237. On-Demand, Financed Furniture for Coworking Spaces
Furniture poses many challenges to coworking spaces - the biggest two are: 1) Furniture is a significant start-up cost for coworking and other space-as-a-service offerings. 2) It’s pretty hard to predict exactly what pieces you need to best support your future membership.
If you want to run any sort of custom, “HQ”-type model for your space-as-a-service customers, you need access to the right furniture at the right time. Feather solves this problem and WeWork is all over it.
Ilyse Kaplan, President, and COO at Feather, gives us the details on how their model works and how you can participate.
Following a successful pilot program in New York City, WeWork and Feather created a custom Office Builder tool for WeWork members to design their office spaces with furniture rented directly from Feather. Members select their city, building, office layout and the number of employees (20 or less) and the tool will recommend a new layout and Feather furniture to fit their space and workplace preferences. Members can choose from a collection of expertly curated office bundles, as well as a- la-carte furniture including desks, chairs, whiteboards, sofas, cabinets, coffee tables, and bookcases. Once a member selects their bundle, Feather provides seamless delivery and installation.
IN THIS EPISODE, ILYSE AND I DISCUSS:
The origin of Feather
The partnership that they recently launched with WeWork.
The problem that the Feather partnership solves for WeWork and its members.
Geographic areas served by Feather (over 100 zip codes!)
How other coworking spaces can use Feather as a resource.
How Feather is managing through shortages and delays.
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:
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