Venture X Coworking Offices

Brett Diamond recently gave our Zincubate Editorial Board an exclusive behind the scenes look at Venture X, a revolutionary new coworking facility in Naples, FL.

Venture X will be opening early October 2012 in the Mercato Shopping Center. This revolutionary and state of the art facility is built on the model described as “coworking,” where symbiotic member strengths are shared in a business “incubator” paradigm. What better office space could we feature on Zincubate?

David Diamond and Brett Diamond began traveling to Silicon Valley, Seattle, and New York City investing in tech startups. A few of the Startup Angels’ (the David Diamond and John DeAngelis investment firm) investments began working out of coworking spaces because they didn’t want to be trapped in a private office.
The Dream, The Innovation“We started to ask them why they did this. Soon we discovered that they were looking to enhance collaboration and a positive work environment,” explained Brett Diamond, son and co-founder of Venture X. Brett was born and raised in Naples, and his father David of Deangelis Diamond Construction has been here for more than twenty years. “After seeing a few of the cowork spaces, we knew we had to launch one back home in Naples.”

Their dream is simple and succinct: build Venture X into the central hub of entrepreneurship in all of SWFL. Already successful in business, this duo realizes that this dream will take heavy lifting.

“The most surprising thing is also the most obvious thing: the historic delay in innovation in Florida,” explained Brett, recent graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University. “Silicon Valley seems always to be way ahead of Florida when it comes to the newest technology or newest innovations. One of the most surprising things is when we try to explain the idea of coworking to people and describe Venture X – Many people have never even heard of the concept. But, after about five minutes of explaining it to them, they are excited and can’t wait for the opening. It’s surprising to see how far behind Naples and most of Florida really is with regard to technological innovation. Venture X brings that needed change to the front page of southwest Florida.”

For Zincubate’s tech-trendy readers, Brett shared some of the state of the art technology.

“We are working with US Metro and Fiber Solutions to bring in fiber optics for the fastest possible Wi-Fi with no down time. We will have six televisions installed at Venture X with different channels playing on each throughout the day (all depending on what the members want). We will have news, Venture X event information, displays for featured members, and maybe even cartoons for folks on Saturday mornings (since we’ll be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week).”

In the first year, the Diamond team hopes to have Venture X at full force. “We see Venture X being the place for entrepreneurship and innovation in southwest Florida, added Brett.

“After Naples launches, we plan to expand with locations throughout Florida, such as Tampa or Orlando.”

“We would like to see entrepreneurs throughout the entire state of Florida prosper. Technology resource hubs such as Venture X will make that increasingly possible. We want to keep business in Florida and stop encouraging startups to flee to Silicon Valley.”

Plans and Design: Behind the Scenes

Designing Venture X was one of the most important tasks for the Diamonds. They spent months researching and meeting with owners of different coworking spaces across the nation from San Francisco to New York City. They talked to these owners of similar cowork offices and asked them about the challenges they faced.

“This helped us decide what we should implement in Venture X,” shared Diamond. “More importantly, it helped show us what we needed to avoid.”

One of the things they were happy to have learned was that many people are concerned with the large open space of a “Venture X” coworking environment. “Because privacy is important, we designed an area of Venture X dedicated specifically for phone users. We are using special tall couches from Steelcase that literally trap the noise so people outside of the area can’t hear your conversation”

Brett added, “What’s equally important is that you won’t be able to hear outside conversations either.” This hearkens back to a former era where phone booths provided technology. The stuffy, dank “booths” of yesterday have become the comfortable, ergonomic “couches” of today.

“Superman would never have been able to make it off these couches,” Brett remarked. “We will have plenty of them for anyone who needs to make a call.” The Diamonds are confident that comfort and productivity can blend together effectively.

Venture X will provide a full kitchen for members to use as well as a coffee bar area to offer clients a more relaxed venue.

“At Venture X, we are more than just an office space,” explains Brett. “We are a community of like-minded entrepreneurs and individual thinkers. We are a members-only workspace and we are selective about who becomes a member. There will be classes and events after hours and on weekends to help grow our member community. Events will be offered to the public and for members’ clients to help grow their businesses. Typical offices are usually just office space, and that’s it. Traditional offices and executive suites are isolated and are designed in effect to dissuade collaboration. There is no doubt that entrepreneurs need silence to focus on work. However, studies have shown that sitting down in a closed office defeats ingenuity. It doesn’t allow for creativity and innovation.”

The Value

The cost of this type of membership is exceedingly reasonable. Venture X offers day passes for $35 a day and part-time membership for $300 a month. For entrepreneurs who need more regular attendance, they can purchase a desk membership for $500 a month. For the enlightened local firm, office memberships start at $1,450 a month. According to Brett, most traditional office spaces in Naples Florida start at around $1,100 and go as high as $2,200.

So what’s in it for our Zincubate readers? As they are a member’s only space, we love getting new applications from local entrepreneurs, businesses, and startups. They are also giving out tours and day passes to those who want a sneak peek before they open. Our friends at Venture X have even offered any Zincubate reader a FREE 24/7 Access Card, if you sign up for a desk membership before October 1st, 2012 – and it’s good for the life of your membership. That’s a $50 savings each month!

Venture X is bringing together tech entrepreneurs from all over SWFL into one location for the inaugural “Startup Battle” on October 19th-21st. Startup Battle will be 48 hours packed full of innovation, creation and fun! Each Startup Battle event begins Friday night at 6:30PM and goes until Sunday at 6:30PM. Hackers, developers, designers and entrepreneurs of all kinds have the chance to network, collaborate, and innovate while they build their new concept. Many great teams will come out of this event, but only one team wins.

“Teams, choose wisely, and let the Battle begin!”

For More information:

Email Venture X for details about Startup Battle or for tour information: contact@venturex.co. You can find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theventurex.