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BLANKSPACES is returning to its original location at 2nd Street in Santa Monica after about a year of arbitration – and is bringing events and mentorship opportunities with it.
BLANKSPACES CEO Jerome Chang said he is focusing specifically on peer-to-peer and peer-to-expert mentorship models for the space, because these models are often underutilized and should be further explored so that entrepreneurs can “share war stories” and help each other solve current problems.
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Chang said BLANKSPACES also has partnered with a $500,000 investment fund through Anonymous Angels that focuses on mobile apps and games; the only qualification for companies to access the funding is that they must be BLANKSPACES members for at least one month.
“They want to tap into membership community at BLANKSPACES to invest in mobile apps and games, which shows how much investors feel confident in the potential of the community at BLANKSPACES,” Chang said.
Additionally, there will be small, high-quality events in the space again, but they will not be as large or as frequent as events in newer, larger coworking spaces like CrossCampus, Amplify and Coloft. In contrast, he said there are “practically no programming or events at all” at the space currently, which has been operating under the name CoWorks and is run by Chang’s partners Yoni Chriqui and Yonathon Abeniam.
The arbitration between CoWorks and BLANKSPACES has been “messy as you can imagine,” Chang said. About six months after BLANKSPACES’ June 2011 opening, Chang said there was an official dispute with litigation between him and his partners over the rebranding of the space as Coworks. In late December 2012, the judge in the case ruled that BLANKSPACES has the right to be in its original location, Chang said. Although BLANKSPACES just made the announcement of its return last week, the ruling has legally been in effect since January 1 (so technically, the space at 1450 2nd St. has already been branded as BLANKSPACES).
Despite the conflict and the fact that BLANKSPACES is returning, Chang, Chriqui and Abeniam will continue to work together: “that’s been the challenge,” Chang said. During the transition, the companies that are currently working in CoWorks are still legally bound to their contracts to work in the space, and Chang said he highly doubts any entrepreneurs will leave because of a branding change.
“At the end of the day, they’re still going to have the same printer, same internet, same seats, same offices and the same contract,” Chang said. “The book is still there, but the cover has changed.”
