The honest truth about why most workspaces fail at building real community—and what we learned from getting it wrong ourselves

Here’s something nobody talks about: you spend more time at work than anywhere else. More than at home, more than sleeping, definitely more than with your friends. Yet somehow, most of us feel completely isolated during those 8-10 hours a day.

I used to think this was just “how work is.” Then I started paying attention to where I actually made my best connections—and it was never at social events.

The Soho House Thing: Beautiful Spaces, Shallow Connections

Don’t get me wrong—Soho House knows how to create a vibe. The spaces are gorgeous, the cocktails are perfect, and yeah, it feels pretty cool to be there. But after the novelty wears off, you realize something’s missing.

They Think Community Just Happens

Soho House throws great parties and tells you that community will naturally form. Beautiful people in beautiful spaces will obviously connect, right? Wrong. You end up at social events where everyone’s performing the role of “interesting person” but no one actually gets to know each other.

The connections feel forced because they are forced. Real relationships don’t start with “So, what do you do?” They start with “Hey, can you help me figure this out?” or just naturally talking because you keep bumping into each other.

No One’s Actually There to Help

When you’re stuck on something or just want to bounce ideas off someone, where do you turn? Probably not to the person you made small talk with at last week’s wine tasting. These spaces are great for meeting people, terrible for actually building the kind of relationships that matter when you need support.

It’s All Surface, No Depth

You can have great conversations at these events, but they rarely lead anywhere because there’s no reason to see each other again. You exchange contacts and then… what? There’s no natural reason to collaborate or help each other out.

The WeWork Problem: Efficient, But Lonely

WeWork figured out how to make beautiful, functional workspace accessible to everyone. That’s genuinely amazing. But in making everything so efficient and flexible, they accidentally made it impossible to build real connections.

Everyone’s Just Passing Through

Hot-desking is practical, but it means you never sit next to the same person twice. You grab coffee from the same machine as dozens of other people every day, but you’re all strangers. It’s like being lonely in a crowded room.

They Set Up Food, Then Hope for Magic

WeWork will put out bagels or set up a coffee station and expect community to just happen. But what actually happens? People grab their food and go straight back to their desks. There’s no one facilitating conversations or helping people connect—it’s just free snacks with strangers.

There’s No “Glue”

Beautiful spaces and food don’t automatically create community. You need someone—or something—to help people actually connect. Otherwise, you just have a bunch of individuals eating alone in the same room.

It’s Optimized for Everything Except Connection

The spaces work great if you want to put your head down and get stuff done. But if you’re looking for collaboration, support, or just someone to bounce ideas off? You’re on your own.

Here’s What I Learned About How Connections Actually Happen

Think about your closest work relationships. I bet they didn’t start at social events. They probably started when:

• You were both struggling with the same deadline

• Someone helped you figure out something you couldn’t crack alone

• You ended up working on a project together

• You had the same frustrations about your industry

• You just kept running into each other and eventually started talking

It’s the same as school, honestly. Your best friendships didn’t come from “friend-making events.” They came from sitting next to each other every day, working on group projects, helping each other with homework, complaining about the same teachers.

The magic happened in the ordinary moments—not because someone organized it.

What We Figured Out (And Why We Built Ground Floor)

After experiencing this disconnect everywhere we worked, we realized the problem wasn’t the spaces—it was that no one was actually trying to help people connect in meaningful ways.

We Design for Collaboration, Not Events

Instead of hosting mixers where everyone feels awkward, we create reasons for people to actually work together:

• When someone needs help with marketing and someone else is great at it, we introduce them

• We organize project groups across different industries—turns out a lot of business challenges are universal

• Our seating isn’t random—we think about who might benefit from sitting near each other

We Make the Ordinary Moments Count

The best conversations happen over coffee, not at formal events:

• Our breakfast club isn’t just “free food”—our team actually sits down and makes sure people talk to each other (no grabbing and running back to your desk)

• We have interest groups run by members who are passionate about specific topics

• We create excuses for people to collaborate on real things, not fake team-building exercises

We Have People Whose Actual Job Is Helping You Connect

This might sound obvious, but most places don’t have this: our community managers’ main job is knowing who you are, what you’re working on, and who else you should probably meet. Not in a pushy way—in a “hey, you should talk to Sarah, she dealt with the exact same problem last month” way.

Whether you’re looking for business opportunities, want to find someone to grab drinks with, or need advice on a project, authentic connections open doors to everything. The best opportunities—both social and professional—come as a byproduct of genuine relationships, not forced interactions.

Why This Actually Matters

Look, we’re not trying to be your best friend. But work is so much better when you have people in your corner. When you’re stuck on something and know exactly who to ask. When someone actually cares whether your project succeeds.

The ROI isn’t just emotional (though that matters too):

• You solve problems faster when you can tap into other people’s experience

• You learn more when you’re around people doing interesting things

• Opportunities come from people who know your work and who you are as a person, not people who know your elevator pitch

• Work feels less isolating when you have actual relationships, not just colleagues

The Truth About Building Community

You can’t force it, but you can create the right conditions. Just like you can’t force friendships, but you can create environments where they’re more likely to happen.

Most workspaces get this backwards. They think community comes from events and amenities. But real community comes from shared experiences, mutual support, and just spending time around the same people consistently.

We’re not trying to disrupt anything or revolutionize the future of work. We’re just trying to solve a simple problem: work is better when you’re not doing it alone.

If that sounds like something you’ve been looking for, come check us out. We’d love to meet you.