A couple of weeks ago, Citizen Space hosted a group of friendly individuals working late into the night. We were open until 2AM, and those of us who are most productive in the wee hours had a bustling, friendly place to work. If you’re interested in joining next time, subscribe to the SF NightOwls Meetup Group for notification on our next event. Stay tuned for future NightOwls Coworking Sessions. Hoot.

Alex Shepard, Shawn Shah, Sean O’Shea and Kim Gustafson had been commuting for two hours every day from San Francisco to Mountain View to work at Eye-Fi, a 30-person startup that creates wireless-enabled cards for digital cameras. The long commute can be a drag, but when Eye-Fi discovered Citizen Space, the company found a flexible and affordable way to for its employees to occasionally work from the city.

Eye-Fi at Work. Left to right, Alex Shepard, Kim Gustafson, and Sean O'Shea. By Jason Whalen at Agency Charlie.

Eye-Fi at Work. Left to right, Alex Shepard, Kim Gustafson, and Sean O’Shea. By Jason Whalen at Agency Charlie.

At first, the guys worked from local coffee shops once a week. Some coffee shops, however, lacked outlets, and they couldn’t talk without disturbing other customers. “Plus,” Alex adds, “at the end of the day you’re totally upset becauase you’ve been drinking coffee all day.” They wanted to go somewhere where the group of them could feel free to collaborate.

After researching coworking options, they found Citizen Space. Eye-fi worked out a flexible membership arrangement, coworking as a group of four or five once a week. Now on Wednesdays, you can find the smart and focused team working from our communal table.

Besides reducing the long commute, Eye-Fi has found surprising benefits from being part of the Citizen Space network. It’s a casual space and by literally sitting around a table together they collaborate in ways a traditional office doesn’t always encourage.

For example, as a result of meeting the Eye-Fi guys at Citizen Space and learning how their product works, one visitor, Patrick Buckley, created EventPod. His service collects the pictures taken by wedding guests to a central account (using Eye-Fi cards). Patrick has been a great friend of the company, buying many of their units and visiting them in Mountain View to deliver feedback.

We at Citizen Space are thrilled to have the Eye-Fi’s as part of our community. If you’re an employer or commuter looking to reduce the time spent on a train and work in a supportive, casual environment, we’re happy to discuss a flexible membership.

Unloading our new addition from the pickup

Citizen Space is fortunate to have a large, lofty office space with plenty of square footage per resident. However, we’ve been thinking for some time about the best way to meet the needs of “coworking lite” members– those who work from Citizen Space regularly but don’t have their own desk and storage.

Enter Jesse, Blake, and Colin to the rescue! Bzhive, a sister coworking space in Marin County, was shutting its doors because its owners were moving away. The owners contacted us about a set of lockers in search of a new home– six half-length units that would be perfect storage for lite members.

Jesse, along with one of our members, Blake Mills (inventor of the Helmet Lock device), rented a truck from City Carshare, driving up to San Rafael and bringing the lockers down to Citizen Space. Colin, a new visitor who was checking out our space for the day, was kind enough to help them get it loaded off the truck and into the building. We’re glad to be recycling this great equipment and having it available to our members. If you’re interested in a coworking lite membership we have spots available (see membership info here). Stop on by or drop us an email!

Grrrr!