FastCompany Interview about GuyHaus, GetMinders and WeWork Labs

While I try to use this blog for a lot of things that help others out, sometimes I have to just self-promote a little. For those of you who don't know, I'm a co-founder of GetMinders, WeWork Labs and GuyHaus (all based in NYC). One is a healthcare-related startup, one is an awesome office space for early-stage entrepreneurs and the last is my latest company which is focused on making ecommerce simple, useful and fun to use. Check out the article on FastCompany:

There's serial entrepreneurship--when someone starts company after company, handing over the reins at a certain point to focus again on the early stages of building a business. Then, there's simultaneous entrepreneurship, which involves starting and running several, not-necessarily-related ventures at once.

Two famous examples of the simultaneous startup CEO are Jack Dorsey, with Twitter and Square, and Bill Gates, who ran the photography business Corbis alongside Microsoft. Now, a host of upstarts (like Citelighter, a company we wrote about in August) are trying to make this method work, sometimes financing one business with profits from the other.

READ MORE AT FASTCOMPANY.COM

The WilmerHale/WeWork Labs Summer Legal Series!

Our goal at WeWork Labs is to help entrepreneurs and starts and that's what we're doing. Join us for our awesome legal series with WilmerHale! WilmerHale and WeWork Labs are pleased to present the 2011 Summer Legal Series. Attorneys from WilmerHale’s Corporate Practice present and answer questions on various topics of interest to emerging companies and entrepreneurs. Please join us for the final presentation in the series:  The Exit: IPO, Sale or Secondary Market? Presented by Bob Schwed With more than 35 years of experience in private equity, Bob Schwed has represented venture capital and buyout firms as well as companies in various investment activities, including early-stage investing, initial public offerings and leveraged buyouts. He is an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School, where he teaches a course in venture capital law. WilmerHale is proud to be the law firm sponsor of WeWork Labs  and is dedicated to fostering collaboration among intelligent, creative and driven individuals.
WHEN Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5 -7 p.m.	WHERE WeWork Labs 154 Grand Street New York, NY
If you'd like to attend, please email me at jesse@guyhaus.com and I'll send you details.

Five Months with WeWorkLabs

This post is being reposted from my WeWork Labs co-founder, Matt's, blog.

  

WeWork Labs is approaching its five month anniversary, so I thought it’d be fun to take a moment and look back.

 

For those who don’t know about WeWork Labs, it is an incubator/accelerator/co-working hybrid that Adam, Jesse, and I co-founded in April because of a need that we saw for early stage tech startups here in New York.  The space is a bit different than others in the City, as our main goal is to help the startups outgrow our space as quickly as possible.  

 

Since April:

• 58 entrepreneurs that comprise over 30 companies have called or currently call WeWork Labs home
• We’ve amassed a growing membership wait list that is approaching 200
• Over $1.5 million dollars has been raised by WeWork Lab startups and with more to be announced in the near future
• Startups in WeWork Labs have made their way to great accelerator programs such as AngelPad, 500 Startups, and TechStars
• We’ve had angel investors and VCs host office hours with members in the space from companies such as High Peaks Venture Partners, Softbank, Hearst, Centurion Venture Partners, and many more
• We’ve held numerous events in the space including demo days, happy hours, WilmerHales’ summer legal series, member run lunch-and-learns, and lunch with JWT’s Chief Creative Digital Officer and Director of Trendspotting

It goes without saying, if it were not for our terrific sponsors - WilmerHale, JWT, Boxee, PepsiCo, and Spencer Adler - none of this would be possible.  All of us in the WeWork Labs family truly appreciate everything that you do.

 

Lastly, I don’t think Jesse and I say it enough, but we really do feel lucky to have so many wonderful people that have helped us with WeWork Labs.  This is especially true for those in our own startups, who have thankfully not gotten too mad at us for taking on this additional task.  Thank you so much Mike, Andrew, Eric, Yin, Matt, Lisa, and Orlando for all of your help and support.

WeWork Labs Demo Day

Most of you probably know but if not, I'm one of the co-founders of a space in SoHo, NYC called WeWork Labs. My partner, Matt, and I opened it in the beginning of April of this year and it's been amazing! The people that work out of here (47+ entrepreneurs) and the startups that are being build here (currently over 24) are just fantastic!

In order to help people share their ideas and gain helpful feedback we hold "Demo Days" frequently at the office. These demo days are very informal, and usually consist of 6-8 great people sharing their products in 4 minute chunks. Everyone in WeWork Labs shares their thoughts, offers their support (sometimes morale and other times real development, design or business support) and has a good time learning about their fellow office-mates.

We have one scheduled for next Friday, August 12th. Right now we have 8 great companies scheduled to demo. If you'd like to swing by to see some of the awesome startups that are working out of here, let me know. Send an email over to jesse -at- guyhaus.com and I'll send you the details.

What happens when you put 50 smart people in a room?

A great article about the space I co-run in NYC called WeWork Labs. There are some amazing entrepreneurs, companies and ideas floating around the office every day.

Swing by if you're ever in the neighborhood and say hi (154 Grand Street).

Read more...