Dan Haugen wrote up a very nice overview of Twin Cities’ nascent co-working options. He got some great quotes from Zack Steven, Don Ball, Stephen Filing, and myself.
Nice work Dan.
Category: St. Paul
Friday, 8 January 2010
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Twin Cities Co-Working Conversation Re-Ignited
UPDATE 27 May 2009
New url for this effort: TwinCitiesCoWorking.org
Earlier this week, I had a fairly thorough conversation with a St. Paul-based serial entrepreneur exploring starting a co-working business.
I’ve been writing about the “co-working” / “work club” concept off and on for a while now (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Bonus) and there hasn’t been any blips on my radar for more than a year. So, I was pleasantly surprised to hear from him.
The notion of having access a low-cost office-y space with some of the amenities of ‘bigger’ offices is attractive. Unfortunately – like flying cars and carbon trading markets – there are a number of reasons why it hasn’t caught on. Some of those reasons are obvious (Herman Miller decor) others are less so (How is it different than Kopplin’s?).
In one of my earlier posts, I talked about these third places as transitional places.
I predict 2009 and 2010 will be banner years for small business starts and a transitional space is exactly what these new entrepreneurs need.
If you’ve got interest in or experience with a temporary, shared office space, leave a comment or drop me a line.
Friday, 19 December 2008
The Roastery and Kopplin’s Offering Coffee Subscriptions
If you’re still looking for something delicious to give the fanatic coffee drinker in your life – I’m super excited to share that both Jeremy Raths, of The Roastery, and Andrew Kopplin, of Kopplin’s Coffee, are offering coffee subscriptions.
The Roastery Regulars subscription, is $144, delivers 1 pound of coffee to your door every other week for 26 weeks (yes, 2 lbs /mn for 6 months + a bonus pound).
Kopplin’s Coffee of the Month Club subscription ($180) offers 1/2 lb. per month for 12 months of some of the most amazing coffees you’ve (I’ve) ever tasted. I’ve been ‘beta tasting’ Kopplin’s subscription this year and I’ve been blown away month after month (I’ve even recorded a few of my tastings). The only downside – it’s only a 1/2 lb. per month. 🙂
In both cases, I’d recommend picking up a good press pot or a Chemex, your regular drip coffee maker probably isn’t up to the task.
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Jon Gordon’s Twin Cities Coffee WiFi Google Map Started
Jon Gordon‘s going to be in the Twin Cities for a while and he thought it’d be fun to review the local selection of independent coffee + wifi shops.
As part of that effort, I’ve started a Google Map for listing and pin-pointing these places. There’s also a handful of invites floating around to for those that want to help.
Want one?
Update 07 July 2008
I just cracked open a PBWiki for this project: http://twincities-coffee-wifi.pbwiki.com/
Wednesday, 4 June 2008
Tweet Up with Jon Gordon, Happy Gnome, 5pm+, June 9 2008
Jon Gordon from APM’s Future Tense will be in the Twin Cities for a few days next week.
If you want to say ‘Hi’ and your golf game isn’t what it could be, come by the Happy Gnome sometime after 5pm on Monday June 9 and grab a pint of Bender or Bubble Jack.
Should be easy to spot a gaggle of geeks.
UPDATE MOMENTS LATER:
I was going to add this to Facebook, but they want 23 fields filled out for the 1 line I needed and I didn’t know how to categorize, “stop by and say ‘hi’, maybe grab a drink.” If you’re so inclined, go for it.
Wednesday, 24 October 2007
Where are the Good Minnesota Business Blogs?
I asked twitter about good MN business blogs and Mike Keliher mentioned the new Twin Cities Business Magazine site, while it’s not wholly a blog, there’s an editor’s blog and a very short list of local business blogs, including Graeme Thickins’ blog.
I’m not confident in getting the whole story from a single source, so who else needs to be on the list?
Add links in the comments and I’ll put together an aggregation.
Thanks.
Friday, 28 September 2007
RE: Pioneer Press to Launch ‘e-paper’
Every couple of years, the idea of delivering a frozen PDF instead of a living, breathing website hits my radar 1. This is the first time it hit’s this close to home.
At best, this effort is a distraction from their two other delivery channels – paper, pioneerpress.com. This middle ground is just silly.For everyone over at the Pioneer Press, could you something, anything by Jeff Jarvis or Doc Searls. Oh, and maybe you’ve heard that NYTimes has dropped their paywall.1. I remember an HP project that would automatically print out your newspaper on your home inkjet every morning.
Monday, 18 June 2007
Minneapolis / St. Paul Roasters Meetup
via Jared on the Sweet Marias mailing list:
Minneapolis area roasters. We have a date, June 30 a time 2pm and a location Black Sheep Coffee Cafe (705 Southview Blvd., South Saint Paul, MN (651) 554-0155)
For those of you who missed the early posts Peter Middlecamp the owner of Black Sheep is both a new shop owner and Barista competitor yet still placed 6th this year at the US championships. He is also a very nice guy. Here is the email Peter sent me today:
“Sounds great Jared. I’ll have some cupping samples and maybe some signature
beverage ideas for next year for you to try…
I’ll be there. Should be fun.
Saturday, 24 February 2007
First Crack 96. Jeff Williamson on St. Paul’s Flat Earth Brewing
As Jeff Williamson, co-owner of St. Paul’s Flat Earth Brewing Co. awaits kegs to distribute the first batch of Flat Earth Pale Ale, he and I talk about;
- Getting a microbrewery off the ground
- How a new child changed his the direction of Flat Earth
- Flat Earth’s place in Minnesota’s beer scene.
Listen to Jeff Williamson on St. Paul’s Flat Earth Brewery [16 min].
Sunday, 14 May 2006
White Rock Coffee – $99 Buys You Coffee for 7 Months
White Rock Coffee in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul (arguably the best coffee shop in Twin Cities) is running one of the coolest specials I’ve heard of since TextDrive‘s Mixed Grill / 3 Martini Lunch Hosting Plans – $99 gets you their travel mug + refills for the rest of 2006.