WeWork and Techstars are buddying up, the organizations announced today.
Techstars, the global accelerator program responsible for companies like ClassPass, Sphero and Digital Ocean, will be bringing its program into the WeWork community by running its curriculum at WeWork locations in Toronto, Boston, Kansas City, and New York City.
As a part of the deal, Techstars alumni will now get a discount on WeWork workspace.
Techstars portfolio companies often stay in the accelerator space following the program,” said Techstars COO Jenny Lawton. “Some companies relocate only for the duration of the program and immediately return to their home cities to continue to build and grow their companies. Now we can consistently offer space to our Founders at a WeWork space that is the best fit for them.”
This will provide Techstars alums access to an even larger community of entrepreneurs and startups via WeWork’s 150K digital members and the folks sharing space at their particular WeWork location. As members themselves, they’ll also have access to WeWork’s 170+ locations across 56 cities and 17 countries.
This comes less than a week after WeWork announced the acquisition of Flatiron School.
“For Techstars founders or companies either wanting to learn to code or needing coders to help them with their product, there is no better connection to make than between the students and community of Flatiron and labor market in need of their skills,” said WeWork CFO Artie Minson. “The Flatiron School will be a production line of top quality engineers ready to slot into any key product or engineering position as soon as they roll off the line.”
WeWork clearly wants to be the “platform” of the entrepreneurial community, providing a connective fabric upon which companies, founders, students, VCs, and more conduct their business.
“WeWork sees our spaces as the pipes through which we can provide our members with a creative, collaborative community proramming that touches all aspects of our members’ lives…training, development, culture, art, music,” said Minson. “Not to mention other touch points outside of our immediate member community like our Airbnb partnership, the Creator Awards, Rise by We (our wellness offering), the Mailroom at WeLive, etc…”
Techstars alums can contact their local WeWork for details on workspace discounts.