Coworking Spaces in Winston Salem

For a growing sector of the workforce, the need for flexibility has led to a rise in coworking spaces that can accommodate a variety of schedules, work styles, and resource needs. You might be a part of that sector for a number of reasons. 

Maybe you’re pursuing coworking as a way to live in a place you love, while working a job that’s not necessarily in that location. Maybe you find working from home too isolating or you’re starting a business and you want to find a supportive community that can ease the day-to-day grind. Or maybe you’re looking for connections to resources and mentors that can help your business grow–or even just get off the ground.

Whatever initially piqued your interest in coworking, you might want a little help discovering what options are available to you. If you’re looking for coworking space in Winston-Salem, we’ve got you covered. 

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s figure out if coworking is actually right for you.

What is coworking?

Coworking happens when individuals and businesses share a common workspace. These workspaces generally provide a range of membership plans to suit different types of workers–remote workers, entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses–with varying levels of access and physical space. This workspace model helps individuals and companies save on costs like overhead, while providing community for workers who might otherwise miss out. 

While true coworking usually means some combination of reserved desks or an undesignated workspace in one or more open rooms, many coworking spaces also offer private offices to better meet the needs of businesses with multiple workers or confidentiality concerns. 

Coworking spaces also provide amenities and services to attract and support businesses. These amenities vary from space to space. Some of these amenities are the kinds you might expect of office space–meeting rooms, phone booths, mailboxes, and printing–but others provide more specialized services for growing businesses. 

Whatever kind of coworking space you’re looking for, most are dedicated to providing more than just physical space–these businesses are invested in trying to create a communal atmosphere for their members. Coworking spaces often provide events or networking opportunities, as well as fun office activities to promote a collaborative, supportive work atmosphere.

Why is coworking space in Winston-Salem (or anywhere) important?

Coworking provides an important resource for growing markets, like Winston-Salem. Coworking spaces fill an important gap for entrepreneurs, startups, and established businesses alike, providing flexibility for companies to scale and grow as they need, rather than locking them into long-term arrangements that don’t support their evolving needs.

As the city continues to grow its business community and create an environment that supports entrepreneurs and business endeavors of many levels, coworking space in Winston-Salem is a key part of that picture. 

Coworking spaces can help a variety of companies grow. Small businesses of many kinds can cut down on operating expenses by working out of coworking space, rather than trying to source all the equipment and tools themselves. Startups can lengthen their runways by not investing all their capital in space. Businesses of all kinds can grow workforces one person at a time without having to commit to long leases they might outgrow (or not be able to fill).

For communities that are invested in entrepreneurship and that value innovation, coworking also provides another avenue for creativity and collaboration to happen. Coworking spaces create opportunities for collision between people. Consultants rub shoulders with startups, service providers meet potential clients, and creatives converse with business owners by sharing a common space. 

Coworking can give innovation a much-needed kickstart by putting people in a place to have conversations that turn into opportunities. 

What are the coworking spaces in Winston-Salem?

If you’re an entrepreneur or business looking for private office space, there are a myriad of options available in Winston-Salem. But if you’re looking for the true coworking experience, check out these three coworking locations in downtown Winston-Salem:

• Flywheel Coworking
• Launch Towers Coworking
• Sparq Coworking

Each of these coworking spaces offers a unique mix of amenities and space for businesses of all kinds. 

Flywheel Coworking

Located at 500 W. Fifth Street in downtown Winston-Salem, Flywheel is a coworking space with an eye-catching panoramic view of the city. In addition to various levels of coworking memberships with open desk and designated desk options, Flywheel also has private offices for companies looking for a few more walls. 

Flywheel supports members through entrepreneurial programming and networking events–like pitch presentations and community days–to offer opportunities to collaborate and connect with business resources and mentors. Depending on membership level, members have access to amenities such as mail services, meeting rooms, and an in-building gym.

As part of the 500 W. 5th building, Flywheel provides members with the experience of working in a skyscraper with a big city feel within walking distance to restaurants and other retail on both Fifth and Fourth Street.

Launch Towers Coworking 

The Launch Towers Coworking is located at 102 W. Third Street and provides coworking space, as well as private office options. Launch Towers aims to provide the professional atmosphere and services that businesses need to grow, with four levels of membership and amenities like mail services, conference rooms, and recreation space. 

