After commenting on Om Malik’s justified rant about how he is annoyed by Starbucks, he had a guest column talk about how the cafes are the new mobile office space.
I couldn’t agree more.
Since working with many startups in various stages of “starting up”, I find myself in Starbucks more than I do in the office on some days.
It really is the new garage.
Once and a while I spend the entire day at Starbucks. The headset is on with Skype and listening to podcasts to drown out the loud music. It is interesting to watch people’s patterns. 8am - Morning rush, 10am - casual business meetings, 12am - Lunch rush, 2:30pm - afternoon coffee jolt, 3:30pm - sales people sit with laptops to get into their CRM system and make phone calls.
Lots of people come there and work on various plans for world domination and I have met very interesting people in my travels. I feel like the Godfather as I meet with one person and another comes in for the next meeting. Should I have an assistant?
I do like Panera since the food is better and the wifi is free. I use a Verizon EVDO card because I am tired of looking for a hotspot when I need to get online.
I bet if someone created an Executive Office Suite space with a gigantic cafe open to the public, it would be huge.
So does this mean that Guy Kawasaki needs to change Garage.com to CoffeeShopStartup.com?
I went to Network Solutions. Someone has the domain already. Damn squatters…
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About the Author: Steve is currently Managing Consultant for Appsolve, Inc., a Product Development, Management and Marketing firm. Steve is also an expert in personal branding and is an avid pilot, musician and photographer. He currently resides in Columbia, MD, USA.
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I mean, if the person is a certified coffee junkie (and I am), then this might be a good way to establish rapport… but are there not any temporary Executive Office suites in the DC area? Again, I’m a bit of an outsider, but I’ve read that there are such services, where guests are greeted at the door by “your” secretary, who answer the phone (your phone number) with your name… all the accoutrements of a big-time company at a fraction of the price. And a place where you could sit in silence, instead of having to drown out the overhead music with your iPod.
Do these places not exist in the DC area – are they only a West Coast phenomenon? Sounds like a business case to me… and maybe my ALP™.
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