“We want to be the glue for companies in our spaces.”
One of the most important value propositions of flexible workspaces today is that of community–of bringing people together and getting them to work together. It’s about bonding and collaborating.
Earlier this year, Coworkrs rebranded as Bond Collective. We reached out to Shlomo Silber, CEO and co-founder of Coworkrs to learn more about the rebrand and the reason behind it.
“The coworking industry is shifting towards providing unique and mature spaces. Coworkrs was a great name, but when you call yourself just coworking, you can fall into this very generic definition of ‘coworking’ (open space, young people, ping pong tables).”
Silber tells us that the brand is gearing up for national expansion; “we wanted a name that embodies our brand a little better.”
According to Silber, the new name reflects their member-centric and hospitality-driven approach. In recent months, Bond Collective has grown significantly both in square footage and in member presence. “The reason why we did it right now is because we just opened 2 new locations, and we’re starting to build our fifth space; it was time for us to take it up a notch.”
Silber further explained that the idea of a rebrand came as a response to member and market needs and demands.
“Mature companies want to be a part of the coworking and workspace-as-a-service movement. Our 60 Broad Street location is a response to what we saw our members were in need of. Some of them were talking about having to move out from Coworkrs because they were growing and needed more space. We didn’t want to lose them, so we needed to offer them space where their team could grow.”
The main focus of the brand, however, is not the amount of square footage they can offer. For Bond Collective, it’s all about hospitality.
“When we were going through the rebranding process, we kept asking ourselves ‘what keeps our members in the space?’ The answer was that it’s been our service and our connection with them; this is what has helped us grow and give meaning to our brand.”
“We bonded with our members.”
Bond. “It has a bold feeling, it’s easy to say, it’s bonding businesses, bonding personal relationships, bonding services.”
Because of this, Silber tells us, Bond Collective is rolling out a concierge service with its new workspace locations. “With our concierge service, companies can get whatever they need; whether someone to help you order a meal, book a conference room, have your dry-cleaning picked-up, anything.”
“It’s not about hospitality in the sense of hotels. For us, it’s about hospitality in work, how we can make life easier for our members; having them feel that they are being taken care of and that they can maximize their work day.”
For Coworkrs, the rebrand made sense; especially as they planned their expansion and started catering to a wider audience, one comprised of mature companies and large teams. However, what does this mean for the industry at large? Has the term ‘coworking’ been tossed around so much as an open and shared workspace option only to the point where operators will need to distance themselves from it in order to attract a different type of clientele?
Bond Collective announced the rebrand officially, but Silber says “there’s plenty of work to be done to get us to the standards of where we want to be and what we want to be.”
In the end, what has proven to be of value for workspace members is their ability to connect with the brand and with fellow members. Coworking, serviced office, workspace, office space…whatever the name, if there’s a trend we’re seeing it is how more operators are starting to focus more on the hospitality part of workspaces…and how many are trying to find the right way to say that coworking offers much more than simply open space.
*Feature image grabbed from Bond Collective Facebook page
