Tech

Here's The Sweet SoHo Spot Where Wannabe Entrepreneurs Can Eat, Drink And Form Companies For Dirt Cheap

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WeWork Labs is New York City's newest stomping grounds for aspiring entrepreneurs.

It opened its doors last week to 50 founders and freelancers with backgrounds ranging from PR and marketing to IT and biz dev.

Founders Matt Shampine, Jesse Middleton, and Adam Neumann hope that by sticking talented people in a room together for months at a time, promising ideas, friendships, and businesses will emerge.

After the first fleet of people moved in, we checked out the office. Lined with exposed brick and decorated with kegs and the Microsoft Kinect, it's a pretty sweet place.

Founders Jesse Middleton, Adam Neumann, and Matt Shampine. Neumann founded WeWork last year, and Shampine is cofounder of We Are NY Tech.

WeWork Labs

There's one common area where people work side by side at long picnic tables.

WeWork Labs

Every long table has a centerpiece of shrubbery.

WeWork Labs

Every room has glass walls so you can see people working.

WeWork Labs

Glass walls also mean you can write on them. Residents have already begun turning these into whiteboards.

WeWork Labs

The only privacy you'll get is in this tiny phone booth.

WeWork Labs

Besides the bathroom of course. Clearly WeWork Labs is male-dominated.

WeWork Labs

A fridge and tiny sink make up the kitchen area.

WeWork Labs

And there are kegs! When you've just moved, is there a better sight in the world?

WeWork Labs

This conference room has lots of fun chairs and couches.

WeWork Labs

We imagine a lot of late nights will be spent on that bean bag.

WeWork Labs

A newly mounted flat screen with Kinect is hooked up.

WeWork Labs

Here's another conference room. Every wall is lined with exposed brick for a cool, urban feel.

WeWork Labs

And another. All of the rooms are nearly sound proof, so feel free to get rowdy.

WeWork Labs

Walther Chen, founder of iDoneThis is plugging away already.

WeWork Labs

Francisco Hui (of Interactees), Mariya Yao, and Willem Bult (both of Bloomsie) are too.

WeWork Labs

Joseph Fasone (of WeWork) and Glen Goates (of Handshake) try really hard to look like they're working.

WeWork Labs

Brandon Gracey is one of many freelancers in WeWork Labs. The freelancers will be helping fellow startups on projects in their spare time for some extra cash.

WeWork Labs

Brannon McAllister (freelancer) is another new resident.

WeWork Labs

Jin Kim (freelancer) works through lunch.

WeWork Labs

The moving process is ongoing. By the end of the week, 50 people will take up every open seat here.

WeWork Labs

For another cool New York office space, check out:

Refinery 29 office slide
Refinery 29

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Alyson is the Editor-in-Chief and CCO at Fortune.  She was previously a co Editor-in-Chief overseeing Business Insider's tech and business coverage.She joined Business Insider in July 2008 as the company's sixth employee. She started as a sales planner before joining the editorial team in 2010, where she became a startup reporter and was first to cover some of today's largest tech companies, including Pinterest, Tinder, Instagram, Uber and Snap. Alyson rose to become a senior correspondent, then Executive Editor.She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider in 2016, at which point she became the youngest and only woman to run a global business publication. Under her leadership, the business division has grown to hundreds of  millions of monthly readers.Alyson was a host of  Insider's conferences and launched a podcast, "Success! How I Did It," where she interviewed influencers ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer about their career paths (subscribe on iTunes here).She has appeared on ABC, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and CBC, and she has interviewed media personalities such as Megyn Kelly, technology leaders like Fred Wilson, political leaders like John Brennan, and sports star LeBron James. She is a judge for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards in business journalism, and has been named one of Min's Rising Stars in Media, as well as Folio's 2017 Top Women in Media.She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she majored in psychology and advertising.You can read some of her investigative articles here:Leaked videos reveal the true founding story of SnapchatThe founder who dumped Jared Kushner: Inside the phone call that left the White House star in a fit of rageThe downfall of billion-dollar startup, FabHow a startup that raised the largest seed round in Silicon Valley history blew itself up before it even launchedThe dark side of Facebook, where people lie, cheat, and make millionsA profile of Uber's controversial CEO, Travis KalanickThe mystery of Jody Sherman, a founder who was driven to suicide and left behind a shocking business disasterDisclosure: Alyson owns bitcoin and Snap. She is also an investor in The Spun, a sports-media startup founded by her husband.