RALEIGH – With co-working spaces popping up in the Triangle almost every other day it seems, serial entrepreneur and NC State grad David Brown decided to take a different tact.
His plan: travel across the pond and start up his own shared office space in London.
“Some estimate that only 2 percent of individuals that could work in a shared space currently do so,” he said. “The potential market is huge.”
David Brown. Source: LinkedIn
As the former community ambassador for Loading Dock, a co-working space in Raleigh, he knew the business model well. He raised almost $437,000 in equity and debt from five investors, according to a recent SEC filing, and upped sticks, as they say in the UK, to London with his family this summer.
He’s now getting ready to open his new startup, Good Space, in Queen’s Park, an area in west London.
“We are negotiating a lease for the location now and hope to be open in about six to eight weeks,” he told WRAL TechWire via email.
But why not set up shop in the Triangle?
“First of all, I love Raleigh and I’m excited about the co-working industry [there],” he said. “I don’t think the market is saturated. There is opportunity and demand for more growth, though the market is getting tougher with more competition.”
Instead, he said, he had a “special opportunity to try a unique brand of co-working in London.”
“We’ve chosen to locate in the Queen’s Park neighborhood where we can partner with the local community organizations, non-profits and a new church to build something special for the residents there,” he said.
“London has the population density in a sub-market like Queen’s Park to support what we are doing for this initial phase, but we hope to grow and replicate the model in other neighborhoods and cities as we grow.”
