Shared workspace provider Jam’D was losing thousands of clients last summer, due to people not wanting to get within six feet of each other. Faced with the expense of maintaining 3400 workspace facilities averaging 16,000 square feet apiece, the company was within days of going under.
Then founder and CEO Jennifer Silkman came up with another of her legendary ideas.
Actually, it was two ideas. The first one didn’t work.
“It was providing limitless free coffee condiments,” says Silkman, by Zoom from her Naples, Florida home. “But people just took the sugar and then cancelled their leases.”
It was her second idea that hit pay dirt: Shared office space for one – where an individual occupies an entire facility all by themselves.
“Until now the model has been to fit as many people as possible into one shared space without violating OSHA regulations,” says Silkman. “Given the current situation that wasn’t going to work anymore, so we had to re-visualize.” Jam’D began offering shared space for one on February 15, and in the first three hours over 400 people signed up.
Today, 1600 of Jam’D’s facilities are being leased by just one person.
The average monthly cost is around $55,000 – roughly 80 times what they might pay for a regular shared space – but it hasn’t seemed to deter sign-ups, which continue at the rate of around 20 per week.
“They’re still getting the shared workspace experience but now their safety is assured,” says Silkman. “In times like these who better to share with than yourself?”
Plus, she says, they’re paying for their own coffee condiments.
