[MUSIC] Well, co-working is shared space baked in with community. And looking at entrepreneurs, startups, and corporations and giving them a space to work whether it's a desk, a mobile desk, or a private office. And really baking in the type of community and culture that you try to build within a network. And if you think of co-working like restaurants, there's different flavors, there's different chefs, there's different layouts. And every space can offer a different menu. So it's not always a one-space-fits-all model. And so that's the dynamic nature of this new way to work via co-working. The really cool thing about co-working, from a physical layout, it's usually very open, and collaborative, and really sexy space. So you have the open ceiling. You have the polished concrete. You have the cool and flexible furniture. And that's a draw. And so if entrepreneurs are thinking about attracting or retaining talent, that's a big part of it. The other part that I know our founders at Benjamin's Desk find a big value in is understanding that other members that come from a different dynamic. It's a different perspective. It's a different way to do things. Technology's changing at such a fast pace that it's fun to see the groups that are using technology to its most efficient way. And challenging others and exposing others to what that looks like. We used to always challenge our managers to create these type of collisions. How do you manufacture the right person to meet each other when you know from the data that you're pulling from them that they should meet? And when they meet, good things can happen. So we try to manufacture that, but it just happens in our spaces. It's open, it's collaborative. You're going to bump into somebody having a cup of coffee or having a pint of Jarge beer. And it's one of those things that in a co-working space, it allows for those types of collisions to happen at a higher rate. [MUSIC] Yeah, it's funny, we have the best job in the world where we have to be around startups and entrepreneurs every day. We have currently about 500 members and we're pushing to 1,000 by the end of this year. So we have a lot of good use cases around startups that have had success and startups that have failed. Some of the things that I take away when I look at a successful startup, it starts at the leadership spot. It starts with the founder and their mentality behind not being afraid to fail but doing everything it takes not to fail. And having an attitude that they're going to do whatever it takes. And so it's kind of an oxymoron, where they're out on the ledge to kind of make a mistake and fall. But they have this attitude and this belief that they're going to do whatever it takes to win and get to the next level. Some of the lessons that I've learned through startups failing when they've come in, whether it's the big player. We've had Uber launch out of our space when they came to Philadelphia. So when I talk about startups, you can see the launch teams that come in that are venture backed, coming from Austin or New York or Boston. Wherever they're coming from, they get dropped in Philadelphia to execute the model. And you see how important it is for not only entrepreneurship to start local, but to scale local. And so there's resources that exist locally that allow for these startups to have success. And it's true, so we always try to get our entrepreneurs to think through. Well, yeah, we know scaling is national and global, and that's important. But guess what, entrepreneurship is also local. Who are the people and the players in place that can help you grow? And it's the startups that understand that. And that they don't just come to Philadelphia to scale or to take advantage of the market and the unbelievable students and universities that exist here. But they really look at who are the players that can help them make the right decisions. Whether it's pathway, or finding the right town out of the right university or finding the decision maker that can put them in touch with the right capital. [MUSIC] I think it's important for every entrepreneur and startup to build a base of support around them as they grow. And as they scale through any venture that they're working on. I recall a story with Josh Kopelman at First Round Capital. And he talked about 15 years ago when it was a little bit harder to start a company. And lugging around a computer, bringing in analysts. Nowadays, it's so much easier and seamless to build a company, launch a company, find the right team, and scale. I think that's very true, but going deeper and finding the resources, that still takes relationship. It still takes an eye for what's valuable and what's not valuable. And I love seeing the entrepreneurs that go deeper and say, that's not just a resource where I have an opportunity to take something from. I think there's a give-and-take that usually multiplies the ask and builds a relationship for down the road. And that long-term investment, and looking at a resource not just as a transaction but as an investment, pays the biggest dividend. The broader picture, when you look at team building and you're part of an ecosystem where you want to see more team building happen. Some of the greatest startups that we have at Benjamin's Desk, they care about their vision and their mission. But believe it or not, they care about other startups and how they're having success. So I'm always blown away. There's one startup that just came out of Dream Adventures in our space called Tassl. It's an alumni engagement tool and platform that's doing really well. Penn State Grad, she has this unique model, she's raising money. She's a sharp entrepreneur, her name's Melissa Schipke. It's fun to watch her in action. Yet somehow, she carves out time to do something called Startup Hangout where it's other entrepreneurs getting together and I know she's buying in on it. She's getting some value out of that. But she also buys into other entrepreneurs need to be around other entrepreneurs to have success. So I'm always blown away by entrepreneurs, like Melissa, that can pause and care about others, not just their own mission. And they're rare, but when more entrepreneurs do that, great things happen. I'll tell you what, Philadelphia is a market of entrepreneurs. [MUSIC] Some of the obvious reasons why startups fail is poor communication. Too much transparency, believe it or not. So many times you probably hear that transparency is important with a team. Well, so is too much transparency. And just again, startups move at such a pace and such a speed that what is that pause moment that allows them to have a little bit more of a full view? Not just run with your blinders on or throw money at the wall, and just iterate as it comes. [MUSIC] Yeah, I think it's important. One, it's very hard to fake passion, right? So if it's not there for a certain reason. And I've known a few