The social way to find office space
Air BnB is a seriously cool site. Not only have they given the travel industry a much needed revamp, they have also proven a source of good. It was reported last year that during the hurricane in New York, people were using the site to house the poor people that had lost their homes during the storm.
Which is pretty cool. ShareDesk has a similar business model, but as yet without the social good attached to it. The idea is a simple one. You take your average office, and any spare desks you have can be rented out to freelancers, entrepreneurs and the like that would like an affordable and flexible office space for a while.
"The problem is this: There’s tons of idle capacity [read: underused office space] out there. There’s been numerous studies that show that an actual workspace is only utilized less than 45% of the time. That doesn’t only apply for small businesses; it also applies for large organizations and corporates. For us, the goal is to try to help workspaces better utilize their real estate assets, better utilize their idle desks, their meeting rooms."He would like to see the site used by companies to rent out un-used desk space, conference rooms, the works, all on a temporary basis. Prices vary, with some offering rent per day, some per month. For instance you can rent a desk in TechSpace, in the heart of London's Silicon Roundabout for £360 per month.
ShareDesk take a 15% commission on any transactions made via the site but apart from that it's free to use. A really interesting concept and certainly one to keep an eye on.
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