Solo City Report by ModusOp

The new world of work is here, and we are not ready. A joint research project from the Knight Foundation & The Solo Project

Mission: Launch a national conversation about the role that government, universities, corporations, and the social sector can play to help individuals and communities make the transition from the traditional, employerbased economy to the emerging one in which individuals design their own work, create their own jobs, and take responsibility for their own financial and professional security.

THE NEW WORLD OF WORK IS HEREâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;AND WE ARE NOT RE ADY.

K N I G H T FO U N DATI O N ďż˝ T H E S O LO PROJ EC T

Contents 03 Executive Summary 06 Project Design 08 The Findings 50 The Event 56 The Solo Phenomenon 62 The Register

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Executive Summary

THE NEW WORLD OF WORK IS HERE— AND WE ARE NOT READY.

The usual preoccupations of business news persist— stock market, interest rates, unemployment, GDP. But hidden by them—despite being interwoven with them all—is what may be the biggest economic and civic story of our day: the end of the “job” as we know it, and the replacement of the job with, simply, “work”—work that individuals increasingly perform not as employees but as independents. Work that they have to

create for themselves to build sustainable professional and financial lives. They design this work as freelancers, indie professionals, creatives, contractors, and free agents—as soloists. You know them better than you think. You’re accustomed to seeing them in the arts and media (consider the Hollywood model of movie making), but in markets that place value on specialized skills, today they are everywhere.

They do your taxes, design your apps, create your new LLC, write the script for your favorite TV show. Some solo by choice. Some solo by necessity. You may be one of them. Or you may become one of them, soon. According to the best data, there are 53.7 million soloists already, a third of the U.S. work force. But economists project there will be more—amounting to as much as half the work-

force in just five years. (See “The Solo Movement.”) The marketplace has taken note—in the global buildout of coworking spaces, the creation of “open” talent markets for every imaginable type of non-traditional professional, the launch of proprietary talent exchanges by firms as different as PwC and Facebook, and the increasingly sophisticated back-office infrastructure offerings for independents. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

PHOTOGR APH BY SAMUEL ZELLER

Executive Summary

WHAT DO CITIES NEED TO KNOW? Five Top-Line Takeaways for Urban Leaders Meanwhile, urban policy makers, economic development professionals, foundation and university leaders seem oblivious to the profound changes taking place in the world of mainstream professional and creative work—changes that present historic opportunities for some cities and threaten a loss of critical creative and professional talent for others. To explore the role that urban leaders might play in making their cities a prime destination for the burgeoning population of indie talent, The Solo Project conducted a year-long sequence of qualitative research steps: interviews with thought leaders and solo practitioners; roundtables devoted to themes ranging from schooling to coworking; and a public event to gather feedback about emerging insights. The research was funded by a grant from the Knight Foundation. The solo economy—and the new world of work—is in its earliest stages. Still, two big-picture observations about the new economic environment are already too clear to miss, and set the scene for this report. First, despite its newness, the indie phenomenon’s impact is deeper than you think. Most households today are already encountering this new world of work. Many traditional jobholders are freelancing to suppleTHE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

ment income, or to test the idea of going solo full-time. Others are telecommuting, and liking the ability to conduct work more on their own terms. Almost everyone now knows people working in non-traditional ways—and that exposure alone is breeding both a changed sense of career-design possibility and a stronger critique of the traditional workplace status quo. And second, we are not ready, for any of this. “We” being the big, collective we— individuals, companies, government, and schools. Preparing a population for work in a provisional marketplace—where skills become obsolete as fast as products and individuals are responsible for their own financial security—is uncharted territory. Collecting taxes one soloist at a time, quarterly, rather than relying on ADP and Paychex to do it for you weekly, is an elected official’s nightmare. Companies are no longer competing just with each other for top talent, but with every individual’s ability to create better, more meaningful work for themselves than a company can. Those challenges are new, and proliferating, and haven’t been prepared for. So, we are not ready. But we’ll need to get ready, fast. Because the new world of work, early-stage or not, is already here.

Readers will discover their own “findings” throughout this report. They’ll be triggered by the Register entries on people who participated in the research, by the briefings about the solo phenomenon and the U.S. economic system’s antiquated data system, and of course by the “Findings” section, which isolates 25 dispatches for special attention. Here, though, are the five summary takeaways that should guide every urban leader’s thinking going forward: 1 “Place” Matters More, Not Less. Despite technology, mobility and the ever more-networked, virtualized business world, soloists need actual places as much or more than traditional jobholders do—for interactions that produce collaboration, learning, stimulation, social ballast, and billable business. They need places to convene and work, whether on their own or in small teams. They need neighborhoods that supply what organizations routinely supplied to traditional employees. Traditional employees get an office, a shop floor, a workplace campus. For soloists, it’s the neighborhood surrounding them that is the new corporate campus—the new “indie commons.” City hall, then, becomes for soloists the Chief Cultural Officer. 2 Connection Trumps Cohesion Connection, like place, grows in value as the workforce becomes increasingly disaggegated and distributed. Warning: creating connection is a messy process. City leaders will need to fight the impulse to try to guarantee outcomes with mechanistic, fully cohesive programs and instead support a hundred small-scale experiments, each designed to foster connection, friction, and ungoverned contact among players in the indie ecosystem. Make networks of networks, create learning communities of place makers and innovation hubs, cross-pollinate soloists and city hall, and soloists and business leaders, and soloists and education leaders. Enable knowledge transfer, relationship building, and deal making to happen organically. 3 Don’t Trust the Data. (We Need a New Typology of Work) Existing data about the new world of work is worse than useless; it’s dangerously misleading. Because the systems for collecting it were created in the middle of another century, back when a 40-hour-a-week job was the norm, it now can’t accurately track how independent work occurs, or how it creates economic value, or the crucial interdependencies between it and traditional corporations. The outdated statistical lenses can make it hard for the new world of work even to

The Findings

01. Grit. (And the 12 other personal qualities demanded by the new world of work.) 02. The “Hollywood Model” goes wide. 03. New worker, new workplace. 04. Write the indie FAQ. be seen. Hence: too much talk of Uber drivers; too little talk of increasingly indie attorneys, lawyers, software developers, and environmental engineers. Too little understanding of how individuals increasingly assemble portfolios of work, or how they move back-and-forth between traditional jobs and indie projects, or how they do both at once. Our data system needs more than a tweak. We need new definitions that reflect the infinite variety of work arrangements that exist and the speed with which individuals move in and out of those arrangements. We need a new, dynamic typology of work. 4 We Need to Prepare People to Create a Job, Not Find One A massive infrastructure (entire industries, in fact) exists to help people find jobs or help jobs find people, both online and off. Think CareerBuilder, Monster, LinkedIn, the executive recruiting industry, career-services departments at universities. A smaller but still highly evolved infrastructure exists to support mainstream entrepreneurs aiming to create jobs (plural) in high-growth companies. What doesn’t exist is a support infrastructure, body of knowledge, or education system designed to help individuals create one job—their own. Building a career as an independent requires a new cache of capabilities and attitudes (see Finding #1). We need to re-imagine every aspect of formal education, as well as less-formal skillsbuilding efforts, to prepare people for this post-industrial age. 5 Market Forces Won’t (Fully) Drive Us Where We Need to Go The infrastructures serving either the traditional jobs market or the entrepreneurial economy were built, in large part, because lots of organizations had financial incentives to build them. Wealth was being created, whether by entrepreneurs or enterprise-level corporations, and organizations as different as venture-capital firms and universities could grab a piece of this new money. Market forces drove innovation and supply. Creating comparable supports for independent talent is different. This time around, while the stakes for individual prosperity and security couldn’t be higher, with few exceptions there is no comparable financial motivation driving the private sector to respond. The wealth created by a population of distributed independents is comparatively small and disaggregated. Still, making a successful transition from a nation of “employees” to one of “independents” may be one of this country’s biggest challenges, and new business services, educational approaches, and public policies will be key—which begs the question, If the usual economic incentives won’t fuel the needed changes, who’s going to foot the bill?

05. “Up until a hundred years ago, there was no such thing as a ‘job.’” 06. Virtual organizations aren’t new. Reactions to them are. 07. “For the first time in human history, individuals can design a life around the pursuit of interesting work.” 08. The perfect commute is 10 minutes long. 09. Create a shaming platform. 10. For many soloists, the only coworking spaces that work are the ones they invent for themselves. 11. “Trust is not built digitally.” 12. What would an organization look like if it valued its freelance talent as much as its employees? 13. It’s important to feel like you matter. 14. Schools prepare us for a world that doesn’t exist anymore. 15. To compete for talent, “let the true voice of the city speak.” 16. Collaborators are the best counselors. 17. Needed: new forms of credit to finance the new world of work. 18. What soloists want. (A checklist.) 19. Create an association of placemakers. 20.

“I don’t look at candidates just for the job I’m trying to fill. I look at them as people I want long connections with.”

21. Raise the ‘bump rate.’ 22. Social media is useless. 23. Blend soloists and city hall. 24. “People value human space far above office space.” 25. It’s not money, it’s “risk capacity.” THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Project Design SOLO CITY PROJECT OVERVIEW Mission: Launch a national conversation about the role that government, universities, corporations, and the social sector can play to help individuals and communities make the transition from the traditional, employer-based economy to the emerging one in which individuals design their own work, create their own jobs, and take responsibility for their own financial and professional security.

2 ROUNDTABLES: EXPLORING EMERGING THEMES June–October

SESSIONS

Solo City 2015

INTERVIEWS: FRAMING THE INQUIRY January–September

@ THE SOLO PROJECT

× District Hall

THURSDAY, SEPT. 10, 2015

DISTRICT HALL, 75 NORTHERN AVENUE, BOSTON

The Solo Project partners conducted 55 one-on-one interviews with leading soloists, policy makers, educators, placemakers, entrepreneurs, investors, economists, and urbanists. (See The Register for a roster of interviewees.) Whenever possible interviews were conducted face-to-face; others were done over the phone or on Skype. Many interviews were recorded; for all others comprehensive notes were taken.

