends on a personal basis instead of a virtual one.

The Nextspace in Chicago was the first co-work space anywhere in Chicago. The guys behind Deskpass, Sam Rosen and Pat Griffin started it as The Coop. Nextspace took it over in 2013. That’s when I became an investor in Nextspace. Nextspace does things a lot differently than other co-work companies. You can feel it when you walk into a space.

We have a few structural kinks to work out. But, they are all surmountable. If you once worked there and left, I might suggest you come back and give it another try. Things are going to change in the way it was operated. In the interim, I am pitching in.

We are starting to open the space up at 8am instead of 9am. One of the thing that cracks me up about people working independently today is a lot of them don’t get going until 9am. I have always been an early riser, and since NYC starts humming around 9am, it stands to reason Chicago ought to be rolling by 8. 

There are some pretty cool people in the space. One person is working on a solo startup. Luminaid is there. There are several independent workers doing all kinds of cool stuff.

The space is at 230 West Superior in the River North part of Chicago. You enter on Franklin. It’s one L stop from 1871 and the Merchandise Mart. There are a lot of good restaurants around there. Come by and work there for one day for free and give it a whirl. I think you will like it.