“It ain’t about the desks”, I find myself saying that a lot in reference to ThreeFortyNine. It’s enlightening witnessing a person’s transition from when they first visit our building to a few months of working here full time. It’s all about the costs on day one, however, in a short time, you see people go from “I have a desk at home, it’s a good setup but a bit distracting but it’s free” over to….

“What excites me about ThreeFortyNine goes beyond just the workspace and into an environment created by a collection of driven, imaginative individuals with an aversion to comfort zones. People here aren’t afraid to challenge themselves and, quite frankly, that attitude’s contagious”, Matthew Sharpe

As this Fast Company article speaks to, once you truly experience a coworking environment you quickly realize it’s real benefits have very little to do with office space and a desk.

“The ability to approach problems from a variety of angles is the undercurrent running through coworking spaces”

“Sometimes that’s just tapping someone outside of your team on the shoulder and asking their opinion. Other times, it may be a 15-minute whiteboarding session with a developer on another startup.”

This article alludes to larger companies beginning to leverage the benefits or coworking. We’re certainly seeing a bit of that here, however, my sense is it’s still dominated by freelancers and micro teams.

Have you tried coworking? What did you see as the core benefits of it? Let us know in the comments below. Oh, and obviously if you’d like to try coworking, just let me know!