How two friends opened a “no-men zone” in Manhattan and received $ 42 million
'16.04.2018'
Source: Forbes
The first coworking opened two years ago with an initial investment of $ 2 million, and now 1500 customers are willing to pay for membership in The Wing Club from $ 2100 to $ 3000 per year.
Audrey Gelman and Lauren Kassan are 30-year-old businesswomen who founded the women's coworking in October 2016.
Coworking premises are located in the Flatiron and Soho areas of Manhattan. The Wing It provides an opportunity not only to rent a workspace, but also to arrange thematic meetings.
Here you can even prepare for the event: take a shower, change clothes and do makeup in a comfortable environment.
Gelman, a former political journalist, worked as a freelancer and often faced with the fact that she had nowhere to change clothes before meetings or to charge the phone.
She proposed the idea of a certain “pitstop” for business women Loren Kassan, who was then the director of a sports club. Classpass and already manifested itself - she entered the list Forbes the brightest young entrepreneurs under the age of 30 years.
At the first stage of investment, Gelman and Kassan managed to attract $ 2 million from a fitness company Soulcycle. The same company financed The Wing in the second stage with the venture firm NEA, their investments amounted to another $ 8 million.
Now The Wing there are about 1500 customers who pay for club membership from $ 2100 to $ 3000 per year. In the waiting list - thousands of people. At the end of November, the club's instagram account had 150 000 subscribers.
What are users willing to pay for?
The Wing offers a comfortable working space: interior in pastel colors; libraries with color-ordered books written by women and about women; rooms of mother and child; toilet rooms, more like beauty salons (filled with products from the partner brand Chanel); cafeteria serving snacks and cocktails.
In the third stage of investment, Gelman and Kassan managed to convince investors to give them another $ 32 million, despite Lauren Kassan's late pregnancy. This is one of the largest recent investments by women entrepreneurs in the United States. Even more unusual, the main investor at the last stage was an obvious competitor - the company WeWork, coworking worth $ 20 billion
“We truly believe in the company's special mission,” says Jen Barrent of WeWork. - We believe that we improve life and improve labor conditions. From the very beginning, this was the goal of a startup. The longer the company exists, the more we will be able to achieve in order to achieve our common goals. ”
Investment WeWork will not lead to a joint business or common space. But help companies get The Wing access to a large selection of properties for opening clubs on the west coast in San Francisco and in Los Angeles before opening clubs abroad.
“Now we have more time to think about customers, our community and brand,” says Audrey Gelman, CEO The Wing.
In October, 2017 startup launched a website for club members and a magazine No Man's Land. In the autumn issue, there was an interview with female rapper Remi Ma, with transgender actress Gary Neuf and with the beginning writer Tavi Gevinson. And in January, 2018 opens the third club network The Wing in Brooklyn and another in Washington DC.
