How Equity Crowdfunding Can Take College and University Co-Working Spaces and Incubators to the Next Level
Generating More Co-Working Revenue with Crowdfunding
Most major universities and colleges have set up on-campus Entrepreneurship Centers, Innovation Labs or co-working spaces to facilitate an environment that encourages students to use their creative minds to develop innovative ideas and turn them into successful startup businesses.
Joining a co-working space allows students setup an affordable office or working space to rub elbows with like-minded individuals and discover people who have the same set of goals and objectives as they do. This provides a unique opportunity for new startup founders to cross pollinate each other and fertilize new ideas that sometimes leads to the decision to co-found a business together.
Part of the draw for co-working spaces are community lunch rooms, founder dating events, after-hours cocktail parties, social mixers and Meetup groups, all of which can provide access to great sources of well-educated, but very cost-effective labor pools.
All of these activities serve a useful purpose in allowing co-founders to find talented workers that will be needed to help their new businesses begin harvesting new ideas and business concepts, put them on paper and turn them into a high impact startup ventures.
In addition to people, co-working spaces provide cheap office space, meeting rooms to setup video/teleconferences, board rooms for team meetings, video production facilities to shoot pitch videos, access to data centers and hardware/software laboratories where new ideas can be tested on the latest and greatest smartphones, smartwatches, tracking tags and bracelets, tablets, laptops and wearable technology devices.
For larger audiences, a large auditorium or theater provides the perfect venue for visiting guest speakers, corporate presentations, pitch contests and many other type of large meetings with panel discussions.
Below is an example of what a well-planned co-working floor plan might look like courtesy of the T-Rex facility in Missouri.
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Source: T-Rex Co-Working Facility in Missouri co-locates two venture accelerators, venture capital companies, an SBA-funded resource center, and a training and mentoring organization along with other incubator companies
Co-working spaces have the ability to offer very affordable working spaces for students and local entrepreneurs that want to start a student or family-owned business. Renting out space for $250 to $500 per month and serving 250 entrepreneurs would create potential monthly recurring revenue opportunity worth $62,500 to $125,000 or up to $1.5 million per year.
An average size cubicle is 75 sq. ft. so serving 250 co-workers would require approximately 18,750 sq. ft. to provide very comfortable dedicated working spaces, but many average co-working desks are much smaller.
Increase the facility’s size to accommodate a kitchen/lunch room, conference rooms, rest rooms and one large auditorium and the total space required would be around 25,o00 sq. ft.
Co-Work Space Business Plans
Thinking about opening a co-working space, but need help with writing a good business plan? We Googled a bunch of business plans and here are three co-working business plans that we thought are worth a look:
- Co-Working in Vermont – A Starter Guide – 30 pages
- Design House Co-Working Business Plan – 80 pages
- FUSE Community Work Hub Co-Working Space Business Plan – 30 pages
If you want more examples, please check out this list of the Top 75 Co-Working Spaces in America.
Rewards or Equity Based Crowdfunding Platform
Once a co-working space has been set up, the next step in the process is to launch a rewards-based or equity-based crowdfunding ecosystem so that members of the co-working space can use the site to raise seed stage investment capital to get their companies up and running.
Learn more about crowdfunding:
- Building a Rewards-based and/or Equity-based Crowdfunding Ecosystem;
- Providing Easy Access to Seed Investment Capital with Crowdfunding;
- Generating More Revenue to Support Co-Working Spaces and Startups;
- Using Equity Crowdfunding Sites to Finance Incubators and Accelerators;
- Taking Advantage of Investor Syndicates that are Seeking Better Deal Flow;
- Splitting Revenue from Incubator and Accelerator Mentors Consulting Fees;
- Streamlining Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs);
- Cross-Pollinating College Education with Real World Startups; and
- Learning to Build Better Alumni and Local Community Relationships
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