The plan · as of 3 October 2026

The whole business plan, on the website.

Numbers first, then how the money works, then the parts that have not worked yet. Transparent companies publish this; incubators mostly do not. We would rather be checkable.

01 · Where we are

Eleven months in. Three of six doors let, nine of fourteen desks. Running costs covered since May; the rent not yet.

Sample figures · replaced as members sign off

Opened: 3 Nov 2025
Members: 41; 5 behind a door, 9 at a dedicated desk, 8 in the commons, 4 address only, 15 pay as you go
Doors let: 3 of 6; 5 offices and the team room
Dedicated desks let: 9 of 8; 4 of them on one business account
Storage units let: 8 of 19; 0 of them included with a door
Masterclasses run: 3; 53 of 54 seats
Revenue this month: $16,531; of a $30,000 target
All costs covered: Not yet; short $8,269 a month; running costs covered since May

We opened on 3 November 2025 with the building’s floor plan taped to the wall and a law firm’s offices still furnished. One office and six desks rented on the first day, three of them to people who had never worked outside their house. December was slow, January was not, and February, at minus thirty-one, was the month that told us the underground parking was the right call. In May, with three doors and eight desks let, the floor covered its rent for the first time. It does not yet cover the staff; the economics section says by how much. The owner is paid nothing, and the number at which that changes is written down below: a $30,000 month, which needs every door let. Three businesses have left since November: two to storefronts, one to Calgary.

02 · Vision

Edmonton has more people with a first product than places to build one.

Every market on 124 Street is full of them: someone with a sauce, a bag, a stove, a balm, selling on Saturdays and packing orders on the dining table the rest of the week. What the city offers them is a workshop or a startup accelerator, and they need neither. They need a desk, a door, a room to meet a buyer in, somewhere to put the pallet, and one evening a month with people who have done the unglamorous parts.

Mission

A desk you can afford, a door when you are ready for one, a room of people who will answer, and a path to a storefront.

We run the third floor of one building well, price it so nobody is shut out, and put a programme on top of it that a product business would pay for on its own. Then we get out of the way.

03 · Who it is for

The garage graduate. And, honestly, who it is not for.

Yes

The garage graduate: a working product, real sales, and a house that has stopped being big enough.
The not-yet-quit: a day job, a side business that ships, and two mornings a week to give it.
The two-person shop: one makes, one runs everything else, and “everything else” needs a desk with a door.
The small brand that needs a team room and four desks while it finds a warehouse.

Not yet, or not at all

A team of more than eight. The team room is the biggest door we have; we will tell you so on the tour.
A workshop. No prototyping, production or retail happens on the floor.
Someone looking for an investor network. We will describe that phase when it is real and not before.

04 · The model

Four streams. The doors pay the rent; desks, parking and the rooms by the hour pay the rest.

Desk rental is the on-ramp, not the product. The product is what happens to a member’s business because they were in the building. But the on-ramp has to pay the rent, so it comes first, and it is the only one we will let ourselves be judged on today.

01
Rooms with doors
Five private offices and one team room, let whole. The corner office and the team room by the month only; the other four by the month or the week. The floor came with them; a law firm leaves doors behind. Scarce, so they are priced at the market rather than under it, and they are the revenue the floor runs on.
Phase
Now
Of revenue
17%
02
Desks and the commons
Fourteen dedicated desks, eight along the west windows and six in the partitioned column, business accounts by the seat, and the commons by the kitchen for flex members, day passes and the hourly crowd. Cheaper than a door, and the way most people arrive.
Phase
Now
Of revenue
46%
03
The board room, parking, storage
The board room by the hour, by the evening and as a standing weekly day (22 at the table, 36 seated, a microphone at every seat, three cameras: the best thing on the floor after the doors), the commons for an event, surface and underground stalls, storage from a shelf to a 15 × 20 cage that replaces two self-storage units, a business address. The bigger doors include some of this; the rest is sold. Together the reason a product business chooses this floor over a cheaper desk downtown.
Phase
Now
Of revenue
37%
04
The programme, then introductions
Masterclasses are included with every plan and non-member seats sell at cost; the programme earns nothing directly. Brokered introductions to buyers, suppliers and lenders are not built and not priced. If either ever carries a fee it will be small, and disclosed on this page first.
Phase
Next · Later
Of revenue
0%

05 · The member journey

Nine steps from finding us to leaving us for a storefront.

Written from your side: what you feel at each step, what you need, and what the floor does. The full version has its own page.

01 · Before you visit
You find us
Curious, and a little suspicious of the word “community”.
02 · The email
You ask
Exposed. Nobody likes writing “I make hot sauce” to a stranger.
03 · Twenty minutes
You stand in it
Judged, or expecting to be.
04 · Day one, week one
Your first days
The new kid. Where is the kettle.
05 · Month one
You settle, or drift
Either at home, or quietly wondering.
06 · Month three
You give something back
Wanting to be useful, not only served.
07 · Month six
You need customers
The product is fine. The problem is the next order.
08 · Month twelve
You outgrow the desk
Proud, and worried about losing the room.
09 · After
You graduate
Like the garage was a long time ago.

The journey in full

06 · The programme

Three things a month. Included with every plan. Never recorded, always written up.

The programme is not a revenue stream and we do not measure it as one. We measure whether members renew, whether they bring someone, and whether the room is full. Season one: three masterclasses, fifty-three of fifty-four seats filled.

First Thursday, 8 am
Pastries & products
A bakery brings the pastries, you bring one thing you make. In the commons and the kitchen. No agenda, no name tags. Open to everyone.
Third Thursday, 6 pm
Masterclass
One hard skill, taught by someone who does it for a living. In the board room, 18 seats.
Fourth Wednesday, noon
Show & tell
Five members, five minutes, one topic, no slides. No pitching.

07 · The economics · illustrative

A month, at today’s prices and today’s occupancy.

These are not the accounts. They are the model, filled in with this month’s prices and roughly this month’s occupancy, so you can see the shape of the thing and where break-even sits. Every line is computed from the price list, not typed.

Revenue

Offices2 of 4 × $950	$1,900
Corner office1 of 1 × $1,250	$1,250
Window desks4 of 4 × $450	$1,800
Interior desks1 of 4 × $395	$395
Business-account seats4 × $375	$1,500
Flex members6 × $175	$1,050
Commons, unlimited2 × $295	$590
Day passes40 days × $35	$1,400
Desks by the day4 days × $45	$180
Board room, members12 hours × $75	$900
Board room, non-members6 hours × $135	$810
Board room evenings3 hours × $150	$450
Commons events6 hours × $95	$570
Surface parking, sold11 of 20 × $130	$1,430
Underground parking, sold8 of 15 × $195	$1,560
Storage shelves, sold5 of 10 × $45	$225
Storage closets, sold3 of 6 × $95	$285
Business addresses4 × $59	$236
Total	$16,531

Costs

Floor manager and front desk	$6,900
Janitorial: daily clean, washrooms, kitchen	$2,200
Electricity and heat, the floor and the heated underground	$1,800
Coffee, tea and kitchen supplies, complimentary	$1,100
Insurance, booking software, fobs and alarm	$800
Masterclasses: instructors, materials, pastries	$700
The commons: furniture, repairs, waste and recycling	$650
Internet: business fibre and a backup line	$450
Marketing and the small lines	$400
Rent for the floor (related-party lease, net)	$9,800
Total	$24,800
Left over	$-8,269

Two lines, so we name both. Running the floor (the staff, the cleaning, power and heat, coffee, internet, the commons) is $15,000 a month and has been covered since May. With the rent ($9,800) the whole cost line is $24,800; this month is $8,269 short of it, and the owner is paid nothing. The $30,000 month covers both and leaves $5,378, and the next section shows what has to be let to get there.

Three occupancies, same prices

Scenario	Doors	Desks	Commons	Revenue / month	Which means
Today	3 of 6	9 of 8	8 on 12 · busiest hour 29%	$16,531	rent covered, the wage bill $8,269 short, owner unpaid
The $30,000 month	4 of 6	12 of 8	31 on 12 · busiest hour 85%	$30,178	the phase-one trigger, two doors still empty; $5,378 over, a modest owner’s draw and the loan repaying
Full	6 of 6	14 of 8	36 on 12 · busiest hour 100%	$39,611	$14,811 over; the busiest hour fills every commons seat, the ceiling at today’s prices

Seats without a door sold: 85%, 225%, 265%. Costs stay at $24,800 in all three. The $31,000 shareholder loan repays at roughly $1,200 a month from the second scenario, so about two years.

08 · The $30,000 month · illustrative

The month the floor is built to reach, and what has to be let to reach it.

From today to $30,000 is $13,647 a month, and it does not need a full floor. Four of the six doors let by the month (the corner office and three of the four others; the team room stays empty) and the fourth office let by the week for three weeks of the month, 12 of the 8 desks with two of them shared morning and afternoon, and the commons sold the way a gym sells memberships: 31 members on 12 seats, because they are never all in at once. Add a standing board-room day and the non-member hours the only 20-seat room in the neighbourhood can sell, both underground storage rooms let as three cages, and the alumni on a business address. Every price in it is at or under the Edmonton median for what it is.

