Codefi shows a new form of entrepreneurship

A concept known as coworking -- popular in urban centers for creating new businesses, fostering entrepreneurial growth and bringing independent workers into a community -- has begun in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Codefi, a new coworking center and business community, is offering memberships at a state-of-the-art office inside the former federal building at 339 Broadway. The center invited the public in for a launch party Friday, and the new venture has drawn the interest of many people, said Dr. James Stapleton, an entrepreneurship educator and one of Codefi's founding members.

The reason for the establishment of Codefi, according to its founders, is an entrepreneur-centered approach to new business development works best.

"A widespread misnomer is that small businesses are job creators," Stapleton said, "when it's really new businesses that create new jobs."

Entrepreneurs working side-by-side, bouncing ideas off each other, having easy access to networking and attending events are activities Codefi co-founder Chris Foeste said he expects to see within the new business.

Chris Carnell, left, Stacy Stapleton and Lana Carnell sit at the swing table Friday inside Codefi in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

Coworking is defined by Codefi as "a new style of working that involves the sharing of space, ideas and knowledge."

Members at Codefi can use coworking spaces as a primary or secondary office, and some may even want to use it as "third space" apart from their office or home, Foeste said. The business offers several membership options, from daily passes to annual memberships.

Julie Wolpers, a web developer, consultant and trainer who recently opened an office in the old federal building down the hall from Codefi, just joined as a member. Since she has a small space for her company, Webcurrent Communications, Codefi's offerings suit some needs of her business.

"I had planned to make use of their training facilities so that I have a place to make presentations before groups and also train groups, but I also look forward to using it just as a place for networking, and inspiration and camaraderie," she said.

The coworking concept is believed to have begun in the United States in 2006 with the opening of a space in San Francisco, according to a timeline compiled by Deskmag, a coworking magazine. Codefi founders estimate there are now more than 3,000 coworking spaces in the country.

The concept became so widely used in St. Louis as of September that five coworking businesses there formed a group called the St. Louis League of Independent Workspaces. The league allows patrons of any of the coworking spaces to use the space and services offered by the member businesses, according to a report by the St. Louis Business Journal.

Another of Codefi's co-founders, Brian Holdman, who holds a software development background, said people who live in Southeast Missouri see St. Louis as a tech hub for the area -- including college students who are likely to be pulled away by the development of entrepreneurial and technology markets there after graduation.

"We would like to keep more of them, so we are trying to build that hub down here," Holdman said.

Codefi, since it just opened, is using student interns to help run the business, Stapleton said, but he anticipates the business also will hire a staff as it grows. Zack Koeller, a freshman at Southeast Missouri State University and intern at Codefi, said his internship gives him an opportunity to share ideas with professionals.

But Koeller also sees the opening of the business as a step in a more advanced direction for Cape Girardeau and a willingness on the part of entrepreneurs to work together.

"For them, it's bringing people together and creating, and finding better ways to do things, and for me, it's all that and seeing my community grow," he said.

Stapleton said he has confidence in the future of Codefi and other coworking spaces because of a shift that has developed in how jobs are created and who is creating them. Stapleton is the former founding director of the Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southeast Missouri State University and has spent years working alongside the Kansas City, Missouri-based Kauffman Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization that encourages entrepreneurial education and researches innovation and entrepreneurship.

According to recent research from the organization based on U.S. Census Bureau data, new businesses create nearly all new jobs and make up almost 20 percent of gross job creation. That growth, according to the foundation's research, is not seen among small businesses when taking age into account.

The new way coworking promotes education and networking for entrepreneurs also represents a change in tradition, Stapleton said, and is thought by Kauffman researchers to be an improvement "from old, top-down approaches started in the '80s, using traditional business incubators with closed door offices, that don't work."

For entrepreneurial education offerings, Codefi members can opt to use Paradi.me, a service that provides business coaching and training. Stapleton also is the founder of the service.

Inside Codefi

While the coworking concept at Codefi will be new to members, the brick-and-mortar space of the business itself will provide a vastly different environment than a traditional office.

During the development of the business, Stapleton and Foeste estimated they visited 150 coworking spaces, resulting in designs and amenities seen today. The office features drop-in areas where all furniture is on wheels so it can be configured for various uses, and several media tables have chairs and large monitors that can be shared by a group.

There are also private office rooms, cubicle spaces, lounge areas of various size, spaces for small or large group meetings, a full kitchen and conference rooms. In one room, a large conference table is made from LEGO pieces, and markers can be used to draw on the walls. Another large conference table in the corner of the office's main space has swing chairs suspended from a frame above. Networking events, Wi-Fi access, video conferencing and storage for members are available for members and access to the office is available 24 hours a day with certain memberships.

Southeast's lab and incubator

Just a few blocks west, a similar-concept center is being developed by Southeast Missouri State University that will extend its entrepreneurship education program. Renovations of attached buildings at 612 and 616 Broadway are planned to become the Creative Labs and Industries Incubator.

Stapleton also designed the concept for the incubator, which according to the university*¹s website, will "bring together creative and artistic students and members of the community to design innovative product and service concepts in creative laboratories and test their business models in the modern commercial marketplace."

eragan@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

339 Broadway, Suite 124, Cape Girardeau, MO

612-616 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO