Zahra Amanpour, founder of co-working space Indiegrove, saw the right opportunity three years ago when she entered a stark and vacant space overlooking downtown Jersey City. She saw her future as an entrepreneur who helps other entrepreneurs.
Now the owner of a fully re-furbished co-working space with just over 145 members, Amanpour looks back on the challenges she navigated past that has made Indiegrove an established contributor to the Jersey City startup ecosystem. She attributes part of her success to the foundation she built in economic development earlier in her career. Prior to starting Indigrove, Amanpour was executive director of NYC Business Solutions at the NYC Dept. of Small Business Services. Before that, she was the program manager at Workshop in Business Opportunities.
“It is important to me that as the person trying to build this community that people who are considering themselves as Indiegrove members are actually members,” explained Amanpour. With that in mind, she took the long view when deciding how to build her brand based around “community”.
At the outset Amanpour remained disciplined in only accepting customers who would become active Indiegrove members and not just space visitors. To do this she created both full time and part time membership levels. The latter allows members a 10 day use package spread out over a month or three months. Amanpour feels the part-time membership provides the flexibility that an entrepreneur or startup needs, but it also gives Indiegrove the commitment it requires to support the space and build the community.
In addition to co-working, Indiegrove offers the broader local small business community the use of four meeting rooms, including a conference room. Its’ 145 members can book those rooms directly online. Another 50 plus local businesses are registered with Indiegrove and they may book a room through a staff member.
“When I was looking to do this I thought for sure Brooklyn–and everyone was saying Brooklyn. But when I did the market research Jersey City was heading in that direction and the prices were more reasonable. I decided to do it here,” Amanpour said.
It was her and her husband’s decision to be near family that brought them to Jersey City ten years ago, while Amanpour’s own personal journey began in Iran. She grew up in the DC area, then lived in San Francisco, and then came to Jersey City with her husband who she credits with giving the necessary support to take on the startup of Indiegrove.
“One of the other big decisions I made when I started was to support the local arts community,” explained Amanpour. She points to the paintings and murals done by local artists that appear around the co-working space. This adds much to the interior that was fully renovated to have shiny hard wood floors and new furnishings in late 2012. The space officially opened in January 2013. This significant investment was accomplished through the assistance of the Greater Newark Enterprises Corporation and two other lenders.
Amanpour’s tour highlights the co-working areas actively in use: private desks, private rooms, communal kitchen with large window views, multiple meetings rooms, and a mailbox area. But it is not just about space, Amanpour emphasizes. There are educational and networking events held that brings member together that grows the community. Holiday parties and picnics are also scheduled and family members encouraged to attend. All began to blossom last year that prompted her to expand and take 2/3 of the floor below.
Indiegrove’s location in downtown Jersey City works in a number of ways. A ten minute walk takes you to the ferry to Manhattan. It is just steps away from the Grove Street entrance to the Path train. Its hub location downtown has made the membership base quite diverse. Amanpour estimates that about 50% of members are in tech, but the remaining portion is filled by a broad range of startups: building maintenance services, publishing, financial services, therapists, attorneys and accountants as well.
Amanpour sees one measure of success as having already had a major expansion in just over three years which was prompted by a growing wait list of new members. That validated her decision to open the space in Jersey City. She also feels that another measure of success is when member companies out-grow the co-working space and set up their own quarters. That has already occurred and Amanpour says it is “bitter sweet” to see them leave. But she is happy for them and feels it reflects Indiegrove’s contribution to the greater Jersey City business community.
