Feature image: Serendipity Labs, Aventura, FL
“It’s all in the name.”
The above is true for rapidly growing coworking brand, Serendipity Labs. With six current locations and plans to open eleven more workspaces by the end of the calendar year, the three-year-old company is showing no signs of slowing down. Their proprietary formula of creating and sustaining “serendipitous connections” between people and physical workspaces is unparalleled.
While their first location in Rye, New York opened in 2013 and since then, Serendipity has by now penetrated markets that span the eastern half of the United States from New York to Texas.
Their approach to scouting and securing locations for their workspaces is unique. “It’s a hub and spoke strategy,” explained Paula Gomprecht, Vice President of Marketing for Serendipity Labs. With urban centers being their hub full of big business, Serendipity can easily extend their reach [or spoke] to target established professionals in the adjacent suburbs.
At their core, Serendipity designed their network to provide an exceptional level of service for all of their members, with flexibility, convenience and professionalism at the forefront of everything they stand for.
“We want to accommodate teams for larger spaces, but we also understand the visibility of the ‘solopreneur’ and are not shying away,” Gomprecht explained. “People expect a certain level of service and hospitality, so we form community by blending our trained, experienced coordinators with our experienced, career-driven members,” she added.
Serendipity Labs doesn’t rely on mid-day keg parties or communal ping-pong tournaments to drive member engagement.
“We build community through our events and by partnering with local organizations and artists. And perhaps a less obvious form of community building is the design of our spaces. We provide lots of common areas and design our workspaces to encourage members to come out of their offices to collaborate and network,” Gomprecht further explained.
Gomprecht made clear that it’s not a “one size fits all approach” when sizing up new markets or improving upon their current locations. Serendipity uses a franchise model to take advantage of partnering with member-owners who already have experience within the hospitality industry and understand their community and the level of service members expect.
The company also takes pride in being locally relevant by working closely with established commercial real estate owners to better understand their prospective member-base. “They understand service, they understand their community–so everybody is invested in making each location the best it can be,” Gomprecht emphasized.
But the test for Serendipity, as explained by Gomprecht, is trying to stay relevant within their markets by continually explaining what they are selling. “We’re not trying to compete on price. We’re trying to compete on service,” Gomprecht affirmed.
The continual need to differentiate themselves from other players in the coworking industry is a formidable challenge. However, Serendipity sees tremendous value in doing everything in their power to make all parties within their network content. As Gomprecht noted, their CEO, John Arenas, sits in one of their locations and is accessible to everyone.
