Katie Couric in Warby Parker. (Photo: Facebook.com)

Rose-Colored Glasses Warby Parker just released its annual report for 2012, and it's a pretty fun slideshow to click through. The glasses empire now has 113 full-time employes and 42 part-time employees. Of those bespectacled folks, 108 have company-sponsored gym memberships. In other Warby Parker health news, 2,507 pounds of salad were eaten in the office this year. Although there are not too many exact sales figures in the package (besides the fact that 296 monocles were sold this year) a diagram on the last page shows that sales from the first quarter of the year to the last one have nearly tripled. Warby Parker says it gave out 250,000 pairs of glasses this year, some of which went to victims of Hurricane Sandy.

G Train Still Lost Forever If you take the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 trains, you already know what time your train is coming based on the large signs that tell you. In December, the MTA released an iOS app to tell you the subway times. But now the MTA is providing a web app, as well as a native iPhone app, so that you can know what time your train is coming before you get to the station. The web app is located at onthego.mta.info and has real-time updating data for all of your arrival times. Most importantly, the MTA has decided to release the data behind the app to developers. Let's hope someone whips up something cooler than this thing.

Fund This Office Kickstarter will soon be moving to into its new Greenpoint offices in the former home of the Eberhard Faber Pencil Co. Renovations to the space began in the summer, and renderings of the new office were released yesterday and then swiftly taken down. The gorgeous plans show that the former factory will contain a lot of rooms, including a theater, an art gallery, a lounge, a library, a green roof and a cafeteria. Oh yeah, and offices too--have to do work at some point.

Thinkers Posthumously Fill in the Rap Deets Rap Genius is speeding right along on its quest to become the Talmud of the Internet. John Wesley, back from the grave, now has an account to comment on the teachings of the bible. And none other than Samuel Johnson is reading between the lines on some of Shakespeare's juiciest bits. Now if we could only get Heidegger to fill us in on some 2 Chainz lyrics, we'd be all set.

Whistle While You Cowork An article published yesterday on FastCompany has some interesting stats on coworking. The piece says that "50% of all coworkers access their work space around the clock" and that "71% report a boost in creativity since joining a coworking space." Secret Clubhouse, the coworking space originally established by The Barbarian Group cofounder Rick Webb, gets highlighted in the article as well. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the space served as a functional workplace for employees from all over the city.

LinkedIn for the Klout Enthusiast A new jobs site launched today that takes your personal connections into account when matching you up with jobs. CareerSonar is a site that matches the employment history of your friends with every job available online and shows you which jobs you could be connected to. In the "it's who you know" world, this might make the most sense for looking for a job online.

Girl Put Your Records On(line) Accessing your medical records online is an impossibility right now, but the NYC-based New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) and Health 2.0 are trying to fix that. Yesterday, the two organizations launched the Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge. They are looking for designers and developers to create a prototype for a website for patients to access their medical records online. This seems like something important!

Jerseylicious Accelerator Wants You TechLaunch, New Jersey’s premier Technology Accelerator, is now accepting applications for its 2013 class. The program is slated to begin in May and will culminate in mid-September with a Demo Day at Montclair State University. The teams that make it past the selection process will join the class and will each receive up to $25,000 of seed capital.

Be an Average Boyfriend The Netflix for fancy flowers, H.Bloom, has recently announced the launch of a special Valentine's Day service its calling "H.Bloom Hero." It allows men to become "heroes" by scheduling flowers to be delivered to their loved ones on Valentine's Day. Not sure if that makes a guy a hero or just a subpar boyfriend, but we're all just taking what we can get at this point, right?

Better Gets Better Betterment, the personal investing startup that helps users manage stocks-and-bonds portfolios from an online dashboard, hit a milestone last week, topping $100 million in assets under management. That was cause to celebrate and also for a minor redesign. "We have a dashboard screen on the wall that shows our assets under management and how they grow each day,” said CEO Jon Stein in an email. “We've finally had to adjust the font because the number wouldn't fit anymore."

Hipster Becomes the Man AOL is switching things up a bit and poaching one of its mobile employees for its venture fun. Doug Ludlow, the former CEO of the AOL-acquired photosharing startup Hipster, is leaving AOL's mobile side to become the first innovation partner at AOL Ventures. The title is extremely unclear, but it's understood that Ludlow will be spending a bit more time back in New York and getting out of AOL Ventures' Palo Alto headquarters.

