It’s easy to fall into the habit of thought that all of the business-building in the Boston-area is occurring in Cambridge and the Seaport. But innovation sprouts in all places, and Dorchester's new entrepreneur-oriented experiment aims to prove it.
Fields Corner Business Lab was founded by Travis Lee and John Maudlin. The Lab, officially opened just last month, is designed to be a communal yet affordable workspace for innovators and creatives, whether they strive to make social change with nonprofits, break ground on a startup or work independently. There’s a total of 25 small offices and 30 desks, each of which costs $100 to rent for a month, a price that includes free Wi-Fi, snacks, cable, printer and use of a conference room.
“We wanted to build a neighborhood alternative to some of the other places in Kendall Square or the Seaport,” Maudlin told BostInno. He continued:
We had the idea that we could add value to Dorchester by creating room for entrepreneurs to get together, and do what they do, only better. … And hopefully every urban-commercial pocket in the city can have something like it.
“We didn’t do the project because we thought there was an overwhelming, bursting need for entrepreneurs to work somewhere in Dorchester. It was more modest than that."
Lee, who worked in real estate, had the opportunity to purchase the building in which the Lab is contained back in 2013 for $1.6 million. The four-story brick structure was, at the time, mostly filled with tiny, bootstrapped nonprofits, which couldn’t afford to pay a high rent, Lee explained.
Once keys exchanged hands, it came time to consider an increase in monthly dues for occupants. But Lee didn’t want to push out the organizations that were doing good work for the community. Shared the cofounder:
[Maudlin] and I thought that if we could get 50 or 60 entrepreneurs in one floor of the building, we could charge a lower rate because of the density. We could make the economics work at a low price if we had enough people.
And the demand for an affordable and collaborative place for Dorchesterites seems be there. When the Lab launched in May, people began coming out of the woodwork “quite a bit,” said Lee. “We were surprised about the amount of entrepreneurial activity.”
Still, Lee and Maudlin are taking a pragmatic approach to the Lab. The market for a coworking space in one of the city’s most under-developed areas may grow gradually, but they’re willing to wait. And, perhaps more importantly, they’re eager and willing to work with the community to see how the Lab can best fit its needs.
“We didn’t do the project because we thought there was an overwhelming, bursting need for entrepreneurs to work somewhere in Dorchester. It was more modest than that,” said Lee.
To figure out what role the space will play, Maudlin explained that they plan to hold various informative, free classes for members, based on their particular needs. “We want to get our members connected with each other and also get them the information they need,” said Maudlin, adding that grant-writing could be one of the first arenas the Lab tries to tackle in a session. At this point, the founding duo are most concerned about giving people access to all the resources they need to grow and succeed.
"We’re trying something new here," said Lee. "We get that it’s a work in progress. ... It’s more like we would love to be part of creating the demand."
Images via Fields Corner Business Lab
