Kismet
Cowork
In 2016, I decided to build my first self-branded coworking space in Chestnut Hill, an affluent neighborhood of Philadelphia, to cater to professionals that wanted the value of a shared workspace with a high-minded design aesthetic.
$2,500,000
investment raised
40,000 ft2
over three locations
400+
members
Over the course of three years, I expanded the network to include three unique locations totalling 40,000 square feet. I raised $2.5M from investors and landlords and leveraged my 20 years of experience in real estate to create a well-branded shared workspace modeled after the success of WeWork, Industrious and Regus.
We opened our first 10,000 square foot location in Chestnut Hill in April of 2017, our second 10,000 square foot location in the Spring Arts neighborhood in April of 2018, and our third 20,000 square foot location in the Manayunk neighborhood in April of 2019.
By March of 2020, we had more than 400 members and a rapidly expanding runway of deal opportunities for continued growth. The pandemic had other ideas.
After designing the spaces with an architect, I served as my own General Contractor and managed every aspect of the building process. We were a small but nimble team that delivered every project on time and on budget. I also operated the spaces myself and grew my team of associates to more than 15 members. We created unique programs, seminars and learning experiences based off of the principles of design thinking and my own knowledge of aspirational programming.
We were deep in conversations to expand the concept to Atlanta, Washington DC, Nashville and Houston when the pandemic changed the future of entrepreneurial-focused independent workspaces that could not sustain the impacts of a shuttered economy that operated in the real world.
I effectively worked with my landlords to repurpose the spaces and successfully re-tenanted 2 of the 3 spaces and sold the remaining original business to the landlord of the Chestnut Hill location so that they could continue operations.
The legacy of what I achieved with KISMET COWORK is well remembered even though the original concept did not survive the pandemic shutdown.
We live, we learn, we move on.