Because Tweetdeck Popups Suck Rapportive, the add-on that replaces Gmail's ads with information about your contacts, has just launched an early version of Twitter integration to its service. The update lets you follow, reply and retweet your contacts from within Gmail.  You can request early access to the feature here.

Mr. Goldman

Shai Goldman, a venture partner at 500 Startups, recently announced another sign of the seed stage fund's growing interest in New York City--besides poaching a Silicon Alley stalwart like Mr. Goldman, of course. This February, the firm plans on opening a coworking office at 28th Street and Park Avenue in the Flatiron, not far from General Assembly.

500 Startups is known for its global focus. The only physical space the firm had up until New York was a corporate office in Mountain View, "which is where we run our accelerator throughout the year," Mr. Goldman told Betabeat by phone. But 500 Startups opted for a different route here. 

"We didn’t want to do an accelerator in New York at this time," he said, "We don’t really see a gap in the market." If you classify accelerators as a three-t0-four month program with some equity or cash component, Mr. Goldman explained, "There’s actually more accelerators in New York than there are in the Bay Area."  He estimated that there are six in Bay Area and eight or nine in New York.

Considering the expected shake out in the accelerator market, coworking seems like a safe choice. 500 Startups will charge $500 per desk per month with room 40 people. He estimated that the space will house four to five existing portfolio companies and another five or so outside startups.

The intent of the office is to bolster an offline community to go with its online platform called Dashboard.io. Paul Singh, one of 500 Startups cofounders, also happens to be a hacker and built the forum where 1,000 portfolio founders and 200 mentors communicate daily. Mr. Goldman described it as a cross between Quora and Facebook, with conversation threads and a place to ask questions outside one's area of expertise. Mentors also use the scheduling function to book virtual office hours.

"The heart of our organization is really this community where they’re actively engaged in a daily basis," said Mr. Goldman. "It’s pretty unique. I don't really know of any VC fund that has the same dashboard function, as we call it. I know First Round Capital has more of a Wiki style, but there are no mentors that are part of that. It’s part of our value add."

He hopes a physical space will augment that. "We just feel that New York is really a landing spot for folks, for example, from Toronto, Montreal, through Europe, from the Middle East and Israel. If they’re gonna open an office in the U.S., it’s most likely gonna be in New York," he said. "We want to do more in those regions I mentioned," he added. So as companies mature and want to set up operations or a salesforce in New York, they can pick up a desk or two. Same goes for the firm's 200 mentors around the globe. "They'll have a place to come and do their work and also hold office hours."

Mr. Goldman, who moved to 500 Startups from Silicon Valley Bank last fall, said the VC firm functions more like a startup in terms of increasing head count in different geographies and establishing structure as you grow. "We’re moving quickly and doing a lot of new things and testing different ideas. I’ve never actually worked for a startup," he said.

The now-shuttered HQ. (Photo: Loosecubes)

Yesterday's news about Loosecubes closing caught the New York tech scene by surprise. The company, one of the early movers in shared office space, just raised $7.8 million in venture funding back in June. They'd been a little quiet in recent months, and the coworking business is a competitive one, but no one figured Loosecubes was on the fast track to the deadpool. It was the kind of company that even non-techies easily understood and appreciated.

So the sudden shutdown, besides bumming out fans, left two nagging questions: What went wrong? And where did all that venture capital go? When we called, Loosecubes' office number had already been disconnected. An email to their press team returned only a canned response from cofounder Anna Thomas:

Thanks very much for your note. The information regarding the shutdown on our website and blog is what's currently available. We aren't speaking with the press at this time, but will certainly follow-up with you directly if we share additional information.

The blog post offers up some specifics about cancelled reservations and the like, but there is no mention of how the company spent its capital--hard to believe on 16 employees--or whether capital will be returned to investors.

There are, however, a couple of theories floating around.

Let's start with Loosecubes' emphasis on free spaces. The company started out as an Airbnb for office space--a peer-to-peer marketplace matching unused desks with free-floating workers. Companies charged, and Loosecubes got a cut. But sometime this summer, the model shifted a bit: Loosecubes became a big network. Offices offering space got access to unused desks for their own rootless employees. The plan was reportedly to eventually introduce subscriptions, but they don't seem to have materialized.

That could certainly speed up your burn rate. Loosecubes’ FAQ provides just a TBD on making money: “We’re trying to change the way people think about work and office space, and will eventually implement a monetization strategy that achieves those goals.” (But it hasn't been updated since June.) Many of the people seeking office space are probably either freelancers or startups--not exactly the kind of folks who can reciprocate by offering desks in another city.

