D.C. mobile workers, you've got a new place to park it for a couple of hours. The space is called
Cove, and according to cofounder Adam Segal, it's a "productive space" that sits somewhere between the office and the coffee shop on the scale of "where to park yourself when you want to work but you also want company."
Located in Dupont Circle, Cove caters to "lawyers, consultants, writers, bloggers, journalists, grad students…pretty much anyone in the neighborhood," says Segal, who wants a space to work outside the house but doesn't want the long-term commitment or expense of a coworking space and doesn't want to have to jockey for a prime seat at Starbucks.
"For less than the price of a latté, you get everything you need to be productive," Segal explains. "Everything" includes coffee and San Pellegrino, color printing and scanning and time in a conference room, as well as different seating options depending on your needs. Cove is divided into three zones; the front section feels like a coffee shop, with stools, a standing desk and easy chairs. The midsection has café tables, and the conference room is in the back.
Cove's mobile app allows users to reserve a seat (there are 16, plus 10 in the conference room) in advance and to see who else is in the house. Users choose a monthly plan that suits their needs, from $24 to $124 a month, depending on the number of hours they plan to spend at Cove. The company employs QR codes; users scan in and out and the hours they spend are deducted from their plan.
"It works out to about $2.50 to $3 an hour, depending on the package," Segal explains. Cove-rs who don't use all their hours can roll 50 percent of them to the following month. The space is open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Friday, and until 6 p.m. on Saturdays; Segal hopes to be open 24 hours soon.
Segal would like Cove to become a physical LinkedIn, a place for the Cove community to network and learn from one another. He is also planning additional Cove spaces in the very near future and says that a series A round is coming up soon.