Likes & Launch

One of the advantages of a close-knit startup community, whether through an incubators, venture capital firm, geographic community or otherwise, is that you have access to knowledge at scale. 

Take office space decisions for example. Most startups don’t think of real estate decisions more than once a year. If you’re lucky, you don’t have to worry about it for a few years. It’s hard to keep a pulse on real estate offerings when it’s a decision you rarely think about it. Having peers who have recently gone through the process can be a huge advantage. 

Working with 50+ growing companies through USV and the broader NYC tech community, I know a lot of companies who have recently looked for space or moved office spaces. Since I already have relationships with the startups (the demand side), it’s easier for me to reach out to the suppliers of office space, brokers, subleased spaces and coworking spaces, since I interact with them more frequently.

Being able to share that information quickly with our portfolio companies is an advantage if it gets them into space faster. However, hoarding that information limits the potential upside of additional knowledge. I believe the crowd knows far more than I could learn so hopefully we can work together to update this hackpad of NYC Office Spaces. 

The list has a space to list temporary offerings like subleases or spare desks, as well as links to more permanent coworking spaces and contacts for real estate brokers who understand the need of startups. 

Know of any good space for a team of 10? Leave a note in the comments or shoot me a tweet, @br_ttany. 

To think massive, you have to think of solving a small problem for millions of people. “Tumblr is minimalist and easy to use but also infinitely customizable; it is a genuine creative tool.” -  David Karp >David Karp hates screens but built one of the largest blogging platforms on the web. He didn’t build it in the image he wanted to spread. He built it so the community could create it in their own image. Want to build something big? Create tools that are powerful and flexible.

•   Tumblr is a tool for self expression.
•   Splice for music creation.
•   Twilio for voice integration.
•   Twitter globalized conversations. 

Yes there are services too. But they are tools that make it easier to do what people are already doing. Those are the best kind of tools, the ones you’ve been missing. When you find them, you don’t change your habit or work flow, they just make it easier to get from start to finish. Whatever you build, the tool, network or platform has to be better than the tool people are already using. If email is the main way people are completing a task (sharing files, sending photos, storing conversations), it’s a hard competitor to kill because it’s not hard enough to stop doing it.