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WeWork Labs is New York City's newest stomping grounds for aspiring entrepreneurs.
It opened its doors last week to 50 founders and freelancers with backgrounds ranging from PR and marketing to IT and biz dev.
Founders Matt Shampine, Jesse Middleton, and Adam Neumann hope that by sticking talented people in a room together for months at a time, promising ideas, friendships, and businesses will emerge.
After the first fleet of people moved in, we checked out the office. Lined with exposed brick and decorated with kegs and the Microsoft Kinect, it's a pretty sweet place.
Founders Jesse Middleton, Adam Neumann, and Matt Shampine. Neumann founded WeWork last year, and Shampine is cofounder of We Are NY Tech.
There's one common area where people work side by side at long picnic tables.
Every long table has a centerpiece of shrubbery.
Every room has glass walls so you can see people working.
Glass walls also mean you can write on them. Residents have already begun turning these into whiteboards.
The only privacy you'll get is in this tiny phone booth.
Besides the bathroom of course. Clearly WeWork Labs is male-dominated.
A fridge and tiny sink make up the kitchen area.
And there are kegs! When you've just moved, is there a better sight in the world?
This conference room has lots of fun chairs and couches.
We imagine a lot of late nights will be spent on that bean bag.
A newly mounted flat screen with Kinect is hooked up.
Here's another conference room. Every wall is lined with exposed brick for a cool, urban feel.
And another. All of the rooms are nearly sound proof, so feel free to get rowdy.
Walther Chen, founder of iDoneThis is plugging away already.
Francisco Hui (of Interactees), Mariya Yao, and Willem Bult (both of Bloomsie) are too.
Joseph Fasone (of WeWork) and Glen Goates (of Handshake) try really hard to look like they're working.
Brandon Gracey is one of many freelancers in WeWork Labs. The freelancers will be helping fellow startups on projects in their spare time for some extra cash.
Brannon McAllister (freelancer) is another new resident.
Jin Kim (freelancer) works through lunch.
The moving process is ongoing. By the end of the week, 50 people will take up every open seat here.
For another cool New York office space, check out:
