Matt Shampine

WeWork Labs is approaching its five month anniversary, so I thought it’d be fun to take a moment and look back.

For those who don’t know about WeWork Labs, it is an incubator/accelerator/co-working hybrid that Adam, Jesse, and I co-founded in April because of a need that we saw for early stage tech startups here in New York.  The space is a bit different than others in the City, as our main goal is to help the startups outgrow our space as quickly as possible.  

Since April:

• 58 entrepreneurs that comprise over 30 companies have called or currently call WeWork Labs home
• We’ve amassed a growing membership wait list that is approaching 200
• Over $1.5 million dollars has been raised by WeWork Lab startups and with more to be announced in the near future
• Startups in WeWork Labs have made their way to great accelerator programs such as AngelPad, 500 Startups, and TechStars
• We’ve had angel investors and VCs host office hours with members in the space from companies such as High Peaks Venture Partners, Softbank, Hearst, Centurion Venture Partners, and many more
• We’ve held numerous events in the space including demo days, happy hours, WilmerHales’ summer legal series, member run lunch-and-learns, and lunch with JWT’s Chief Creative Digital Officer and Director of Trendspotting

It goes without saying, if it were not for our terrific sponsors - WilmerHale, JWT, Boxee, PepsiCo, and Spencer Adler - none of this would be possible.  All of us in the WeWork Labs family truly appreciate everything that you do.

Lastly, I don’t think Jesse and I say it enough, but we really do feel lucky to have so many wonderful people that have helped us with WeWork Labs.  This is especially true for those in our own startups, who have thankfully not gotten too mad at us for taking on this additional task.  Thank you so much Mike, Andrew, Eric, Yin, Matt, Lisa, and Orlando for all of your help and support.