Coworking In Omaha
Looks like our friends at Silicon Prairie News are making some headway of a coworking space of their own.
Around 2004/2005, Ryan Sorensen (art director at Bozell) called me up and started talking to me about a shared space concept for Omaha.
It sounded interesting, and I knew I had to get out of the house and be around people. I was going crazy not interacting with people outside of the internet during the working day.
I ran the idea by Adam Nielsen (owner of Good Twin) and John Henry Muller (owner of What Cheer), and they both seemed very interested.
John Henry was currently working as Art Director at Sacco, and was planning on doing his own thing. He wanted to use the shared space as a legitimate place to work and bring clients, and felt it was essential to have to start his business.
Ryan Sorensen, Adam Nielsen and John Henry Muller.
We started meeting every Thursday for almost 6 months. We kept it just the four of us to make it easy. We wanted to do this on our own without going into debt and owing any loans.
We covered every topic in planning… finances, ethics, times, cleaning, etc.
Ethics was a huge topic… we were essentially competitors working in the same space. We had a lot of things to hash out.
We got everything worked out, and finally found a space that seemed perfect. Cheap rent, great location, open area for everyone to work, a meeting room and space to expand, however it needed A LOT of work.
John Henry scraping the tile off the wood floors. (I think this was Adam’s idea. I remember being annoyed that he wanted to scrape all of this, but in the end the wood floors were beautiful. Thanks Adam!)
Divvy Collective all cleaned up!
Check out more photos of Divvy on Flickr.
John Henry came up with the name Divvy.
And we all worked on logos and taglines for it, as well as the website, divvycollective.com
We summed it up as,
“We are not an advertising agency or a design firm. We are a group of creatives that have come together to share space.”
Overall, it was a huge success. We started out with 4 people sharing space, and ended with 8 people all coworking together (Shannon Wall, Matt Linder, Chris Kollars and Cody Peterson). It was a great time.
We all learned a ton from each other. Tips on how to run your business, different brainstorming methods, working in a team environment where everyone has different goals, and so much more.
At the end, everyone’s business had at least doubled, and we walked away with Divvy making a profit.
I’m excited to see the guys at Silicon Prairie News revisit this idea and create another coworking space in Omaha. Keep it up guys!
December 13th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
What a great and inspiring story. It’s fantastic to see others having their try at it as well now! You all are a huge success and great influences to the design community. Great work!!
December 13th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
It’s fun for me to see what you were up to pre-What Penguins
can’t wait to see where you and Omaha go next!!!
December 13th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Man I love the picture of the 3 of us. We all look so different and young.
December 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Wow. First off…nice recap, Dave. Everyone that was there really benefited from that environment. I know I learn a lot from you guys. I love seeing those pics of what you kids turned that place into. Secondly, damn…Ryan looks like he’s 15 in that photo. Crazy.
December 14th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Great post, Dave.
Divvy was a great experiment/experience. I know our business wouldn’t be where it is today without the things that Divvy offered to get established.
The cheap rent and a place to meet clients were essential, but the sharing of ideas is what had such an amazing impact, especially with creative work. Gathering the 2 cents of people you trust improves your work and challenges you to go further.
I am excited to see how Silicon Prairie News takes the co-working concept in Omaha to new heights.
Weeeeeeeeeee!
John Henry Müller
P.S. Apparently, agency life has taken a toll on Ryan’s youth. That photo was less then two years ago!
December 14th, 2008 at 7:36 am
The What Penguin space is awesome, but I’ve gotta say a little piece of me misses Divvy!
Great post, Dave
December 14th, 2008 at 11:55 am
John Henry, I agree. I’m really excited to see where SPN takes coworking. People are definitely going to benefit from what they’re doing. Again, great job to those guys for getting the momentum going and doing it on a larger scale.
Denise, a little piece of me misses Divvy too! We should go hang out at Brightmix for ol’ times sake. ha!
Thanks Mackey, Linder, Ali and Adam!
December 14th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
We should have a Divvy party once or twice a year. Find a location and just have some fun. Crack out the Mario cart and 80’s music.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:14 am
The History of Divvy, finally explained! Also, scraping 30 year old linoleum tar off of beautiful wood floors seriously does suck. Why did people ever cover up their hardwood?
The idea of coworking really appeals to me, but is it, by necessity, a transient thing? When you all started Divvy, was the plan for it to last a short amount of time?
January 6th, 2009 at 8:49 am
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a transient thing.
For us, it was.
We knew going into Divvy that our goals were to grow and continue building our businesses. It happened faster than expected, but with co-working, it’s hard not to grow… because you’re constantly learning new things every day.
And, I have no idea why people cover up hardwood floors! ha!
January 27th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
What did happen to me? Damn!
January 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Ryan, I still think you look as beautiful as the day we met!
January 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
The history behind the Divvy space, which is actually our space at BrightMix now is really interesting. It seems like a lot of people have come and gone through here – even people you wouldn’t expect.
We’re definitely benefactors of all the hard work you divvy dudes put into the space, so many thanks! Uncovering the wood floors was probably the best idea ever! Installing a security system, also important. Oh, and letting us buy a lot of your old furniture and utilities really helped us get a start.
My only regret is that we removed (and subsequently ruined) the Divvy stickers on the front window. They were bad ass!