Needed: Bay Area Landing Pad, for non-Valley startups

I've been getting the distinct feeling from Flickr, bloggers, and Techcrunch that I'm really missing out on the boom by not living in or at least being in the Bay Area more often.

Being in San Francisco this week for The Future of Web Apps Summit (FoWA), reminded me that there is no getting around Teh Valley corridor being the nexus of the current Web boom. Nothing compares to the perfect storm this strip of land embodies. While it's certainly fun to visit and hang with friends, it's possibly critical for startups to be here often for the people + events + capital + spirit of innovation + mostly friendly competition.

So what's a Bay Area outsider without ability or interest to re-locate to do?

Bay Area connections could be a defining factor in your in your quest to change the world. But being based of town, many will find themselves too busy for travel and cultivation of meaningful relationships. That could mean missing out on the strategic relationships of which startups are made. In my experience, few people or startups prosper in isolation.

The fact is that many of us are building great ideas on the Web from elsewhere. In far-flung towns, the challenge can often be finding the people with true zeal for the web - " I really LOVE THE WEB."  So, we travel west for conferences, *camps, fostering friendships, and often strategic partners and sales prospects. If you're doing the small teams, less capital approach to startups, the excessive cost of frequent travel is a great way to zap your cash reserves.

So, if you're not inclined to move house, commit to the elevated, err insane cost of living, or are adamant about maintaining roots in your home town, follow along with me for a minute and consider a possible solution.

While attending STIRR following the first day of FoWA, I ran into fellow Texans, Jim Young and Charles Ribaudo of Jambo Networks. While they are both Dallas-based, much of their team is virtual. Charles and I hit on the idea of a San Francisco co-op, work / crash spot for out-of-town startups. For the price of last minute airline tickets and hotels on a regular basis, you could almost afford to pay for Bay Area housing; so why not re-direct a fraction of those funds to "membership" in a space that would be more than a place to sleep?!

A hoteling office + bunk room setup much like Teh Space pops to mind.

What is needed?

• connected BANC rental agent
• space for 4-6 startup companies and their bedouin members
• desks
• bandwidth
• furniture
• cleaning service (expecting messy / too-busy dev types in here)
• web service for booking stays among members

While pulling this "bedouin space" together could get a bit messy (multiple startups of - let's be honest - uncertain longevity and leases to start),let's first consider potential benefits:

• productivity and comfort for 3-day Bay Area trips
• semi-permanent base for startup activities
• a transitional plan for startups planning to re-locate to SF
• $avings on hotels
• accessible for last-minute trips
• much better work environment for productivity and all-night prep/code sessions

A bonus imo, would be the camaraderie of members, serendipity of cross-pollination, and likely new business relationships.

This is an invitation to dialog. Who else among the bedouin web-workers would be interested in hammering on this? Comment here or contact me. I'll pull together a Skype channel with interested parties for ongoing chatter and planning.

Thanks for Om Malik's recent blogging on bedouin web workers, Brian, FactoryJoe's work on CoWorking, and evhead's FoWA presentation for inspiration to "just start writing."

Technorati Tags: 50K fridays, brianoberkirch, coworking, dallasstartup, evhead, FoWA, futureofwebapps, gigaom, jambo, sanfran, tehspace, texas startup, texasvc, unconference

Comments

[Marc Nathan]

Blake,

I love this idea. This is the logical extension of both the executive office suite and extended stay hotels. Sort of of a business incubator/hostel - complete with a starbucks, a bar and presentation/conference rooms. The twist is that it's designed for startups and I can envision these as converted hotels with their "business centers" expanded to cube farms. It would almost be like having a permenant location for a BarCamp or CocoaDevHouse, but with a revolving crew of individual startups populating the rooms. I'd sign up for a membership so I could go to the Bay Area, New York, Seattle, Portland and Austin as well as London, Sao Paolo, Tokyo, Dublin, Paris, or New Dehli with a consistent place to stay that included a fast wireless connection and 24 hour food. It's almost like an airport lounge where I could sleep, without the security hassles. I really like the concept, especially during "conference season".

[Kris]

I'm actually looking for some shared working space in Paris. I have a part-time office with Regus but it's lame and there is no energy. I'm looking for a desk with net access around technology types doing work and being busy with stuff. I live in Paris and would probably use it 2-3 days per week. There are a handful of incubators but I'm in technology research and advisory work rather than doing software myself. Any leads let me know!

[Stéphane Distinguin]

Here in Paris, France, we are in *exactly the same* quest, looking for my company and some other start ups a place to share in SF (downtown if possible) as, for sure, we need to be here as often as possible to benefit from the positive and inspiring air from the Bay. On the other side, we are working on a coworking space in Paris and we will be happy to welcome you all, if Paris (except from food and fashion ;-) ) could make some sense as location for start ups and free lances from abroad (Netvibes and Dailymotion, leading our 2.0 community right now in Paris).
So, let us know if we can join your initiative in SF as participant or if you need space in Paris.

[Shanti Braford]

This is a really good idea.

I'm actually moving to the Bay Area for the reasons you mentioned.

But if I weren't, something like this would be sweet for me =)

Actually, even for startups in the bay area (without formal office space), something like this would be great.