A lot of people think the coworking movement is only about shared office space, which is wrong
There are thousands of other types of shared workspaces in the U.S., including Makerspaces - communal workshops where entrepreneurial makers share ideas and tools - shared biolabs, auto repair spaces, artist spaces and many others.
Another example is shared commercial kitchens.
These are spaces where bakers, caterers and other food entrepreneurs can rent, often by the hour, commercial grade kitchen space. These spaces also offer training, events, mentoring and access to food specific networking activities.
There are hundreds of shared commercial kitchens in the U.S. and their numbers are growing rapidly. According to a 2016 report by Econsult, "between August 2013 and March 2016, the number of kitchen incubators increased by more than 50%".
So far the shared commercial kitchen industry, much like the early years of coworking, mostly consists of small, independent operators.
But just as WeWork, Industrious, Serendipity Labs and other office coworking space chains emerged, the same may be happening with commercial kitchens.
Pilotworks is one of the first nationwide chains of shared commercial kitchens. This food incubator has locations in 7 cities and has raised $13 million in venture funding (led by Campbell Soup's venture fund) to help them expand.
It will be interesting to see if the shared commercial kitchen industry moves the same way as office-based coworking has. The industry is, obviously, quite different than office coworking.
One could easily argue makerspaces are a better analog for commercial kitchens than office coworking is. And so far at least, there hasn't been a successful makerspace chain.
So the jury's still out on this.
For more on Pilotworks, see Food & Wine's How This Culinary Incubator Is Democratizing Food.
For more on the trends driving the growth of artisan food, see our New Artisans section.
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