Business and Operational Services Included in Lab Coworking Memberships

This blog:  Here we detail the Business Services Support, and Operational Support that’s included in the lab coworking membership, with examples at Bonneville Labs.

If you are looking to rent research labs space for your startup, or for your flexing business (growing, or right-sizing), you’ve got options.  Often, people think first of getting your own empty space and signing a lease.  You can start from scratch and build and staff it all yourself in empty space like this, or you can look at lab coworking options.   Lab Coworking spaces take various approaches to package space, equipment, and prebuilt, pre-staffed spaces, and give you flexibility of month-to-month rental.   Research lab coworking offerings provide operational and business support services that can allow you to avoid logistics and focus on your highly valuable scientific work.

It’s kind of like:  

   Leasing a Space Directly vs.     Lab Coworking Package =

A bare apartment vs. A furnished apartment, 

& the furnished place was also SERVICED, & 

• Paid your bills for you, 
• & came with cleaning & laundry, and dishwashing, and a stocked kitchen,
• & package shipping + receiving, w storage, 
• & a doorman, maintenance staff, and a full business center with conference rooms.  

Many lab coworking providers offer BSL2 lab space for cell culture, and fume hoods for materials science, and provide services like the below.  Coworking varies – some have better or worse space, or fewer included offerings – but here is a list of 25 example services in lab coworking:

Operational Support / Lab work Support

1. Permits and city / state filings.  Our EH&S staff has done this years, for >50 companies, and can show you the process and do it with you.
2. Equipment setup.  Our Facilities staff will help size your equipment, receive and deliver to your space, and help connect to gas or other utilities.  
3. Shared Equipment repairs and maintenance.  We confirm operation and ongoing maintenance of BV equipment available for your use. 
4. Biohazard Disposal with waste weighing and monthly regulatory filing. 
5. CAL/OSHA Training videos to get your staff in compliance with regulations.
6. Decontamination and Spill Cleanup Support.  BV staff has spill training to help during your tenancy, or decontamination at the end of your tenancy.
7. Staffed Autoclave & Glasswash.  Our Facilities staff will pickup at your lab, run the Autoclave and Glasswash for you, and return cleaned and ready-to-use equipment, or train you to operate.
8. Maintain Lab-Level Building Systems.  Coworking providers maintain Emergency Power, Lab Exhausts & HVAC repairs, Electrical, Plumbing repairs (lab sinks, eyewashes)
9. Cold Storage: in 4 C, -20, -80 C freezers, or in onsite Liquid Nitrogen.  see Receiving below.
10. Lab Gas Storage and hookup.  We can help you procure lab gases, & then hookup on site.
11. Chemical Storage & HazMat review.  Our EH&S can help you ensure your company complies with governmental codes when you first start up.
12. Quarterly CAL/OSHA Audit readiness review.  We help you stay ready for any audits that might come your way.  Each quarter, we confirm permit expirations & Material Safety Data Sheets.
13. Access to Site Specific Safety Procedure documents that are required by CAL/OSHA.  Biosafety Program, Hazard Communication
14. Annual HazMat Inventory Filing with local Fire Department.
15. Janitorial.  Our trained vendor will clean spaces as you wish.
16. Lab Laundry & Safety Glasses.  We provide lab coats & glasses, & pickup dirty & return clean.
17. Open Bagel Hours / Lunch & Learns.  BV Staff holds regular events for community to mingle, and invites presenters to show latest equipment and techniques.

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Business Services Support

1. We DO pay the bills, and the expenses are covered by your membership.  Different lab coworking does different approaches, but at Bonneville we handle accounting and payment of electric, gas, water/sewer, and the property owner’s expenses that they pass on to tenants.  It’s included and no extra charge to members.
2. Receiving / Shipping:  We receive your packages, log them and deliver them to the right temperature / chemical storage – and you don’t have to be here.  We process deliveries several times daily, and will send you notice of delivery and location where your items are.
3. IT setup and connections.  We give you private, segregated access to your own LAN (Local Area Network), hosted behind a firewall on our plug & play, secure main data service.
4. Procurement Discounts and Vendor relationships.  You can use BV relationships and avoid credit checks and account setup, or setup on your own.
5. Staffed Reception.  BV staff will meet your visitors, get them signed in and to fill out any NDA you might wish, notify you, and guide visitors to office or conference rooms for you.
6. Security.  BV manages all access to premises and monitors doors and loading dock.
7. Full kitchen.  Stocked with sparkling water, coffee & tea, snacks, and appliances.
8. Trash & Recycling Management.  We contract & pickup from all locations inside the premises.

We believe that lab coworking can be a valuable option for science companies – startups or mature companies needing flexibility, or anywhere in between.  Not only does lab coworking save the money and time of designing, building, and outfitting a space from scratch, but it can also offer a highly-amenitized, highly-serviced experience with the support described above.  Where traditional office coworking offered some things, Lab coworking offers plug & play access to space that is unique to build, equip and operate in compliance with codes and safety standards.

Bonneville went into this business because the founder previously co-founded a synthetic bio company and took it public on Nasdaq in 2010.  Along the way, he suffered all the time spent on facilities, staffing, and operations.   In his next company, he wanted to simplify the process for others: Lab Coworking spaces are prebuilt and pre-staffed so that science innovators can work leverage their special skills and intellect to FOCUS ON THEIR HIGH VALUE, HIGH IMPACT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY!  

And btw, you don’t trade equity in your company to build the landlords space, and then get handcuffed to it for years even if it doesn’t suit your size anymore.  In coworking you can go by month – and leave whenever it suits you.   But we’ll leave that thinking to another blog…  

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For other information, see our Blog articles on:

 “Explaining Full Costs to Lease Science Lab Real Estate” we did some explanations and some $ cost calculations (and alluded to the time involved) in direct leases or subleases.  We showed that the construction, equipment, and staffing costs might add 153% to the quoted Base rent in a lease – that is, if you look at a space and the base rent is $100k/year, your all in costs might be more like $259k per year.   That’s a drag !   (The additional costs come from the additional reimbursements that are standard in lease contracts, construction costs, equipment costs, and staffing costs.)

And In another blog:  “What’s Included in Lab Coworking Package Prices”, we detailed the (i) cost savings, (ii) the shared buildout & equipment, (iii) the time savings, and (iv) the shield from big, long-term contractual liabilities in leases that lab coworking offers.