Twin Cities co-working company COCO announced that it will change its name to Fueled Collective as part of a new franchising concept that blends co-working with hospitality and will link the Minnesota business to other Fueled Collective locations in New York and Cincinnati.
Fueled Collective is part co-working space, part social club. The Cincinnati prototype, which opened this week, features a full-service bar that opens to members after 5:00 p.m. The space also has a private dining area and event space.
COCO co-founders Kyle Coolbroth and Don Ball released news of the partnership in an email to members Wednesday afternoon. As part of the new partnership with Fueled Collective, Coolbroth, current CEO of COCO, will become CEO of Fueled Collective. COCO's chief creative officer Ball will become the Collective's Chief Social Officer.
So what does the change mean for the local COCOs? Aside from the new name, members will have access to Fueled Collective spaces in New York and Cincinnati, according to the email. Membership pricing will not change.
The Fueled Collective team may also make certain changes to COCO's tech and physical spaces. There will be no changes to COCO staff, the email said. Ball and Coolbroth said that they plan to continue leading the COCO community as co-founders and that the "day-to-day member experience will not change."
Fueled Collective started as a shared co-working space run by Fueled, a Manhattan-based mobile design and development company. The Fueled Collective concept than evolved with the help of co-creator St. Gregory Group, whose previous franchise ideas include Cyclebar, a fitness center with 130 locations nationwide. A separate news release said that Fueled sees the potential for up to 250 of these locations as stand-alone locations or offices within boutique hotels.
Ball and Coolbroth will host a series of town hall meetings to discuss the changes across all five locations in the coming week.
This story is developing. We will add more details as they become available.
