Ask HN: Unconventional places of business to rent a desk? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Unconventional places of business to rent a desk?

15 pointstboyd4713 comments

HN crowd, have you ever sought to rent co-working space at an unconventional place of business, like a car dealership, restaurant, or hair salon?

I am relocating to a new area soon and I prefer not to work in typical co-working hubs like WeWork due to, let's say, bad culture fit. Has anyone had success renting a desk or small office from a business that doesn't normally host programmers? Whom did you rent from, and how did you pull it off?

I'm looking for ideas.

Thanks!

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I rented a desk at an actor's talent agency once. I met the owner and in conversation mentioned I was looking for an office, and he offered to rent me a desk in a seldom used large room, space for 10 people. So I move in and work alone in that large, mostly dark room. About 3 months in, owner guy tells me a modeling agency is going to rent that room, but I'm allowed to keep my desk. They know I'm there, and said they'll just work around me. That was nice, because the modeling agency was (seriously) bikini models! Yes, too good to be true, I had to change offices when my wife learned they'd moved in.

When I left there, I'd met a group of musicians that rented a former paint factory. They'd carved it into different suites and were rented them out, while keeping the main area as a stage they rented. I talked 4 others into joining me, we rented one of the suites, and started our own co-working space. We called it "DropLabs" and it lasted about 5 years, from '06-'11.

Have you tried a local hookah lounge or cigar bar? Many are under utilized during the day and may be fine with an arrangement like this as long as it doesn’t interfere with their core night hours.

You could just rent an office. As in, commercial real estate. Talk to a realtor. Tell them what things you need and what your price range is.

You can also rent a private office inside those co-working spaces you don't like, so you don't really deal with other people there. If you have a private office inside one of those spaces, I'm not sure why the "culture" would make any difference.

Convert an RV or large van into a mobile office and rent a place to park and power it... but really, for anyone interested, I would recommend investing in a home office. It is well worth spending a little extra on your housing if you need to. I have seen home offices in spare bedrooms*, bonus rooms*, sun rooms*, part of the master bedroom*, under stairs, stair landings*, utility rooms*, hallways*, dining rooms, converted garages*, converted attics*, sheds, and even modified RVs parked in the driveway (had an office in each *). It is pretty cheap/easy to build a small room just big enough for a desk and some cabinets in a large garage and still have space to park a vehicle. Of course it is best to dedicate a separate area for it. If you are looking for background activity/noise, well there is always getting out for a few hours a day to a community center, park, cafe/restaurant, bowling alley, etc. with your laptop, but it might be better to just focus on a social life after work. If you are concerned about feeling isolated at home, setup near a window, if that isn't possible place some cameras outside and setup a large monitor to display the live feeds WITH sound. If the concern is too many distractions at home, invest in sound proofing your home office.

Try artists' studios. There are buildings that rent reasonably priced spaces meant for making art, but they are private yet in a building with funky, creative people, so that environment might suit you. Good luck. I have often thought of starting an AirBnB-type marketplace for just such an office as you are looking for. Especially post-pandemic, there are so, so many offices with empty desks.

My company operates from a couple of pods that we rent in a warehouse. It can be a bit noisy and the climate control isn't always that great, but it's not too bad overall. There's also a lot of smaller pods you can rent, and it would be really nice if you do other work besides programming, say, run a 3D printer from the location or do work with robots or embedded systems and need some more space.

I was considering putting up sheds or barns at our orchard..but didn’t know if it would take? It is a working farm.

Initially, I thought about treehouse school pods for kids before schools reopened, but the liability is not worth it.

Would this appeal to programmers/etc?

If they had climate / moisture control, I'd be interested. Can't speak for any others.

One company I applied to had their office in a light industrial area. It was normally a factory, but one of those cozier ones with huge roads, lots of parking, glass walls and lots of natural light. The area was a lot cheaper than an office too. Downside is it's away from public transport.

I believe a lot of the e-commerce Instagram-centric businesses set up there because the wide roads made deliveries easy. So you get a mix of tech savvy people who also have good fashion sense.

There's a cozy area with a shower and kitchen at the top of the building too, which was meant to be a place for factory workers to live.

Ask local art galleries or maker spaces …. Maybe even try some non profits, especially ones that administer endowments / disburse grants.

If in a small town, the the Borough / local government.

Look up local professional leadership programs. They may also have excess office space.

Really desperate ? Contact some non tenure track professors at the closest university. See if you can rent their office under the table. (This one is slightly tongue in cheek )

Might look at antique mall / flea market setups in former factory buildings. They're likely to have disused office space they'd love to turn a buck on.

What region of the world are you looking in?

Southeast US.

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