Wednesday, January 26, 2011

General Assembly: A Floor, A Building, A City Block

Baratunde ThurstonImage by Laughing Squid via FlickrGeneral Assembly is such a good idea - and right now it is two floors - that I think it deserves to be an entire building, perhaps a city block. If you have not visited already, you should. Go make your pilgrimage.

It has been designed just right. When you are in front of your computer, you are in front of your computer. And there should be a headphone rule. When your ears are covered, you are saying do not disturb.

But then there are times when you want to be in a big, open space. There are times when you want to hold meetings. Small meetings, big meetings.

And it has a great business model. If it has 90 occupants paying $500 each, I am doing the math and the numbers are looking great. And there is a long waiting list, 100 strong, I think. General Assembly could easily occupy another floor.

There is scaling, and there is scaling. The other scaling would be when a tech startup with 20 employees would also feel just at home at General Assembly. 20, 30, upto 50. At some point a startup should be able to get its own floor, provided by General Assembly.

Brad Hargreaves deserves to become a multi-millionaire doing this. This is how jobs are created. When Google hired 10,000 people, it had a positive impact on the creation of 10 million jobs out there. A tech startup at General Assembly that might hire 10 people is probably creating 100 jobs in the city economy right away.

Brad, if you need help scaring away the tenants on the other floors, let me know. I will pass on the word to Baratunde. He will show up and tell some bad jokes.

Baratunde Thurston: The Brain Behind The Onion
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