However, we received a tip yesterday related to the Loosecubes funding. An anonymous tipster reported, "Loosecubes didn\'t go out of business because the company wasn\'t doing well. From whispers around the streets, they apparently never actually raised the funding they originally announced. It was pulled for some reason."

We weren't able to find a Form D for the round but given that companies have an entire year to file, it's possible they just never got around to the paperwork (companies have to file for an extension if they're going that route). Loosecubes is listed as a portfolio company on the New Enterprise Associates website, but it's not listed on the sites of Revolution or Hamilton Investment Partners, the other firms listed as new participants in the June round. Messages left for NEA yesterday were not returned, but we'll update if we receive any additional comment.

Cofounders Anna Thomas and Campbell McKellar polite rebuffed questions related to the unconfirmed rumor.

There's also the matter of Loosecubes' going invite-only, starting in July. The move was explained in terms of their shift to the network model. The company claimed at the time: "Now it’s time for our network to grow, and we believe the best way to do this is for our current members to bring in new respectful and productive coworkers and hosts." (The announcement also mentions soon-to-come pricing tiers that would never arrive.) Fair enough, but it's unusual for a company to try stuffing that particular genie back in the box.

It's also worth noting that, as even as Loosecubes was shifting its business model--when a clear and forceful argument for social exchange was most important--the company's promotions took a turn for the impractical. Coverage focused on one-offs like this workspace under the Manhattan Bridge and these shipping containers at the Dekalb Market.

But as New Work City's Tony Bacigalupo notes, one founding team's disappointment is another's opportunity: "LooseCubes’ departure leaves a vacuum at the top of the world of workspace sharing." Step right up, folks.

And so behold, disaster porn's geekier cousin.

That Brooklyn Bagel has wifi, but that doesn't make it a coworking space. (Photo: flickr.com/edastrauch)

The latest neighborhood trying to make a coworking space happen? It's the former home of Archie Bunker, i.e. Astoria. The Daily News reports that three locals are shopping around for a space.

Maybe they can cut a deal with the beer garden?

At the moment, Astoria is a little lacking in public spaces for laptop luggers. There's Astor Bake Shop, a couple of Starbucks outposts, and the ironically named Brooklyn Bagel, but there's really nowhere to squat if you prefer to work away from caloric temptation. 

“You can only go to a Starbucks so many days a week before you get sick of it,” said one of the organizers, Nelson Ramirez, 28, who works at home as a software developer. “The demographics here would support the idea.”

Ray Craycraft, the founder of popular community forum Why Leave Astoria--who previously considered starting something similar--sounds a little skeptical. He told the News that while Astoria has plenty of "really creative people in Astoria with big ideas," it's also "very expensive to build something like this from the ground up."

With Long Island City already angling for its own space, what Queens neighborhood is next? We'll keep our fingers crossed for a General Assembly satellite campus in the bucolic environs of Forest Hills Gardens.

Bat Haus, Bushwick’s new coworking space. (photo: Bat Haus)

Summer love Do you ever find yourself wishing that couples therapy was cheaper? Well, here’s an app that claims to be just as effective, and for only $7.95 a month (limited time only). Couplewise combines digital interactive versions to cognitive behavioral therapy techniques and research from leading cognitive behavioral therapists as well as crowdsourcing the wisdom of other couples “who have been there.” The company claims that 79 percent of their beta users say that their relationship has improved as a result of the app, and none say it has worsened—what are you waiting for?

Attention freelancers Coworking has come to Bushwick with Bat Haus, a new community office space open to freelancers of all disciplines. The space opened last month and has apparently been hosting art groups, writing meetups and fashion shoots. If its sunny decor doesn't seal the deal, they also have a backyard with a grill and potlucks for members. Full time membership is $275 a month, part-time $175, and it’s $15 for a day pass.

Apply now The Startup Spotlight Series is now accepting applicants to pitch to partners GAP, Unilever and General Electric on their product at the annual ad:tech conference in November. Sixteen finalists will receive coaching from digital marketing thought-leaders as well as free Innovation Alley exhibition space at the ad:tech Expo.

Lucky users Tidal—a company that creates channels to link users with brands and publishers—and Condé Nast just launched the Lucky Magazine Community, a new site where readers can submit original posts and instantly syndicate content from existing blogs.

Funding news The News Funnel, a customizable news aggregation site geared towards business readers, announced last week that it closed its first round of funding with $1 million in outside capital raised.

