Atmosphere Coworking: All About The Vibes

Lately I’ve been avoiding coworking spaces and going mostly to coffee shops. The main reasoning for this was that I just needed to get work done and wasn’t feel the most social. My mood changes seasonally so you’ll likely find me at a coworking spot sooner or later. This time around I decided to pop in at Atmosphere. They’re a close knit, community oriented coworking space on the East side.

The appeal of Atmosphere based on their core values is all about the atmosphere. Surprising? They talk about how you can work productively in a comfortable and engaging environment. People know each other’s names, things that happen in each other’s lives etc. It’s less about what amenities and layout that they have (which are also great) and more about the type of interactions you have with one another. When you have a positive atmosphere, it eliminates stress that would take away from your productivity.

The Atmosphere

I spent some time working at Atmosphere to get a feel for the space. When talking to Trent (the founder), I learned more about the type of community and vibe there. They’re a perfect place for small teams who can establish a strong company culture. The space is conducive to sharing thoughts and communicating with other companies as well as private areas that allow teams to buckle down and work directly within their company.

I found the common area easy to work at since most people are hard at work. If you needed help with something it was decently easy to find someone to help you. The massive glass walls help take you away from the typical corporate feel which is exactly what Trent was looking for.

Who Should Cowork Here?

The space aims to provide an engaging, comfortable and productive work environment. They do this by providing a partly open space at the center, private offices/conference rooms and permanent desks upstairs. Trent took his time to find a space that was expansive and open with great light. He didn’t want a cookie cutter building and nicely put it as, “new ideas are formed in old buildings.”

There’s several coworking spots popping up on East side but likely still not enough to service the growing number of remote workers. Atmosphere is great for freelancers who are already close by and don’t have to worry about parking. There is a larger parking lot just a block away but it does tend to fill up quickly.

Regardless of this, you’re also across the street from Counter Culture (one of my favorite vegan places in town), down the way from Juan in a Million and not even a 5 minute walk to Blue Owl Brewing. With such a killer location, I know if I coworked there I’d be spending all my time–breakfast, lunch and happy hour–at these local eateries and brewery.

Reset’s Founders Discuss the Creative Community and Relationship Building

Originally posted at BlndedMedia

Coworking has more than made its mark in the world of innovation and technology. For founders, having the ability to collaborate with their team and others who are focusing on growing a successful business is valuable, as most would agree that in-person knowledge exchanges are priceless.

But coworking isn’t just for techies anymore. Creatives and entrepreneurs of all backgrounds find themselves attracted to coworking spaces due to the ability to meet other like-minded people, their future co-founders, and other potential team members. However, there are certain issues, such as a hefty price tag, that also comes with coworking.

With three locations in Austin including Nightcap on West Sixth, Tillery on East Cesar Chavez, L’Oca d’Oro in Mueller, and more on the way, Siri Chakka and Silva Gentchev, the founders of Reset, are working to make the experience of coworking affordable and comfortable for all.

BLNDED had the opportunity to speak with Chakka and Gentchev about how they launched the company, the challenges they’ve faced along the way, and how they look forward to growing their community in Austin and beyond.

Reset’s mission is to empower people to do their best work as freelancers, entrepreneurs, work-from-homers or restaurateurs. The idea was born when Chakka and Gentchev were having dinner at a beautiful restaurant in East Austin, lamenting about the fact there was no affordable, reliable, and social place to work in Austin and why they couldn’t work in a beautiful location such as the restaurant they were in. They decided to test their affordability theory by interviewing over 50 remote workers.

The duo quickly learned this was a widespread problem and decided to interview restaurateurs. After learning more about ever-rising rent costs, labor costs and other problems that plagued the local, independent restaurant industry, they decided to launch Reset.

While almost 50% of Americans work from home in some capacity, only a handful of places to work are available, so it can be a struggle to find a place to be productive. For those priced out the of the traditional co-working market ($300+/month for a floating desk), there is no affordable, reliable, and social solution available in Austin.

The US is also seeing a bursting of the restaurant bubble. 60% of restaurants go under in their first year, with the rate being even higher for local, independent restaurants. A restaurant’s two largest costs are rent and labor, both of which are on the rise in most major US cities, while revenue remains stagnant as consumers are not willing to spend more for food.

Reset solves two problems with one solution. By eliminating lease and build out costs, Reset creates coworking solutions that cost half the amount of traditional coworking, while also providing a passive stream of income to their restaurant partners.

Although both founders have successful and failed startups, they each continue to learn lessons as they grow Reset.  Chakka is originally from Chicago, where she studied engineering and practiced management consulting prior to moving to Austin to attend The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. She dabbled in product management at Amazon, was the Chief Strategy Officer for the B2B SaaS startup gameFI, and now consults for Private Equity firms on pre-M&A due diligence and post-M&A operational improvements.