What is let in the $30,000 month

Offices3 of 4 × $950	$2,850
Offices by the week3 weeks × $325	$975
Corner office1 of 1 × $1,250	$1,250
Window desks5 of 4 × $450	$2,250
Interior desks1 of 4 × $395	$395
Business-account seats4 × $375	$1,500
Shared desks, each half4 × $250	$1,000
Flex members22 × $175	$3,850
Commons, unlimited9 × $295	$2,655
Day passes55 days × $35	$1,925
Desks by the day8 days × $45	$360
Board room, members16 hours × $75	$1,200
Board room, non-members10 hours × $135	$1,350
Board room evenings6 hours × $150	$900
Standing board-room day1 of 2 × $1,400	$1,400
Commons events9 hours × $95	$855
Surface parking, sold12 of 20 × $130	$1,560
Underground parking, sold10 of 15 × $195	$1,950
Storage shelves, sold7 of 10 × $45	$315
Storage closets, sold4 of 6 × $95	$380
Storage cages, 10 × 152 of 2 × $225	$450
Storage cage, 15 × 201 of 1 × $395	$395
Business addresses7 × $59	$413
Total	$30,178

Doors let

4 of 6

Dedicated desks let

12 of 8 · 14 people

Commons members

31 on 12 seats

Over today

$13,647

Left after every cost

$5,378

What is left pays the owner a modest draw, repays the shareholder loan at about $1,200 a month, and builds a reserve. The two empty doors, the last two desks, the empty stalls and a busier board room are the margin on top: at full, the floor makes $39,611.

How the floor sells more than it seats

More members than seats, on purpose.

A gym sells ten or twenty memberships for every spot on the floor, because a visit is an hour and most members come twice a week. A workday visit here is closer to five hours, so a seat in the commons turns over about twice a day, not ten times. The ratio that works for a coworking floor is nearer two or three memberships a seat, and the check is not how many people hold a membership but how many are in at the busiest hour of the busiest day.

Doors1 to 1: An office is yours, with a key, for the month or the week. Never by the day, never sold twice. The corner office and the team room by the month only.
Dedicated desks1 to 1: Your desk, your monitor, your drawer. Never double-booked.
Shared desks2 to 1: Half a desk, sold twice: mornings and afternoons, or three days and two. Each half has its own locked drawer.
The commons2.6 to 1: 31 flex and unlimited members and about 55 day passes a month on 12 seats. Flex buys eight days and uses about 6; unlimited averages 11. About 14 people come in on an average weekday and about 10 are in at once on the busiest hour of a Tuesday.

The line: when the busiest hour passes 11 of 12 seats for two weeks running, new flex memberships wait and the board room opens as overflow when it is free. At full the busiest hour is every seat (36 members, 100%), which is why full is the ceiling. These attendance figures are assumptions until a season of fob data replaces them.

Does every price pay its way?

$15,000 a month to run the floor, $395 a seat.

About half of every month goes on running the floor before the rent: the front desk, janitorial, power and heat, the coffee, the internet, keeping the commons fit to work in. Spread over the 38 seats on it, that is $395 a seat a month. Every price below has to bring in at least that per seat, or another member is paying for it.

Office$950 for two seats, a heated stall included	$475	pays its share
Office by the week$325 a week for two seats, every week of a month	$704	pays its share
Corner office$1,250 for two seats, month only	$625	pays its share
Team room$2,800 for eight seats, two stalls and a standing day included	$350	below its share
Dedicated desk, windowone seat, one person	$450	pays its share
Dedicated desk, interiorone seat, one person	$395	pays its share
Business-account seatone seat, one person, four or more	$375	below its share
Shared desktwo halves at $250	$500	pays its share
A commons seatflex, unlimited and day passes in the target month, over 12 seats	$703	pays its share

09 · What a lender would ask

The questions a sceptical partner asks next, answered here so nobody has to ask.

