GSVlabs, the downtown coworking space that first opened its doors nearly three years ago, is closing up shop on Nov. 1.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, GSVlabs had about 55 companies working out of its space. As of this week, there were only about 13, said managing director Seth Hauben. The transition to remote work necessitated by the coronavirus has not been kind to GSVlabs' coworking model. Tenant startups have reduced their office needs significantly. Cobu, for example, cut down its space by about 40 percent—the equivalent of two GSVlabs desks—in April.
"We’ve seen that play out with every company in the space," Hauben said. "Fundamentally, people aren't coming to the office right now. For a business that requires people using the space, it's just impossible in perpetuity. There is no end in sight right now. You can't say when business can pick back up. Unfortunately, due to that environment, we were left with no other options."
Hauben said GSVlabs has not had to lay anyone off in spite of the closure. Hauben and Kara O'Keefe, GSVlabs Boston's startup director, will remain with the company but transition to different roles. GSVlabs recently rebranded as OneValley and aims to support its member entrepreneurs and investors via OneValley Passport, a digital resource platform.
With the rebrand, OneValley also launched OneValley Ventures, an early-stage investment firm focused on startups in enterprise SaaS, AI and machine learning, digital health and fintech. Hauben said the firm has made two investments already, and while neither of them is local to Boston, the team hopes a portion of the portfolio will be Boston-based companies.
Hauben also hinted that there may be a OneValley coworking space in Boston again one day.
"There's so much variability in the world right now," Hauben said. "This is an unfortunate measure we have to take from an organizational standpoint, due to the climate, but we're hopeful that when normalcy returns, whenever that might be, we'll look at hoping to continue to have a presence here."
