Photo by Asia Morris of a Built By She event held at WeWork in Long Beach.
Underrepresented entrepreneurs in Long Beach have been pursuing their careers at WeWork in downtown, according to the workspace brand, which this Friday is offering free coworking space for anyone interested in a change of pace for the day and trying out the coworking concept.
WeWork also seems to hit one major initiative included in the City of Long Beach’s Economic Inclusion Focus Area, which is to “increase the number of minority-owned and women-owned businesses.”
“WeWork is clearly contributing to that goal by providing high quality co-working space where underrepresented entrepreneurs can connect and share resources,” John Keisler, the city’s economic and property development director, said in a statement.
Braven Agency works with multiple minority-focused organizations such as Centro C.H.A., a Long Beach-based nonprofit focused on enriching the lives of low-income Latino youth, families and neighborhoods, to run free digital marketing workshops as well as raise awareness of other programs focused on minorities.
After working as the managing director at a larger agency, Long Beach native, founder and CEO of Braven Agency, Robert Martinez, moved offices from Los Angeles to WeWork Long Beach to be closer to his community.
With the realization that big marketing agencies tend to neglect small businesses, he committed to working with “underrepresented entrepreneurial communities that lack expertise and awareness of the digital marketing, operations, and finance tools available to help grow their company or organization by increasing and retaining customers,” Martinez said.
Based on Braven Agency’s work, Martinez was selected by Google’s Digital Coach Program to run free workshops for minority business owners in Los Angeles. Currently, Martinez is working with the Long Beach Gay & Lesbian Center of Commerce to run a workshop in October, while this week, the program offered free Adwords workshops for the Los Angeles Latino Chamber of Commerce.
“[…]The WeWork Long Beach team has developed a fantastic entrepreneurial ecosystem for the city,” Martinez said. “They have investment in becoming an integral part of Long Beach by hosting events open to everyone. The Long Beach office helps startups and established companies interact with one another to ferment ideas that lead to sales, new customers, and new ideas.”
Other minority-run small businesses using 100 West Broadway to further their initiatives include Built By She, Wonder Women Tech, Nitro Cafe, Web Healthcare Services and human-I-T, a nonprofit whose mission is to equip low-income populations across Los Angeles with free technology. Its CEO, Gabe Middleton, was one of 12 Coors Light Líderes recognized for his commitment to the Latino community. The nonprofit uses WeWork as a second office to host clients and staff for a change of scenery.
This Friday, WeWork is offering free coworking space at their Long Beach location from 9:00AM to 6:00PM. Those interested in working in downtown for the day can register through the Eventbrite page here, email [email protected] or call (562) 548-1134.
“WeWork offers a new take on the traditional workplace and the standard commute,” Sam Stevens, WeWork Long Beach’s community manager, said in a statement. “With offices spread across Los Angeles, residents now have the option to work closer than ever to where they live. This means they can cut their commute, and experience a community with businesses large and small in their very own neighborhoods.”
For more information about WeWork’s Long Beach location, visit the website here.
WeWork is located at 100 West Broadway.
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