Class of 2012 Tech Launch, New Jersey’s new tech accelerator, created in response to an order from Governor Christie, just announced its inaugural class of 2012. Startups to watch out for include: CodeSquare, Echolocation, Flying Kick, Nickelbus, Nuskool, Pervasive Group, Photoflow, QuickClix, SeamBLiSS, and True College Bound.

Long distance Congrats to Keku, an international calling service that provides cheap calls from smartphones, landlines and tablets to any phone number in the world, which just hit half a million customers.

Now hiring inSparq is looking for a back-end developer, Cut On Your Bias needs a CTO. Secco Squared wants a VP of sales, a sales and business development associate, and an operations manager, and OMGPOP/Zynga needs interns (with “sparkling personalities”).

(Photo: AlleyNYC)

On a muggy evening earlier this week, Betabeat made the short, sweaty walk down to AlleyNYC, a new 16,000 square foot coworking space at 500 Seventh Avenue and 37th Street. We had some inkling we might be onto the next big coworking hub when an entrepreneur on the elevator ride up to the 17th floor said he felt obligated to drop by because he heard about the space twice in one week.

Even after hours, the place was still humming with activity. The mats in the yoga room were unoccupied, but members milled about the lounge, worked heads down in one of the spacious main rooms or huddled with cofounders in the 24 private offices, which are already at capacity even though the space just opened in August. A new platform for entrepreneurs called SocialChange.is was setting up a demo and with bowls of pretzels and other snacks laid out for the event.

The vibe was remarkably congenial; high-fives, daps, and backslaps abounded.

AlleyNYC was cofounded by Jason Saltzman and Jonathan Ende, the entrepreneurs behind Bizodo, a paperwork automation startup currently being incubated at Entrepreneurs Roundtable, a stone's throw away. AlleyNYC just signed a seven-year lease on the office space, financed primarily by investor David Galanter, a real estate lawyer who also backs Bizodo.

Mr. Saltzman

For the next couple months or so, AlleyNYC is partnering with the popular global workshop series Lean Startup Machine, one of the hub's anchor tenants, to offer $1 million in free coworking space and Lean Startup classes through a partnership called M-RGE. Betabeat was a little dubious of $1 million claim, but Lean Startup guru Trevor Owens sent us the calculations, based on a market rate of $500/month for a shared desk--AlleyNYC only charges $300/desk and $1,500/private office, no equity required--and the math checks out.

The offer, which extends through September or longer (depending on AlleyNYC’s ability to secure a sponsor) should cover about 500 to hackers, designers, and other startup types, who have to go through a quick vetting process to make sure their idea is a good fit and that the applicants are actually working on a real project.

AlleyNYC has already hosted a number of events and hackathons, like last weekend's Ecommerce Hack Day, sponsored by Etsy and Dwolla. It's home to startups like Brainscape and Socratic Labs. Founder Collective's Micah Rosenbloom has an office there and Mr. Saltzman is in talks with DFJ Gotham to hold office hours. AlleyNYC was formerly associated with the Hatchery, which has since moved out due to a difference in ethos.

When we arrived at AlleyNYC, Mr. Saltzman's palpable enthusiasm was infectious. He greeted us in a black fitted Yankees cap and an endearing Long Island accent. He got the idea for AlleyNYC when he went to pitch events at some of the other coworking spaces in New York and found the vibe clubby and pretentious. Mr. Saltzman, who used to be in real estate, had just returned to his native New York after heading down to Miami after the crash. The serial entrepreneur was "sick of dating aspiring cocktail waitresses," had experience and tried to find a place in burgeoning tech scene.

"I feel like it was very cliquey," he told Betabeat as we sat down in his office. The heating pole was covered with pink Post-Its listing points he wanted to emphasize, like how much building a community around this space has given him a sense of purpose. "I feel like I'm a very approachable person, but I felt like I had to already be successful to be talking to these entrepreneurs. I've had many businesses that made money, it's just that my name wasn't in TechCrunch or Mashable, so 'Who am I?' You know what I mean?" We did.

He wanted to offer something different, working with Mr. Owens, using the Lean Startup method, naturally, to hone the idea behind M-RGE. "We're trying to create a really good friendship vibe," Mr. Owens told Betabeat. "Authenticity around people not caring who your investors are, but who you are."

Mr. Saltzman, not one to put on airs, categorized it more bluntly. "Jason Saltzman's phrase in the AlleyNYC is, 'Leave the douchebag at the door,'" he said, referring to himself in the third person with a laugh.

