5 Questions with Toby Krout | Co-Founder at Scrib

Boulder 2140′s most recent professional lunch was hosted by Toby Krout, Co-CEO of Atomic20 & co-founder of Scribble, who challenged Boulder’s young professionals to wrap their minds arounds the topic of Coworking for the Creative Minds. After letting Krout’s perspectives on shared work spaces sink in, we went back for some follow-up questions.

How did the idea of Scribble come about? What convinced you that the idea of a shared coworking space would succeed?
Scrib was an idea that started with how we could give back to the Boulder creative and entrepreneurial community but it’s also motivated by, and complimentary to, our Atomic20 business model. At Atomic20 we extract talent from the Boulder ecosystem and bring that to our clients. Scrib gives us a way to help our talented partners, mostly freelancers, by providing them an inexpensive and dynamic downtown location. Nothing really convinced us that it would work. And, we are still learning how to make it the best space and culture possible. It was mostly instinct. We jumped in because we really do believe that you have to be willing to take a risk if you are going to play in the Boulder entrepreneurial ecosystem. You can’t just sit on the sidelines and take from it.

You mentioned Nikola Tesla in your dialogue with young professionals at the recent PD Lunch. How has Nikola Tesla served as an inspiration in building Scrib?
He hasn’t really inspired us at Scrib. I probably stretch the truth a bit when I compare Tesla with Alexander Bell and try to make the point that “marketing” can be the difference between bringing value to markets. Just because you are brilliant and innovative — such as Tesla — it doesn’t mean you will be able to bring value to markets — like Bell did.

What current Scrib guests are you really excited about to have around?
We have been blown away by the amazing and diverse talent at Scrib. This is not a hyperbole. We had no idea that the most rewarding aspect of Scrib would be the people. It has been unexpectedly rewarding to live and work with the members here. Again, I think we really got lucky here. We are excited about too many of them to list. Really, there are too many great ideas here to single any out.

You described the office shared space as being regularly chaotic and that it’s great. How is the chaos at Scrib related to the work productivity?
Chaos is the norm for us at Scrib. This is partly due to Jeff and I being in the middle of it all. It might be a slightly less chaotic experience for the membership. But, the chaos is addicting and if it ever stops I’m sure we will wonder what we are doing wrong. It’s a curious thing about co-working, that there is a real lack of idleness. I think it’s a really productive environment, especially compared to a corporate environment. A coworking space is made up largely of independent workers, so they are working for themselves, not someone else. It means that when they are at Scrib they are more focused and less likely to waste time. It’s something that should be studied more.

What are the next big plans for Scrib? Have you considered expanding to other cities?
We aren’t interested in expanding for the sake of expanding itself. Our purpose is to grow and cultivate new ideas and in doing so create and or accelerate organizations, companies and jobs. There are probably other ways we can do this without expanding.

What are your thoughts on coworking? Have you experienced work in a shared space model? Let us know in the comments!