What does Detroit have to teach other cities and creative folks founding start-ups?  Quite a bit, as I found on the Toronto-Detroit-Minneapolis leg of the Agileseed tour.   Basically, Motown was agile before Agile got capitalized.

Talent in the Hive: Part One

Coco in Minneapolis is a space for co-work and collaboration.  It lives in the city’s Grain Exchange building.  The sheer scale of the space dwarfs the notion of individuality and other human-size ideals.  Entrepreneurial possibility is based on combined strength and collective relevance.

Workspaces are called “campsites.”  But they read more as the geometric cells of a honeycomb.  Literally, the place is humming.

Members include “lawyers, do-gooders, and everything in between” according to the chief organizer Jeke, who took me on a brief tour which mainly consisted of showing me where the elevators were for the Visitors Balcony.   Busy guy!

A first come, first serve membership policy differs from the co-work spaces in Toronto and New Haven, where members apply and are considered based on their social contributions.  However, all three co-workspaces seem to have in common a core premise that connects them to the Motown vibe: proximity enhances achievement.

Talent in the Hive: Part Two will delve into the Motown model and why it was agile.