Coworking In Atlanta: Working At Jelly

An alternative to working at home

by j. brotherlove

When I tell most people I work from home they often get all sorts of wonderful visions in their head. Truth is, working in a vacuum can be very unglamorous; uninspiring and eradicates the work/life construct (i.e., I tend to work all day and night).

Last Friday I left the confines of the home office to meet some ad hoc "coworkers" for the first time at Jelly! Jelly! is the brainchild of Amit Gupta (Photojojo, ChangeThis, etc.)

Jelly What?

The basic concept of Jelly! is to provide a space for freelance designers, coders, marketers and social media folk to work with others in a fun, cafe-like environment. Think of it as a ramped up Starbucks where management doesn’t chase you out for taking up a table all day.

I’ve been thinking of an idea like this for awhile. But it wasn’t until I read about coworking on Tim Moenk’s blog that I got my "a-ha" moment:

Bottom line? Working at home sucks. It can be lonely sometimes (not to mention difficult to self motivate) and I want more exposure to a diverse range of people who are as passionate about what they do as I am! (Srsly!!)

While Tim was brainstorming on coworking, Kristyn Shayon had already contacted Amit to get Jelly! Atlanta off the ground. Local organization is crucial to the success of coworking because every location has its quirks as Kristyn points out about Atlanta:

[…] the challenge we face in such a booming and poorly planned city is to come together. No one likes the traffic. MARTA isn’t fantastic. But, life is short, and we all have work to do.

And work we did at Octane Coffee Bar. There were about seven of us altogether which was perfect given the space. Jim Stroud even dropped by and pulled out his camera for some impromptu vlogging. Signup on the Jelly Atlanta wiki to catch our next work session.

Observations

The coworking concept is relatively new with no absolutes. Some people are approaching the concept as a structured business; others feel it’s too soon to combine coworking with a profit model. Meetups can happen in coffee houses, homes or rented business offices.

In Atlanta, we’re still working out the details. Some observations from today’s session:

Powerstrips! As laptop jockeys, you think one of us would’ve thought about bringing a powerstrip. I won’t make that mistake next time. BTW, if you would like to donate to the cause, I’m partial to the PowerSquid Surge3000 Calamari.

Location. Octane is very popular. Nabbing a seat (and more importantly, an outlet) was a bit tricky. In order for Jelly! to grow in Atlanta, we may need to look into a less popular cafe or someone’s home to meet. Although I have to say the Octane folks are super cool and didn’t pressure us to consume coffee and food during our workday (although we did).

Day/Time. We wrapped up around 4:30pm. But Friday is the worst rush hour day for Atlanta. Maybe we should look into a different day of the week. In any case, I’m looking forward to it.

Testing out my commenting system. Time to upgrade, methinks.