Ted Sieving, Robbie Brown, and Mike Haynes, Managing Partners of WE Labs. Photo by SRW.
This Friday at 6:00PM, WE Labs, or Work Evolution Laboratories, is celebrating the opening of a new facility within the historic Packard Motors Building, located at 205 East Anaheim Street. The event will feature live music, art and other festivities.
WE Labs launched in 2012. Since then, they’ve taken over the entire eighth floor of 235 East Broadway, located on the northwest corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Broadway. This major expansion into the Packard Building, which was recently purchased by Michelle Molina’s Millworks Long Beach, marks a significant change for the company. The building, designated as an historic landmark by the City of Long Beach, was built in 1926 as an ornate showroom for the popular cars, and will provide more than 15,000 square feet of flexible coworking and event space.
Robbie Brown is the co-founder and Managing Partner of WE Labs. Ted Sieving is Managing Partner of Operations for WE Labs. Both took some time to talk about the history and future of the company.
Long Beach Post: What is the We-Labs concept for someone who doesn’t know anything about it?
Robbie Brown: We are a coworking space in the traditional sense, but we strive to create an atmosphere that is creative and inspiring, through both the physical space as far as decor and art and the network and amenities that we offer.
Ted Sieving: It is an open platform for artists and entrepreneurs of all types to work alongside each other, instantly plugging in to a diverse network of creative individuals. This community allows people to grow their businesses and make their dreams a reality much faster.
In addition, we also have a creative services division, Innovatory, which sources larger projects and hires teams from our member roster to execute, thus helping to monetize our members’ talents.
RB: What’s different about the new space is that it allows us to offer this experience to a wider array of creatives.
We-Labs went through several iterations before settling on the model now in place. Can you talk a bit about the evolution of the model, and what made the current one so successful?
RB: I don’t think the model has changed, per se. Markus [Manley] always said that WE Labs is always in beta mode. That means we are always evolving. It’s in our freakin’ name. [laughs]
TS: I think it has been a combination of “working learning and growing” ourselves, as a team and a business. There was, and still is, a lot of education of the public necessary as to what coworking is exactly, especially in Long Beach, and the benefits for individuals and large corporations alike.
Tech infrastructure and building community support are also two major areas that we have been working on over the evolution of WE Labs. These two things need to be in place for any coworkspace to survive.
Three years in, we now have a wide and deep list of companies and individuals that we have helped in some way shape or form to get where they are today. That kind of demonstrated integrity as a company is very hard to accomplish—it takes time and lots of hard work that doesn’t necessarily equal large cash payment!
Perhaps it would be useful, then, to define what traditional coworking is, and perhaps use some of your current participants and projects to illustrate how it works. Could you do that?
TS: I would repeat something like what I said earlier: An “office+” that provides more than just physical space—an open platform for artists and entrepreneurs of all types to work alongside each other, instantly plugging in to a diverse network of creative individuals. This community allows people to grow their businesses and make their dreams a reality much faster.
RB: Coworking is many different freelancers, entrepreneurs, small businesses using a shared space and shared resources such as wifi, electricity, and equipment.
TS: And free coffee and, sometimes, free beer!
RB: Some coworking facilities are niche, others are more general. WE Labs has always catered to creatives and tech freelancers/entrepreneurs, and less to fine artists and makers. The Packard space allows us to accept all types of creative individuals.
Can you give me an example of a participant who was able to launch something from the coworking model?
TS: We have a few of them still in the building that have outgrown our space, so let’s start with them since they’re closest to home. CritiqueIt (software used by the Port, LBPD, and many universities nationwide) launched, grew, obtained funding, and has hired a handful of folks and expanded to 5000-plus square feet below on the fifth floor. Then there is Apartment SEO, who followed a similar path to their own 5000-plus square feet office a block away and has moved people to Long Beach and hired five or so tech industry people as well.
Currently, we have a gentleman – Gabriel Estrada – who has the Urban Farm Agency. He hired some individuals from within our “communal” membership (meaning they don’t leave any items, just bring laptops and work on a daily basis) ranks, and is currently running multiple PR, Social Media, Web Development and other branding related projects with many local LB and OC businesses he met through our network. A true ongoing, living and breathing, WE Labs success story of a lean, agile, and easily scale-able creative/tech business.
Principle LA is another great one. Jeff Algera’s company had three different offices within WE Labs, hired three individuals, has done apps for Delta and just finished an app for PBS. He just moved to 1500 square feet on the seventh floor and still shares a router with us!
RB: Connections happen among creatives of all types every day at WE Labs, on all different scales, amongst a couple of freelancers working on a web design concept to folks coming together to form a Long Beach Grocery Co-op. All these connections are important to us. From a completed website for a client to a concept that changes our lives, they are all crucial to the ecosystem.
You also mentioned bringing large projects to the coworking participants. How does We-Labs find these projects, and what’s the process for putting the teams together? Can you give me an example of an actual project, and how it unfolded?
