They're called Haven, and the idea behind it is that they help entrepreneurs, freelancers, remote workers and teams find underused and novel places to work.
"We take advantage of the fact that a lot of spaces are massively underused," says David King, creator of Haven. "We've started by offering the ability to work from some of our favourite spaces in the city when they are closed, and we're calling them havens."
Once called Random Work, the startup has two locations at the moment. A West Queen West "haven" inside Apt. 200 and a Chinatown location on the second floor of 307 Spadina with eyes on King Street.
"We have customers ranging from writers for Hypebeast, to employees from Khan Academy, and even remote workers from public pharmaceutical companies using us," King says. "Freelance, remote and mobile work is not just a matter of a cultural shift in Toronto, it is the evolution of how we work."
While many coffee shops have done a good job of filling this need, King emphasizes that they aren't working spaces.
"Coffee culture is awesome in Toronto right now. There are so many independent shops that I love to go to ... they are cornerstones of the community," he says. But in order to get a lot of work done, coffee shops just don't cut it. Haven aims to eliminate the stress of buying coffee and finding a power outlet.
"First and foremost we are building a community that works out of our spaces," King explains. "Space is just a location, building a community that gets work done in those spaces is our objective. Space is commodity - community isn't."
You can try Haven for free on your first day. It's $20 for a regular day pass and $100 for the month.
Photo by Sean Berrigan
by Phil Villeneuve via blogTO
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