28 work clubs later... with Kayla Gottschalk

Week 18: When 'big coworking' moves in, market data, AI coding risks and GCal as glue

Hector Kolonas hosts Alex Garza of Alliance Virtual Offices to discuss partner testimonials on how Alliance drives additional revenue while handling compliance, payments, and customer support, plus new network-driven meeting room bookings across locations. They review advice on responding when a large coworking brand opens nearby, emphasizing differentiation, market validation, and leveraging increased awareness without copying competitors. The episode highlights new Coworking Cafe data showing US coworking growth (9,136 spaces in the top 50 markets; 163.9M sq ft, about 2.9% of office space) and UK/Ireland surpassing 4,500 spaces, noting competitiveness and continued expansion opportunity. They also cover an AI coding-agent incident where Cursor deleted a production database and backups in seconds, and debate guardrails for AI-enabled development. Finally, Hector argues Google Calendar shouldn’t be the “glue” for system integrations.00:00 Welcome and Agenda01:09 Alliance Partner Wins05:28 Meeting Rooms Network07:50 Big Brand Next Door12:25 Coworking Growth Data16:42 Virtual Office Pricing19:32 AI Deletes Database24:41 Google Calendar Trap28:10 Wrap Up and Thanks

28 work clubs later... with Kayla Gottschalk

Launching 28 Neighborhood Work Clubs Fast: Switchyards, Third Places & the Future of Coworking with Kayla GottschalkIn this episode of This Week In Coworking, host Hector Kolonas talks with Kayla Gottschalk, Atlanta-based launch lead at Switchyards, about building and launching neighborhood work clubs and how “third places” differ from traditional coworking. Show notes with links and details at https://twic.co/28clubs Kayla shares her path from facility management and furniture/workplace transformation through COVID into coworking, and explains how Switchyards creates a homey, human-centered feel through lighting, music, coffee, and design details. She discusses selecting spaces with a flexible mindset, moving fast with an in-house approach, and selecting local vendor partnerships, and why coworking is evolving into multiple niches within a broader personal workspace ecosystem. Kayla also shares what’s next for her, how to connect via LinkedIn and CoBuilt (cobuilt.io), and advice for corporate professionals looking to enter coworking.00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro00:54 Kayla’s Role at Switchyards02:39 Career Path Into Coworking05:05 Third Places Explained06:26 Designing the Switchyards Feel07:42 Site Selection Basics09:08 Launch Process and Speed10:58 Furniture and Build Strategy12:12 Future of Work and Coworking14:10 Predictions for Next 3 Years15:36 What’s Next for Kayla16:48 Career Advice and Wrap Up

Week 17 (2026) Recap: elumo Updates, Flexible Space Design, Unbundling Offices & AI maturity in Flex Tech

Host Hector Kolonas and returning guest James Shannon recap week 17 of 2026, reflecting on GCUC and a recorded elumo demo. James shares three elumo improvements based on early adopter feedback: a new wireless door handle for fast, simple retrofits; a shift from per-user to fixed per-room monthly pricing; and faster deployment via expanded integrations beyond OfficeRnD to platforms like Yardi and Nexudus. Follow along at https://thisweekincoworking.com/week-17-2026/ They explain elumo's goal of monetizing meeting rooms while improving member experience through tap-to-book, charge, and open access and enforcing credit-based usage. The episode also discusses leaders entering coworking from other industries, designing “me” versus “we” space zones, dynamically toggling rooms between offices and bookable space, the unbundling of office/buildings, and a roundup of AI developments including tracking, security risks, and new AI features from OfficeRnD, Nexudus, and Salesforce.00:00 Welcome Back and GCUC Recap00:50 Illumina Demo Highlights01:35 Wireless Lock Retrofit02:32 Per Room Pricing Shift03:43 Faster Integrations Rollout04:43 What Illumina Actually Is06:29 Credits and Fair Use Enforcement07:56 Operators From Outside Industry12:39 Designing Me vs We Zones14:04 Dynamic Space Monetization17:13 Toggle Any Space Bookable18:28 Fax Machine Unbundling19:24 Everything as a Service20:26 Gen Z UX Expectations22:31 AI Chaos Roundup25:46 AI Pricing and Value29:16 Data Foundations for AI30:28 Wrap Up and Where Next

The US Coworking Index with Sam Rosen & Peter Kolaczynski

Recorded from the Yardi offices in NYC, Hector is joined by Sam Rosen and Peter Kolaczynski to introduce the Coworking Index, a new Coworking Cafe resource that publishes monthly, dynamic US-only flexible workspace operator analytics. They explain how Yardi’s first-party research team tracks coworking locations and square footage and pairs it with underlying office inventory data to calculate coworking’s share of the overall office market, enabling market and submarket comparisons. The site shows top-line totals, a coworking percentage benchmark, historical comparisons back to October 2025, heat maps, top markets by locations and square feet (including Manhattan’s outsized square footage), state views, and sortable growth metrics, while excluding non-branded on-demand options. They discuss who it’s for operators, brokers and tenants - and invite industry feedback. Links and more shownotes: https://twic.co/index 00:00 Welcome From GCUC NYC00:37 What Is Coworking Index01:39 Meet Peter And Data Team02:31 Why Yardi Data Matters04:40 Live Tour Of Dashboard06:39 Update Cadence And Scope08:03 Heatmaps And Market Rankings10:33 Who Should Use It14:04 Surprising High Penetration Markets17:52 Methodology And Definitions22:29 Future Features And Feedback24:29 Wrap Up And Thanks

Week 14, 2026: AI Revenue Ops, Live-Work-Play Growth, and the Pod Boom (with Ben Wright)

Host Hector Kolonas welcomes returning guest co-host Ben Wright, now Managing Partner at Koho, an AI revenue operations solution based in the UK that he is helping roll out in the US. Ben explains Koho’s focus on improving repeatable profitability by unifying operator-owned data across systems into an MCP that LLMs can reliably use, enabling automated and agentic workflows such as lead qualification and, especially, renewals, which he says can drive major revenue uplift (including a cited 15% growth). They review data on live-work-play mixed-use developments (542 completed from 2016–2025; 129M sq ft; coworking spaces in top cities rising from 35 in 2022 to 56 in 2026) and discuss AI’s current stage as analogous to the early “brochure website” phase of internet adoption. The episode closes with a debate on pods, arguing that high utilization signals demand for private space and drives trends like bookable pods and offices by the hour. 00:00 Welcome and Introductions 00:26 Ben’s New Role at Koho 01:56 What to Expect Today 03:24 How Koho Works 04:45 Founders and Origin Story 07:52 Data Safety and MCPs 08:51 Use Cases and 15% Growth 11:34 Mixed Use Live Work Play Data 17:34 AI Adoption Lifecycle 25:12 Pods and Office Design Debate 28:09 Monetizing Pods and Hourly Offices 29:50 Wrap Up and Events