Through Lean Startup's VP of design, Grace Ng, M-RGE is also trying to target some of the designers from nearby advertising agencies. Ms. Ng comes from an agency background. "I still know a lot of designers locked up in agencies where they're not too happy with what they're doing," she told Betabeat. Coming to AlleyNYC might help them collaborate with programmers. "They have beautiful design aesthetics, but they can only mock up web design, they don't understand any front end of any programming languages."

The centrally-located Midtown location is part of cultivating an environment of inclusiveness, with its proximity to Penn Station and Grand Central.

"Bridge and tunnel has a negative connotation," Mr. Saltzman explained. "But there are amazing people from Long Island and New Jersey and we want all of them to come here. They're frowned upon by the poshy New York City tech community. And we're not that, and we're still fucking awesome," adding, "And you can write 'fucking.'" 

(Photo: AlleyNYC)

The scene of the gathering, during last year's Dumbo Arts Festival. (Photo: flickr.com/glans)

We knew Dumbo's vacancy rates were low, but we hadn't realized they were this low. The Wall Street Journal reports that yesterday Dumbo techies gathered at an unusual outdoor watering hole: Underneath the Manhattan Bridge.

Perhaps the roar of the traffic overhead provides a kind of natural white noise?

Office-sharing startup Loosecubes organized the event, setting up shop with the three essential ingredients for an outdoor summit of tech folk: picnic tables, Wifi and beer. The Dumbo Improvement District also participated, but it sounds like this little shindig was primarily about selling folks on the beauty of flexible office space. After all, the company does start charging fees this fall:

While large companies like Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. have offices in pricey neighborhoods such as Chelsea and Midtown, younger tech entrepreneurs want a laid-back, almost entertaining atmosphere for work. What's more, they don't want to commit to one location.

"We think of our customers a lot as local nomads," said Campbell McKellar, founder of Loosecubes.

Careful there, Ms. McKellar. Given the nature of this promotion, you might not want to harp too hard on the concept of your customers as transients.

It also sounds like this perhaps wasn't the most productive afternoon these folks have ever had:

Most of about 50 casually dressed people at the event Thursday stood around drinking beer and eating sandwiches at what sometimes felt like a festive cookout. But a group of about a dozen toiled away at four picnic benches littered with empty iced coffee cups.

That said, developers working while their non-technical coworkers socialize probably isn't entirely unheard of for a summer Thursday, either.

If the concept appeals, the event will be held every Thursday for the rest of August.

(Photo: The Yard)

Back in February, Betabeat introduced you to The Yard, a freshly-opened coworking space in Williamsburg that we minted the "General Assembly of Brooklyn." Turns out we're psychic, because today The Yard announced that--just like its Manhattan competitor, GA--it will be offering continuing education courses in subjects like programming and biz dev, beginning this fall. All at "Brooklyn prices," no less!

"We really want to cultivate a culture here that is cutting edge and innovative and collaborative," Andy Smith, The Yard's PR and curriculum coordinator, told Betabeat by phone. "It seems like now that we’re at a point where we are full, we can sort of branch out and extend our efforts to other aspects to cultivate that culture. Educational initiatives seemed like the next natural step."

The Yard differentiates itself from other coworking spaces by offering over 90 private suites for rent. Highly hyped startups like Uber and Wanderfly have made the converted factory their home away from home, and Mr. Smith assured us that there's currently a waiting list for new coworkers.

The Yard doesn't have all of the logistics of the new curriculum figured out just yet. "We’re still playing with a price point on the different classes," said Mr. Smith. "We’re still curating the curriculum, but we plan to offer one-time workshops---2-3 hour experiences--as well as longer courses. We’re also talking with some really qualified teachers to even go a step beyond that and offer intensive 10 or 12 week programs on software, iOS--more hands-on, heavy duty tech and programming."

Of course, the Flatiron-based General Assembly possesses similar offerings and is far more established than the 7-month-old Yard. But Mr. Smith thinks the Yard's location in Brooklyn provides it with a unique advantage.

"What GA does is great, but we’re in Brooklyn," he confided. "There’s a whole other world in Brooklyn that maybe is a little bit fresher and a little bit riskier."

What do you mean by riskier, we asked?

"I think the two boroughs attract different types of people and different types of startups," explained Mr. Smith, who has lived in Williamsburg for eight years. "I think Brooklyn has become a global name and now people are starting to tune into Brooklyn on this tech level, this startup level, where you don’t need to pay Manhattan prices for office space and you don’t have to pay Manhattan prices for classes like some place at GA."

