Co-working spaces expanding options

Entrepreneurs and independent contractors in Honolulu will soon have more options for where they can get down to business as operators of co-working spaces expand.

There are a handful of co-working spaces in Honolulu where startups or freelancers can pay a monthly membership to use amenities and get their work done. Members pay from $35 a month to grab a spot at one of the open-floor-plan office spaces or up to $950 for private offices.

Meli James, president of investment firm Sultan Ventures, said, “They can be an epicenter for networking events. … Co-working is growing in Hawaii, and we see that as a good thing and reflection that innovation and entrepreneurship is growing locally.”

Major spaces in Honolulu include BoxJelly, Real Office Centers in Chinatown, ProtoHUB and the Manoa Innovation Center.

BoxJelly, the first co-working space on the island, opened in 2011.

“We want to help create the best place to work, in the best place to live,” said BoxJelly CEO Rechung Fujihira. He said the space has attracted various types of workers from freelancers to headhunters to production companies.

Chad Kahunahana, director of growth and strategy at BoxJelly, said the space offers amenities that small companies or contractors wouldn’t be able to afford.

“We can help source the property, design the property, build it, bring in the heart, bring the furniture, create the vibe you are looking for, so all you have to do is come in and work,” Kahunahana said.

He said BoxJelly is looking to expand because the space is pushing capacity — over 90 percent capacity in open-space areas, where workers would pay the cheapest fee to secure a spot in the space, and over capacity for personal office space.

“We have a waitlist of people who want offices,” Kahunahana said. “For hot desk people, who work there several times a week … we can probably increase our membership by 10 percent.”

Kahunahana said he is looking at locations in Kapolei, East Oahu and downtown.

BoxJelly isn’t the only expansion of co-working spaces on the island.

George Yarbrough, co-director of operations at ProtoHUB Honolulu, said after gaining a license from Impact Hub and receiving funds from the state, the working space will be expanding in summer 2017, simultaneously changing its name to Impact Hub Honolulu.

The 2016 Legislature awarded Impact Hub a $350,000 grant-in-aid to create a new space.

Right now ProtoHUB is temporarily sharing space with Sultan Ventures in XCLR8UH, the University of Hawaii’s boot camp for startups. Impact Hub is looking for 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of space using the state grant, Yarbrough said.

Celine Casamina at the Real Office Centers said there are roughly 30 businesses that use the workspace upstairs, and they are looking to expand.

“We are looking at more projects in Hawaii, but nothing is set in stone just yet,” she said.

Outside of amenities, a major draw to these spaces is the community, which helps build networking and collaboration among members.

“You facilitate that randomness of bumping into people,” Kahunahana said. “That is generally why urban places are more creative, because of those random collisions. Co-working spaces are just a microcosm of that — a smaller, more intense version of that.”

Sara Lin, associate with the Hawaii Strategic Development Corp. — a state investment program designed to help the development of an innovation ecosystem in Hawaii — said the expanding co-working spaces are vital to growing businesses in the state, because centers provide entrepreneurs a space to work as well as networking opportunities.

“Alongside investment capital and accelerator programs, co-working spaces are key to successful entrepreneurial ecosystems,” Lin said. “The emergence and success of local co-working spaces reflects the changing nature of entrepreneurs in Hawaii. Many new small businesses in Hawaii are startups and innovation-related companies. They thrive in this type of workspace.”

Judith Brieger, creative director at Ampersand, a consultancy and creative services agency based in BoxJelly, said the co-working space helped her build a client base as some of her neighbors at BoxJelly started asking for her help.

The membership “has paid for itself,” Brieger said. “The amount of clients we only got because we were here make up for that (the cost) completely. I have resources available to me that I never would have thought of. Someone is a photographer here. When I have a project and need photography, I instantly have someone to talk to.”

Fujihira said this type of networking is something he wants to build on at BoxJelly.

“We would like to get more larger companies so (the members) can have an interface with the bigger companies,” he said.

Fujihira said the main goal of BoxJelly was to create a way for him to stay in Hawaii after graduating from Chaminade University of Honolulu and help other professionals continue to work in the state, too.

“The fact is that it is really hard to make a living here in Hawaii. If they can be independent or entrepreneurial, they can tap into the global economy,” he said. “We have a lot of people who work for clients on the mainland.”

Many of the founders of co-working spaces have the idea that they want to connect Hawaii businesses to a global network.

BoxJelly clients are a part of a group of international co-working spaces called Loop, Kahunahana said.

“Our members get to work one day a month at co-working spaces worldwide,” he said, listing sister spaces in Bali, Bangkok, Melbourne and New York.

“If you have to pitch to clients in New York, you could go to one of our partner co-working spaces and not have to meet in your hotel,” he said.

When finished, Impact Hub Honolulu will become a part of an international network of co-working spaces that includes 86 Impact Hubs around the world.

“They are all connected via a community-impact-focused feel and action,” Yarbrough said.

Yarbrough said members of Impact Hub Sweden or Impact Hub Seattle can come to Hawaii’s Impact Hub and be a member for a short period of time — and Hawaii members are welcomed at the sister spaces, too.

In 2015 the number of co-working spaces grew by 36 percent to about 7,800 spaces worldwide, according to a survey by co-working magazine Deskmag.com.

There will be 10,000 co-working spaces open worldwide by the end of 2016, according to the survey.

Kahunahana said co-working is gaining momentum because of the growing gig economy, where more people work temporary positions or organizations contract independent workers for short-term engagements.

“It’s not a fad,” he said. “It’s being driven by macro-forces in the economy … that I think are here to stay.”