Hot Ideas come from Cool Places

Which is the better business plan  for a coffeehouse: old school hangout or incubator for technology start-ups?

According to a recent LA Times article, there is an emerging trend among independent coffeehouses to eliminate wifi internet access to patrons.   These coffeehouses, like restaurants, want to turn seats over quicker during their busy dayparts.  Internet users tend to stay longer and thus displace other customers.   

Like most things coffee, the trend began in Seattle.  However, Victrola Coffee & Art took out their wifi as a means to restore a gathering place culture:

“the owners noticed that friends were no longer talking and strangers were no longer meeting.”  

Some coffeehouses believe reading anything digital ruins the community meeting place vibe.  So iPads and Kindles are banned while dead tree reading material is allowed.  

Other stores have embraced the emerging demand for places for business people to meet, surf the internet and yes, network.   Seattle Coffee Works takes a wider view of their customer interaction:

Co-owner Sebastian Simsch said the Internet is far from a buzz kill. It’s a business opportunity. Wi-Fi in coffeehouses helps people make connections in the broader world. They may not make friends with someone at the next table, but they check in with friends all over through e-mail or on popular Internet sites such as Facebook.

As the Times article notes, while insurer Lloyd’s of London was once housed in a coffeehouse so were beatniks Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.   So why do coffeehouses attract both commerce and art?  They are cool places.

The title for this post came from a presentation by Doug Henton, CEO of Collaborative Economics, to the Ventura Economic Summit in June.    His theory is that cities who foster lively and vibrant urban environments produce innovative and creative businesses.    

One of the exciting ideas that came out the creative economy breakout session was the development of a 24-hour “hive” space in downtown Ventura.    This public/private partnership would be a combination of coffeehouse, business center, and start-up incubator space.    This is smart economic development and I hope the concept is further developed.

The restaurant business is all about developing niches.  Coffeehouses could be a analog haven away from a world where everyone from McDonald’s to Sam’s Club is offering free wifi.   However I doubt many cities other than Seattle or San Francisco have enough latte drinkers that want to read poetry from a paper book and meet new people in a coffeehouse.  

Unfortunately the downfall to most these businesses is that demand for 5 buck coffees is based on disposable income which is in short supply these days.   The demand for cool places to meet, collaborate and hangout is recession proof.

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