RocketSpace on Fremont Street. Transmedia funds 2- to 8-member startups in areas like social gaming, mobile apps, and online advertising, in return for an equity stake that varies depending on the size of the company and its term of residence.
972 Mission St., 5th Floor, San Francisco
$2 per square foot or $300 per month
Mission*social is intended specifically for social enterpreneurs and enterprises—companies working in some way for the public good. Dedicated work space for social enterprises is available for about $2 per square foot, while solo workers can rent desks for $300 per month. Drop-ins are free.
28 Second St., San Francisco
$50-$1545 per month
Nextspace’s SoMa location is an offshoot of its original operation in Santa Cruz and provides business services in addition to the usual workspace, Internet connections, and conference rooms. The company charges $50 per month for a mailbox, $235 per month for “cafe” membership, $475 per month for the “workstation” level, and $1,545 per month for a dedicated office. Freelancer Deborah Gage profiled Nextspace for Xconomy last October.
2169 Misssion St., San Francisco
$80 per month
Not so much a coworking environment as a non-profit, collaboratively run hackerspace, Noisebridge is nonetheless used by people pursuing all manner of software and hardware projects, with a special emphasis on free and open-source software and “the crossover of art and technology,” according to the organization’s wiki. Members pay dues of $80 per month ($40 for “starving hackers”) and there’s a community meeting every Tuesday night at 8:00 pm.
1436 Howard St., San Francisco
(moving soon to 169 11th St.)
$50-$500 per month
Owned by Paris-based faberNovel—a sort of French equivalent of product design shop Ideo, but with a focus on user experience engineering—Parisoma opened three years ago in a funky third-floor space on Howard Street. The space is now crammed full of entrepreneurs, so it’s a good thing that the organization plans to move around the corner at the end of this month to a much more elegant and modern space currently occupied by the Great Places to Work Institute. Prices range from $50 per month for a mailbox to $100 a month for 1-day-a-week access, $275 per month for full-timeaccess, and $500 per month for a dedicated desk. (The 11th Street space will also feature private offices for $1100 to $2000 per month.) I recently interviewed Parisoma manager Julian Nachtigal and will be writing up an article soon.
440 N. Wolfe Rd., Sunnyvale
540 University Ave., Palo Alto
370 Convention Way, Redwood City
The diversity of small, independent coworking spaces in San Francisco and Berkeley is missing in Silicon Valley, where Plug and Play dominates the market. Over 280 companies rent space at its six locations (three are in Los Angeles); a variety of leases are available, from cubicles to private offices to lab space. Plug and Play isn’t an incubator, but it has relationships with