We were starting to sense a Brooklyn/Manhattan beef, tech style. Mr. Smith explained that "we're not renting a floor on Broadway near the Flatiron, so our overhead is lower and we can pass that savings onto our students."

In true nouveau Brooklyn fashion, Mr. Smith then launched into detail about the renovations of the converted warehouse that now serves as The Yard's HQ.

"Anyone who comes by here can see that we’ve kept that environment of the original space. The archictect that we used to build this place out did it in an as efficient and green way as possible. We really tried to repurpose the building and cut costs everywhere we could and keep it as creative as possible."

Because of that, Mr. Smith added, "we have the opportunity to perhaps offer something similar to places in the city, but for maybe a little bit less."

Ah, yes, the "Brooklyn is cheaper" argument. Wonder what our friends at the New Jersey Tech Meetup have to say about that.

To help beef up its impending courseload, The Yard is looking for teaching candidates and applications for curriculum. You can get in touch with them if you're interested.

A number of tech companies, including Hype Machine, Wanderfly, Mobile Roadie and Uber are already working out of the space, as well as a few startups still in splash page mode, like Gander TV and Spotflux. Somewhere between 60 to 70 percent of The Yard's residents are techies, although that wasn't exactly the owners' intention. "We knew there was a need in Williamsburg/Greenpoint for something like this, but we didn’t realize the tech scene was happening here and that that was the direction it was going to go," Mr. Levy told Betabeat by phone.

Now that the startup syngery is under way, however, The Yard has been "planning strategic alliances" with angel investors whose portfolio companies might be interested in working there. For example, Mr. Levy said he's currently in talks with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures founder and First Round Capital alum Charlie O'Donnell, who launched a Kings County-centric seed fund last month.

And what about the name? "Um, I dunno, it’s where you work, 'I work in the Yard.' It’s a space to work, so that’s what we call it," said Mr. Levy, whose thick Brooklyn accent would not sound out of place in a Goodfellas remake.

Mr. Levy said he and Mr. Beyda got the idea to open a coworking space after looking at the possibility of working out of one of Manhattan's suddenly-ubiquitous office-sharing arrangements. The same day he crunched the numbers, Mr. Levy happened upon the location, at 33 Nassau Avenue. "Being developers, we kind of overdid it with our Internet," he said, referring to The Yard's 100 megabit-per-second pipe. "A lot of people in other places were experiencing problems with their Internet and you know if you’re an Internet business, you can’t have an outage, so we have a lot of bandwidth here."

We first heard of The Yard from from Simily and vReddit founder Brandon Root, who wrote us a tip emphasizing The Yard's  "potential to become something like Brooklyn's General Assembly."

"I certainly looked at GA when I was trying to find some office space, and certainly would consider it in the future, but I found it to be a bit...pretentious?" Mr. Root,  who works out of the space, explained by email . "Unlike its Manhattan-based cousins, I've found people at The Yard to be just as talented but far more approachable. Maybe I'm just more comfortable with the Brooklyn vibe than the highly-caffeinated Apple-everything crowd in the city."

"I don't mean to be unfair to GA, they have accomplished something incredible," he continued. "But The Yard struck me as more practical and comfortable."

Although The Yard has been hosting events, like the North Brooklyn Breakfast Club, the General Assembly comparison seems far-fetched for now. "I’m a firm believer in not trying to be anything other than what you are," said Mr. Levy. "As far as I’m concerned we’re done and the place is humming."

Hype Machine founder Anthony Volodkin actually signed up as a tenant before construction on The Yard was complete. "We were looking for space in the fall (our first office ever, in our 6 bootstrapped years!) and I happened to see the new sign while cycling through Greenpoint as it was still being built," Mr. Volodkin said by email. "Turned out it was an upcoming coworking space inside a beautiful industrial space, much of the great textures were preserved, so the place is modern while retaining bits of the old character.  Many of us live around here, and there are lots of good coffee places around."

Before The Yard, Hype Machine's seven-person team worked from home or in coffee shops with the "occasional 'office days,' where we'd all meet up in my living room in Williamsburg," he said.

Unlike the typical open floor plan, The Yard has about 100 offices to offer more privacy, although we're not sure if that takes the "co" out of coworking. The space also offers 24-hour access. Mr. Levy said he is "on the selective side" in terms of what kinds of companies or workers he allows in to The Yard, but is open to anyone who could be who would identify as creative. "Some of my competitors are like, 'If you’re not tech or a nerd, you can’t come in,'" said Mr. Levy. "We’re not that harsh."