TS: Our first, and still ongoing client was a local real estate firm, Buckingham Investments. Our late founder, Markus, knew one of the individuals who worked there, and we got to talking one day about their marketing needs. They have been around forever but wanted us to help them join the digital age. We’ve done a series of graphic design, website development, marketing collateral prep, video/commercial production, and so on over the course of the past year.
Working in this fashion with Innovatory has allowed them to have the satisfaction of using a diverse team of skilled local creatives handling a wide variety of tasks, with the convenience and quality assurance that comes with dealing with our Innovatory team’s supervision.
Most business has been found through word of mouth, as we are coming in to our own being recognized as the local hub for innovation and more importantly, execution.
Inside the vast back room of the Packard Motors Building. Photo by SRW.
What has led to this expansion into the Packard Building? It seems like a very ambitious leap.
RB: Opportunity.
TS: We have been searching for a second home for a long, LONG, time. However, this was finally the right fit. We have a building owner in Millworks’ Michelle Molina who truly understands the benefits to the local economy as a whole of a coworkspace such as WE Labs.
The physical space is wonderful; it will allow for so much more in terms of art and maker production space. Our current location, being on the eighth floor of an office building, can only be utilized for so many things. Additionally, the scale of events we can have, from hackathons, conferences, and workshops, is so much more than we have now.
Has the desire to expand been driven by demand for more coworking space?
RB: That, and event space opportunities. The very nature of the space lends itself to income potential thru higher occupancy for events and workshops, as well as having a partner like Millworks as a property owner makes more possible.
TS: Yes. We have consistently been at capacity in our offices at our current space, while our dedicated desk and communal areas are constantly adding new members. Lastly, we are hoping to soon have access to literally the fastest available internet in the land!
The City of Long Beach has fiber optic cable that is sitting at our doorstep, and the process is underway to tap into this. We are talking gigabyte per second speed—world class internet, right here in Long Beach!
As mundane as it may sound, being a utility, this is HUGE for all of us. Oh, and did I mention there will be ample parking? [laughs] That is the most often asked question we get, I swear. Almost as bad as a city council race in terms of the number of convos [sic] we have about parking.
What about the internet at your current space?
TS: Our internet is on the Fiber Optic system at current WE Labs, with speeds up to 300 megabytes per second.
RB: We already have the fastest internet currently available for a coworking space in South Bay at the Broadway location.
With the demand being so high, and you wanting to expand for so long, I imagine that you must have had a waiting list of people eager to jump into new space when it became available. Have you already pre-sold space in the new facility and, if so, how much capacity remains?
TS: We do have a waiting list, and folks signed up, however part of the inevitable reality of turning folks away in the past is that they do find other office space eventually. Therefore, we most definitely have plenty of room available in the new space! We have a membership drive going as we open with some great BOGO [buy one get one] deals, and some offices available as well. They will go fast so, if you’re interested, let us know and we’ll get you on the list!
RB: Some of our existing members have opted to go to our new space, and we are running a month free when one signs up before our Grand Opening Party this Friday. Also, if you are a member at one WE Labs, you are a member of all WE Labs.
TS: Indeed. As there are different capabilities at the facilities, it will make sense at times for members to go between them to take full advantage for their business. Luckily it’s right up the street!
Detail of the spectacular chandeliers in the large back room. Photo by SRW.
I know that events have been an important part of the current We-Labs model. Can you talk a bit about that, and how the new space will be utilized in that context?
TS: Our current space has been great for an array of events, large to small. Ranging from art receptions and Poetry Lab meetings to Leadership Long Beach sessions, Pitch Lab and networking meetings of all sorts.
In the new space we envision this plus much much more. We now have the capability to have both indoor and outdoor events of a much greater variety and larger capacity. We even have a stage! Not to say this will become a concert venue—Millworks has the former Vault for that—but it has the capabilities to host everything from a wedding reception to a hackathon to a drone race or robot battle or (more traditionally) a conference/meeting/corporate reception of up to a few hundred individuals.
Also, and very near and dear to all Long Beachers hearts—we will have parking! In short, it will be a space that allows our members and the community to host world class events and make dreams come true in collaborative space with a historical vibe! Oh and super cool chandeliers that someone with a sharp and creative eye over at Millworks (who’s first name is Michelle) thought would fit much better in the garage rather than the showroom. She was right!
Let’s talk, for a moment, about the event on the 8th. What is in the works?
TS: First and foremost, it is an opportunity for all to see the space in progress and start to see the possibilities for themselves, and the surrounding neighborhood. Part of what we bring is a change to the area as a whole, as we bring professional foot traffic on a daily basis and inspire the surrounding community through events and innovative use. There will be the requisite ribbon cutting of some sort, a few words from our team and community leaders, and an opportunity for the community to take a look at the new space. There will also be some great local music and, of course, refreshments of the fun kind!
To learn more about Friday’s event, visit their Facebook event page. To learn more about WE Labs, visit WELabs.us. To learn more about Millworks Long Beach, visit MillworksLB.com.
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