Who funded the first six months?: The owner, as a shareholder loan of about $31,000, covering the November-to-April shortfall. It is repaid from surplus after the first $30,000 month, not before.
What did the fit-out cost, and who owns it?: The floor came furnished by the building’s owner, down to the law firm’s offices, the partitioned desks and the board-room table with a microphone at every seat and three cameras. What we added is ours: the commons furniture, lockers, fibre and the lounge screens, about $34,000, depreciated over five years in the real accounts (not in the table above).
What is the lease?: Five years from November 2025 with the sister company that owns the building, $9,800 a month net (the floor pays its own power, heat and cleaning), one break at year three on six months’ notice. It is a related-party lease; the rent is set at the building’s own asking rate for the floor and reviewed against it annually. If the building were sold the lease survives the sale. The north-east room is sublet separately to a photographer and is not part of our floor.
What does the owner take?: Nothing yet. The two staff are paid market wages. The owner draws from the floor only after it has made $30,000 in a month three months running.
What does the market look like?: Thirteen Edmonton operators surveyed in October 2026 (median in brackets): day passes $25 to $54 ($44), full-time flex $159 to $395 ($295), dedicated desks $289 to $550 ($465), entry private offices $499 to $1,265 ($760), 10 to 12-seat boardrooms $49 to $79 an hour; the only other 20-seat room lists at $192. The nearest, Sparrow Cowork a block away in Westmount, is at the top: $54 a day, $480 a desk, offices from $820. We price everything without a door at or under the median ($35, $295, $395) and the offices at the market with a heated stall that no Edmonton coworking space includes. Nobody else has storage cages in the building.
Is it seasonal?: Doors let by month: Nov 1, Dec 1, Jan 2, Feb 2, Mar 2, Apr 3, May 3, Jun 3, Jul 3, Aug 3, Sep 3. Dedicated desks: Nov 2, Feb 5, Jun 8, Sep 9. February did not dip, which we attribute to the underground parking.
Who has left?: Three of fifteen businesses that have held a door or a desk since opening: two to storefronts, one to Calgary. No pay-as-you-go member has been asked to leave.
What do business accounts pay?: $375 a seat a month at four seats or more, dedicated desks as they come free, seat counts changed mid-month and prorated. It is on the prices page as well.

10 · The phases

Three phases, with the trigger for each written down.

Most places announce the last phase on day one. We would rather say what has to be true before we start the next one, and let you check.

Now
A floor that works
Six doors, fourteen desks, the commons, the board room, parking and storage, run properly. Judge us on this.
Done when: $30,000 of revenue a month for three consecutive months, with at least 4 of 6 doors let.
Live. $16,531 and 3 of 6 doors as of October.
Next
A programme worth showing up for
Season one ran three masterclasses to full rooms. Season two adds the real-estate and supply-chain sessions, publishes every write-up, and opens a handful of seats to non-members at cost.
Done when: a full season runs, attendance stays above 80% of seats, and members cite the programme as the reason they renew.
In progress. Season two opened 17 September.
Later
The introductions
Buyers, suppliers, lenders, and eventually investors, in the room, on purpose. Supplier night in May was the first test.
Starts when: phase two has run a full season and at least three members have asked for the same introduction.
Not started.

11 · What we will not do

Seven refusals.

01
We will not hide prices. The number on the page is the number on the invoice.
02
We will not auto-renew anyone into a longer term, or charge an activation fee.
03
We will not take equity, revenue share or a fee for a desk. What you build is yours.
04
We will not sell or share member data. The monthly note stays a plain email until the real name lands.
05
We will not record a masterclass. We will write every one up and publish it free.
06
We will not say “investor connections” until an investor has been in the room.
07
We will not expand to a second floor before this one has made its target for a year.

12 · Risks

What could go wrong, and what we would do.

The doors do not let

Three of six are let after eleven months. The $30,000 month needs 4 by the month, not all six, and one office by the week: one more office, and 3-1 needs its door fitted first. If the team room has not let by spring it becomes two offices, which the plan already prices.

Winter

Edmonton members leave downtown spaces in February. Underground parking and 24/7 fob access are the answer; the first winter, doors and desks went up, not down.

The commons is oversold

The target month sells 31 commons memberships on 12 seats, on the assumption that a flex member uses 6 of eight days and nobody stays all day. If the fob data says otherwise, the busiest hour fills first. The rule is written down: past 11 seats at the busiest hour for two weeks, new flex memberships wait and day passes get a cap before they get a price rise.

The board room stays a members’ room

A tenth of the target month is the board room sold: a standing day, non-member hours, evenings. The doors already take two half-days each and the team room a day a week, so the calendar has to be run properly or the paying hours vanish. The floor manager owns the calendar and a list of twenty associations and training firms from November.

Giving the extras away

A heated stall is $195 and a half-day is $300 at the member rate. They come with the doors on purpose, priced into the door, and with nothing else. The moment a desk comes with a stall, the parking line disappears; the prices page says exactly what each plan includes so nobody has to argue it at the front desk.

The programme runs out of teachers

Season one leaned on the brokerage’s network. Season two pays instructors properly and asks members who have done it to teach it.

The landlord is family

The building belongs to the sister company, which is why the lease is long and the rent is reviewed against the building’s own asking rate. If that relationship changed, you would read it here first.

13 · How we will know

The numbers we watch, updated on this page every month.