entrepreneurs who've had success going after a venture that wasn't their main passion or they were just positioning it in the opportunity. And part of their struggles were dealing with their teams, dealing with getting people bought in in a unique way. So there is an enigma there, an anomaly behind it, it can happen. But 95% of the time it's the leader that can show their passion consistently to get the buy-in from the team members. To kind of cast a vision that you're willing to stay up a little bit later or wake up a little earlier to fight for. And it's important and I think, again, you can't fake it. When you can add polish to it, and when I mean polish, because we talk all the time between passion and polish. They're a really strong winning formula when you combine the two. And polish meaning infrastructure, thought behind why you're doing something, a rhyme or reasoning. So your team not only just sees the excitement behind what you're trying to tackle, but there's a pathway. And there's a process, and when you combine the two, that's where we see the greater results from some of the entrepreneurs. [MUSIC] Yeah, it's funny. Transparency is always a topic, be more transparent, how can you show more transparency. As I was walking out of the office, again I love collaborating, I love meeting with different team members. I grabbed one of our community managers and Director of Programming Charlotte who came from the start up world. I said hey Charlotte, I'm about to do this quick interview, what are your thoughts on team dynamics and what that looks like. The first thing out of her mouth was be careful with transparency. And I was taken back a little bit, even though I get the principle at its purest form. But her thought was managers, directors, team members, startup entrepreneurs who are part of teams, they want transparency. But they want transparency in doses. They want transparency that aligns with not awkwardness. Aligns with having an infrastructure or structure in place. It's almost as elementary as thinking back as a parent. And setting roles and boundaries in place and telling them why when they need to learn, know, and understand why. And it's funny that she put that story in place and talked about I can tell you two or three different instances specifically that impacted her as a team member with a startup that had too much transparency. [MUSIC] When I think of the little mechanics that every founder and entrepeneur can do around team building, it's not just the $1,000 per head trip to the mountains or to the beach and building team building that way. I think there's little wins every day that they need to be conscious of. Checking in, getting someone's feedback on a logo, a strategy change. Whether it's a data point or something that's really needed. The data point goes a long way in making them feel a part of it. It's funny, I just had a conversation in our leadership meeting saying, hey guys, this is great that were thinking through culture and community. But what about the check-in with our directors and our managers? How have you not brought them into the conversations and the strategy that we're trying to bring into? I want their data points. They're on the ground. They're meeting with the members. They're talking with them everyday. And so those are little examples everyday that a leader, a director, a team member can check in with all the staff to show that they're worth and we value their point of view. [MUSIC] Yeah, so some people don't know, and I don't get to talk soccer a lot, that I played ten years of professional soccer. I think that's really set me up to do two things really, really well at Benjamin's Desk. The first thing is I've already lived my dream. My dream since I was a 16 year old boy was to get a full scholarship, be an All-American, play professional soccer, so I feel very fulfilled as an individual. And so that allows me to really wear the hat of cheerleader, coach, mentor, advisor with true authenticity. So I love seeing wins, I love pushing companies to celebrate their wins. I'll be the first one to be the cheerleader. But also be the first one as they go through the ebbs and flows of entrepreneurship to say hey, there's a resilience there. And I can speak of it from business ventures, but I can also speak from it personally as an athlete. I think there's no better kind of correlation between entrepreneurship and athletics in regards to wanting to achieve success. Having a measurable goal in mind to get there. But also knowing that there's going to be ups and downs, injuries and luck and timing. And everything plays such an important part of that. It sort of helps us shape it. And I guess the second thing is the team building. So every locker room that I've been in, and I've been in about 13 to 14 of them full time. And the locker room matters, it's the same thing as the culture you're building as a company. So if you think locker room dynamics do not matter in a pro-sports world, you're gravely mistaken, it's everything. And it starts with the leader of the team, the coach. But the most important person I always saw on every team I played for was usually the most talented player. What was his leadership skills like and how were they portrayed? And so every team I can talk back about culture, every locker room had culture and community and had a dynamic. The great ones, the championship ones had something very unique and I think the common denominator was the leader or the best player. And in the start up world sometimes that's the visionary founder, their attitude to bring people in the fold. Their attitude to be servant-like in how they led and be the last one on the field and the first one on the field. And so that mentality sticks with me. I feel like I can recognize that early on because I've seen it on the sports field. And it's easily recognizable in the entrepreneurship world. And that's what I get excited about. I get to see companies that you feel like you want them to win so bad because you see them putting all the right moves and work into it. And sometimes they fail, man, and timing. And you can relate, as an athlete you've been there as far as being in the championship game, doing all the preparation. Looking at the game film and falling short. That's my understanding of failure, it's put yourself in a position to, if you're going to fail, you fail the right way. Not just failing because you think it's cool to fail and it's okay to fail. Put yourself in a position to fail because you put everything on the field. You left everything there, you prepared the right way. The same thing with these entrepreneurs. because ultimately that setback will put them in a different pathway, or timing wasn't there. And it's okay to transition into something else that'll have success. So sports has played a major part in who I am as a leader and who I am as a cheerleader at Benjamin's Desk.