One of Launch Towers’ unique offerings for members is a QuickBooks subscription that they get as part of their membership, along with monthly business consultations through the coworking’s partnership with parent company Lighthouse Management Services. 

Launch Towers is located in the Liberty Plaza building in downtown Winston-Salem, which houses a couple restaurants and is within walking distance of many more. 

Sparq Coworking 

Located at 486 N. Patterson Avenue in Bailey Power Plant, Sparq Coworking offers flexible levels of membership for coworkers, as well as providing private offices for a wide range of business sizes–all in the modern, industrial aesthetic of the revitalized power plant. 

Sparq makes use of its position in the Innovation Quarter, a growing innovation district located in Winston-Salem’s historic tobacco district, to promote collaborations between workers and entrepreneurs in a variety of industries–particularly a rapidly growing life science industry–by bringing them into close proximity with each other. The iQ also launched Sparq Labs this year, which is designed specifically for biotech and life science companies and startups looking for affordable lab space with all the amenities of a coworking space. 

Sparq’s location in Bailey Power Plant provides members with easy access to a number of restaurants, bars, and green spaces in the immediate area, as well as a growing set of lifestyle companies like wellness and service businesses. 

Winston-Salem’s growing ecosystem also contains other entities that, while not traditional coworking spaces, provide resources, training, and in some cases office space, to support various kinds of business endeavors. Here are just a few examples:

• Winston Starts is a residency-style accelerator that provides mentorship and education for scalable businesses accepted into its program–along with workspace–to give startups a longer runway for success.
• Flywheel Foundation provides a number of programs designed to help entrepreneurs connect with the community and find mentors and investors.
• Center for Creative Economy targets inception and early-stage businesses in creative industries and trains creatives to become entrepreneurs through education and mentorship programs. 
• HUSTLE Winston-Salem promotes a more inclusive entrepreneurial system by providing support and resources for women, people of color, and marginalized communities.
• The Enterprise Business Center, part of the S.G. Atkins Community Development Corporation, is a catalyst for business and community collaborations, offering startups and emerging companies affordable space and access to intensive business development resources, as well as event and conference space, a shared use kitchen, and community garden.
• The CMPND provides options for creatives in the city, offering some limited coworking along with functional creative spaces such as podcasting, photo, and audio studios, as well as events and programming to help foster creativity and support the businesses that come from it.

Whatever your business and whatever your unique needs, there’s likely someone who can help you take the next step toward growth. 

What happens when I outgrow the coworking space in Winston-Salem?

If there comes a time that you’re ready for more space than coworking provides, there are a number of commercial real estate options in downtown Winston-Salem and beyond.

However, many businesses want to grow within a community rather than hop around a city as their business needs change. As part of its mission to help build the future of Winston-Salem, the iQ’s strategic development plan can be a clear advantage for many growth-minded businesses—at any size. 

The iQ wanted to create a flexible environment that gives companies a longer runway before they take the leap to more traditional office space. Say, for example, that you started as a general member in Sparq Coworking. Now you’re ready to transition to something a bit more private. The Innovation Suites at Sparq offer business suites in a variety of sizes, supported by all the amenities of the coworking space. 

The Innovation Suites can accommodate a wide range of business sizes, whether a party of one or working group in double digits. Office suites within a coworking environment often max out at three or four people. When the time for the leap comes, there are a number of buildings within the district with a range of leasing options for businesses to build out space to call their own.

With the iQ’s Phase II development ramping up, the idea that a business can grow from a startup to a mid-sized or large company in one place is a reality. The combination of the existing and future iQ spaces, built around lifestyle, means you can plant yourself and grow in the same community. This model of growth space can be a key to success, particularly for life science, tech companies, and the service companies that support businesses in the growing life science and regenerative medicine clusters located in the district.

Are you ready to be a coworker?

Whether you are a remote worker, a freelancer, an entrepreneur, or part of a business unit, coworking space in Winston-Salem might be just what the doctor ordered to give you the space, business resources, and community you need to have a healthy, thriving worklife. With several options to choose from, Winston-Salem has coworking spaces that fit a variety of needs. 

To get started on your journey into coworking, check out the coworking companies above, and check out how the iQ is trying to be a dynamic part of the growing ecosystem in Winston-Salem.