Gentchev is originally from San Francisco, where she studied economics and was a B2B and B2C marketer for a variety of tech startups in the Bay Area. She also moved to Austin to attend McCombs which is how she met Chakka. Gentchev’s background includes retail management at Amazon and she is now a product manager at Dell. Both have decided to keep their full-time jobs in order to not take money out of Reset as it gets started. Although this gives more flexibility on the timeline and lets them make less risky decisions, it gets difficult to juggle two jobs.

Diversity is at the front of Chakka and Gentchev’s minds when it comes to building a team and programming. Giving everyone the same opportunities needed to succeed – regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation – is important to the Reset team.

Diversity in tech also means seeing people that look like you at all levels, more women and people of color in power, raising money, exiting, on boards, etc. We’re especially passionate about paying it forward as well, and helping other female entrepreneurs be successful however we can.

Speaking of female entrepreneurs, the Female Founders Austin Meetup has been a crutch for Chakka and Gentchev to lean on whenever they have a question, need words of encouragement, feedback, or just need to vent. Their group of friends from McCombs has also been invaluable, connecting them with their networks, helping them flyer the streets, and being models for Reset photoshoots.

Throughout this process, it was important for them to protect their friendship through this endeavor. Although friend time blends into work time, they make a cognizant effort to make separate time for both.

“We don’t know how we could’ve started Reset without each other. Finding a co-founder, an equal partner to burden the responsibilities and emotional ups and downs is so important before starting a business.”

Learn more about Reset by visiting their blogFacebookTwitterInstagram, and LinkedIn.

Connect with BLNDED Media on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram to learn more about our mission, stories, and opportunities to get involved.

Work and Woof: A Place For You and Your Dog

Living in Austin brings all the benefits of dog friendly places. A good majority of coworking spaces around town allow you to bring your dog along. I had a first hand experience bringing my great dane into Galvanize (where I was working at the time). There was also another dane there so I thought things would work out perfectly. That was until Bunny, my dane, decided he wanted to be vocal. If you haven’t heard danes bark yet, let me tell you, it’s a roar. Immediately everyone’s heads turned. No work was getting done. I was mortified! That the last time Bunny came with me to work. The whole day I was keeping an eye on him and could never really concentrate.

How Work and Woof Started

This is where Jill comes in. She’s the founder of Work and Woof which opened up June of 2018. It’s relatively new but already making some noise in the community. When Jill was working in Chicago a few years back, she found her love of coworking as a social media specialist. Eventually she moved to Austin and settled into East Austin but found the same problems as I did after she got her pup. After doing a few focus group interviews with other freelancers, Jill found that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. This is what eventually led her to start Work and Woof.

What It’s Like Coworking

 

Every coworking space has it’s niche group and it’s quite obvious that Work and Woof specializes in pups. Therefore, most people aren’t fazed by the barking and dogs running around in the back. When I walked in, I was immediately greeted by Adrian at the front desk. He gave me a tour of the place and let me settle into a back room which had a view of their outdoor park. I was able to close the door if the barking was too loud.

I decided to take a stroll around and check out the rest of their amenities. The general area is an open space which allows for people to mingle and meet but still sections off to small spaces if you need to get work done. The kitchen has your essentials and opens up to the common area. You’ll also find a few phone booths that they’re working on to sound proof since it’s close to the open space area for the dogs.

 

Lastly, my favorite part of the whole concept was that I was able to watch or play (from the other side of the fence) with all the pups that were in. As any dog lover, your day is so much less stressful when you have a sweet pup waiting to be petted. You’ll also notice that there were several people working with the dogs to make sure they played nice and were entertained throughout the day.

Events

One of the more popular things to do at Work and Woof is to attend their events. As dog experts, they throw great events and partner with vendors and retailers during the evenings and weekends. I also was thrilled to find out place is an open kennel (meaning the dogs can openly play with each other rather than be cooped up in their own room). This means the weekends tend to be more social with everyone bringing their pup to hang out and casually get some work done. They’re also BYOB so you can enjoy a slow Saturday afternoon while your dog socializes as well.

Who Should come

Majority of people who seek out a place like Work and Woof have been freelancers. They want a space to work but don’t want to leave their dog at home. You have peace of mind knowing your dog is taken care of. They’re not chewing on cords, peeing on the floors or anything else your dog may do or even not do but you have the anxiety that it may still happen! This doesn’t exclude companies though. Several of the offices can be rented out and easy for team to work from.

One of my favorite amenities at coworking spaces is free parking. Work and Woof is relatively new so you won’t be able to see the building from the street (they’re in the works of putting up the sign at the complex). There’s tons of parking and the coworking space is conveniently close to everything on South Congress.

Come bring your pup and check out Work and Woof the next time you want a place to get some work done!