Ideas are great, but what really grows a company is when entrepreneurs put their ideas into action. With the help of imagination, hard work, and coworking spaces, these 5 famous startups were able to grow into multi-million dollar businesses.
Famous Companies That Used Coworking Spaces
1. Instagram
As a widely popular social media platform, Instagram started when Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger decided to build a check-in app called Burbn. The entrepreneurs met in a coworking office space and began developing a prototype that was similar to Foursquare – too similar. Knowing that they had to find a way to set their product apart, Systrom and Krieger decided to scrap their previous project and build an entirely new app that utilized the users’ mobile camera as the primary check-in feature. They decided to call this new app “Instagram” – a combination of the words “instant” and “telegram.”
2. Uber
In 2008, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp attended an annual tech conference in Paris. During the conference, the friends were unable to get a cab, and they thought that it would be great if there was timeshare limo service that they could summon through an app. After the men returned from the conference, Camp resolved to make their ride-app idea a reality. He convinced Kalanick to join him in the new business venture, and the men started meeting at a coworking space in California to develop their product – Uber. The app took off, and Uber became one of the highest valued startups in the world.
3. Spotify
Swedish co-founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon came up with the idea for Spotify when they were browsing through media files on Ek’s computer. The friends thought that the process of finding the music they wanted was awkward, so they decided to improve the way that they approached storing and finding music. They got together in London at a coworking facility and developed a music streaming program. The original product was free by invitation only, but as Spotify gained popularity, the founders decided to open up the program to the public. Spotify now has more than 217 million active users worldwide, and that number is projected to grow.
4. ZipRecruiter
As a company with humble beginnings, ZipRecruiter was created by Ian Siegel, Joe Edmonds, Ward Poulos, and Will Redd as a way to maximize efficiency in the HR departments at small companies. The program was designed to simplify the hiring and onboarding process by aggregating information from various job listing sites into one platform. By simplifying the HR process, the entrepreneurs believed that they could help businesses create a dynamic hiring process without having to expand their human resources team. What Siegel, Edmonds, Poulos, and Redd thought would be a hobby quickly turned into a multi-million dollar success, and now, over 1 million employers use their product.
5. Hootsuite
Hootsuite began when Ryan Holmes needed a way for his digital marketing agency, Invoke Media, to manage multiple social media networks. Finding that there wasn’t a product that offered the features he needed, Holmes recruited his colleagues Dario Meli and David Tedman to develop a platform that provided the social media account management they needed. Holmes realized that their management tool could help other companies, so he decided to market the product as a subscription-based platform. Hootsuite became an independent company in 2009 and continues to be widely used to simplify businesses’ social media management.
Begin Your Journey To Startup Success
The creators of Instagram, Uber, Spotify, ZipRecruiter, and Hootsuite all realized the coworking benefits, and their experience resulted in saved money and exponential business growth. Are you looking for a space to launch your new idea? Try Workzones! By coworking in Santa Barbara, we’re confident that you will meet like-minded individuals who can help you grow your vision into a successful company. Call us at (805) 966-3722 today to learn more about our coworking community.
