NEED VALIDATION: Book a table at a coffee house
Before we turn off the lights and head to sleep, we decide in our heads tomorrow i am gonna work seriously on the project and achieve some tangible results. I keep on getting distracted at home, so i am going to go to my nearby coffee shop and work my ass off.
Next morning, you do your chores, packed and pretty excited to go and work. But once you reach the coffee house you see almost all tables are occupied. A few of them are available but they do not have power socket. Oops someone did not think to charge their laptop and phone. After an hour of work you luckily find the spot you wanted. But in the meanwhile, you figured out the wifi is weak and it too slow to browse the internet. Oh god even the google search results are taking sometime to pop up. Also, now you have to go and use restroom. You do not trust anyone with your mac or laptop, what should i do? You hesitantly ask someone sitting besides you to keep an eye on it.
All your excitement you had about work is now disappeared and you seem more distracted than you should have been.
What If:
There was a service which allowed you to book a spot at a table at your preferred coffee house, gave you a lock for your macbook or laptop for your restroom breaks, showed you internet speed real time in your app, also pre-order your preferred coffee while you walk in?
Need validation on this idea guys. Please kill it with your critiques. :)
I think such an idea is going to require the buy-in of the coffee shop owner. Either they're paying for the service, or they're at least providing the info on which tables are available. I'm not a coffee shop but if I was I wouldn't particularly want to help customers use my shop as a free coworking space - how much revenue can a single person sitting at a table drinking a couple of coffees over a few hours bring me?
The problem you're trying to solve is that you want somewhere to work for, say, a 3 hours slot at a local space, booked at the last minute via an app, with a guaranteed desk, socket and a lock when you get there. That sounds like a pretty good business to me. Airbnb for desks.
"how much revenue can a single person sitting at a table drinking a couple of coffees over a few hours bring me?" - exactly this.
I see many people "working" in these coffee shops and if I was the owner I would not be so happy about it. Selling coffees, drinks, cakes etc is what is generating revenue and not one person occupying a spot the whole day. As an owner you need multiple people getting in and out to generate enough revenue.
The solution for you is simple:
Does anyone know of such a thing in London? I know there are plenty of co-working spaces but I assume you need some kind of contract to use them. Or can you just turn up and pay on the spot? I have an office but it's productive to get out of it sometimes.
Few questions that could support your validation:
is there a business incentive for this service to particularly exist in a coffee shop? Ask to speak to the owner to hear their thoughts around the idea. Aim to survey 5 different coffee shop owners and identify patterns / pain points (if any).
I get the frustration about showing up and not having a table... so, why wouldn't you just call the coffee shop before going there to see how busy they are?
An answer today that exists is a coworking space that serves coffee.
Figured there are few companies who work towards this goal -
https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/restaurant-coworking-spaces/
http://www.coworkcafe.com/
What if you did price discovery between table buyers/sellers using an auction system? That way shop owners can also set a reserve price?
May not work for immediate walk ins...but could work for people who know they will need workspace sometime in the future.
Workshop cafe in San Francisco is very similar to what you’re describing. https://www.workshopcafe.com/
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
This comment was deleted 6 years ago