When is a coworking company no longer a coworking company?
That's the line D.C.-based Cove is crossing in a couple directions – by expanding from a network of coworking spaces to an office designer and software maker.
The company created its own software to manage its coworking spaces, which a few years ago were separate neighborhood workspaces but now work in tandem. The app facilitates desk and office reservations, check ins, events and other features of Cove’s network, connecting the people and resources in six spaces – five in the D.C. area and one in Boston.
Soon enough, Booz Allen Hamilton employees that were members of the workspace thought the app offered an engaging experience and recommended it for their own company. Then a separate, smaller nearby firm saw the coworking spaces and asked if it could build them a Cove-like office of their own.
From there, co-founder Adam Segal said, the opportunities kept coming.
Cove now has built out five offices for other companies, which range from 20 to 100 employee firms. Its largest office-build so far hosts 60 workers.
It also designed the management app for the Booz Allen Hamilton Innovation Center, an open office, coworking space and tech lab combo in D.C. Cove launched that partnership 18 months ago and recently added the app to the Booz Allen Maryland Innovation Center as well.
“The Cove app was designed for the individual, but now we’re taking that approach and applying it to an organization,” Segal said. It helps tenants check in, browse who’s there, see upcoming events, reserve seats (there are no dedicated desks at the Innovation Center) and join coffee groups.
Segal said three questions differentiate the Booz Allen software from Cove’s original coworking product: “Where are people? How do I stay connected to the organization? And how can Booz Allen run a really efficient but engaging space?”
Cove has 12 full-time and 30 part-time employees, and they’ll be busy in the first half of 2019.
It’s planning to announce another coworking location in the first quarter, and in Q2 will pick locations for two more office builds for separate companies.
Taking what it’s learned from Booz Allen, co-founder and CTO Jeremy Scott said, Cove is also planning to build apps for other organizations looking to digitize their workspace management.
“We’ve been applying everything we’ve done with retail locations; but they have different needs, and use cases that we don’t have at Cove, so we are building new features like guest and event management systems,” he said. “We are trying to become part of the DNA of these modern workspaces.”
