Consider the now-ubiquitous co-working space, where freelancers and founders rub elbows. Such spots, of course, promise flexible leases and ready-made culture--and many distractions. A co-working space co-founder and a founder whose company started at a co-working space--but eventually fled--discuss the pros and cons.
Do co-working spaces help with building a coherent corporate culture, or undermine it?
Ethan Agarwal: In our co-working space, the guy next to us was a jeweler, and there was a small PR firm and the local office of an industrial company. The people around us were not startup people, so the culture wasn't that.