JANUARY

2015

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

FEBRUARY

Solo City is a research initiative aiming to kickstart a national conversation about the emergence of the solo movement—and about how cities can design and build the urban infrastructure that a world-class solo workforce requires. It is the first initiative in a partnership between The Solo Project and the Knight Foundation. STAGE 1 of Solo City is a program of 40 in-depth interviews followed by six “Sessions @ The Solo Project”—small roundtables with cutting edge technologists, business and education leaders, urbanists, policy makers, and master entrepreneurs and soloists.

As the interviews identified themes, The Solo Project began to organize “sessions” in order to explore a particular theme in greater depth. Each session was hosted by a leading organization in Boston, included between six and twelve participants— including a mix of “experts” and soloists—and was moderated by The Solo Project partners.

SOLO CITY 2015 / SESSIONS @ THE SOLO PROJECT A Big Solo Life The Project Economy Prepping Independents Innovation District No. 1 Places, Spaces, Networks The Virtual Neighborhood

@ WorkBar @ T3 Advisors @ Pearson @ District Hall @ WeWork @ MIT

Cambridge, Friday Seaport District Back Bay Seaport District Leather District Cambridge

June 19 July 1 July 15 July 31 August 3 tbd

STAGE 2 is the Solo City town hall event on September 10 — a first-of-its-kind convening of Boston’s leading soloists. We’ll swap ideas about how to create a sustainable indie life—and we’ll shape the solo city of the future.

Join us! Get your invite at TheSoloProject.com/solo-city-2015 STAGE 3 is the creation of a Solo City special report capturing the highlights of the research and the events. It will be co-published by The Solo Project and the Knight Foundation in the fall, and distributed in multiple channels (including directly to city, corporate, university, and philanthropic leaders throughout the U.S.) ABOUT THE KNIGHT FOUNDATION The Solo Project’s founding partner for Solo City 2015 is the Knight Foundation in Miami, Florida. Knight is renowned for its work driving and supporting journalism and media innovation, its programs fostering the arts on a local level, and its aggressive efforts to promote civic innovation that enables communities to succeed in a rapidly changing world.

MARCH

Innovation Districts Brookings defines innovation districts as “the ultimate mash up of entrepreneurs and educational institutions, start-ups and schools, mixed-use development and medical innovations, bike-sharing and bankable investments—all connected by transit, powered by clean energy, wired for digital technology, and fueled by caffeine.” What role do independent professionals and creatives—soloists—play in these shiny new urban neighborhoods?

APRIL

Millennials and the New World of Work host: Workbar, a pioneering coworking firm in Boston

MAY

The Talent Wars host: T3, an innovative realestate consulting firm

JUNE

3 PUBLIC TOWN HALL: INVITING FEEDBACK ON EARLY FINDINGS September 10, 2015

4 THE SOLO CITY REPORT: CAPTURING FINDINGS AND HIGHLIGHTS October–March

As stage 1 and 2 neared completion, we staged a half-day event at District Hall in Boston’s Innovation District for 120 of the city’s large solo population. Using a mix of real-time polling, guest mentors, and lightning-round table conversations, we explored the key opportunities and challenges of the independent life, and what cities can do to provide support for dynamic solo populations. The event was open to the public; also, selected organizations recruited soloists in order to ensure a group as representative as possible of the Boston community of indies.

Prepping for Independence host: Pearson, the world’s largest education publisher

JULY

I nnovation Districts host: District Hall, a public meeting place in Boston’s Innovation District

AUGUST

Produce Solo City 2016. The report is distributed to urban leaders.

The Making of Workplace 2.0 host: WeWork, a high-growth global coworking company

SEPTEMBER

Indies and the Inner City host: FutureBoston, a non-profit advocating for Boston’s inclusive creative economy

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

32016

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

We refer to the landscape of independent professionals and creatives as “The New World of Work.” — As we explained previously in the Executive Summary, the New World of Work is, well, new—so much so that thought leaders we know and respect had little to share. The phenomenon is new enough that a body of knowledge has yet to be developed by the experts. Instead, the overwhelming majority of ideas, insights, and questions in the pages that follow come either from soloists themselves or from people building out infrastructure for soloists: coworking founders and leaders; place makers; designers of back-office solutions for indies; network builders; talent brokers. — It’s a diverse group (get to know them in The Register). Listening to them—learning from them—constitutes an immersion in the New World of Work that is at once thrilling and bracing. An invitation and a dare. — What follows are 25 “dispatches” from that immersion. In some cases, they are coupled with First Moves—small, concrete actions that could create surprisingly powerful momentum toward changes that might initially seem too large and abstract to achieve. Taken together, these dispatches and first moves are less a set of “findings” than a series of provocations. They’re varied and wide-ranging, but they all point in the same direction: toward what’s next.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

The Prepared Soloist

(And the 12 other personal qualities THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

and aptitudes demanded by the new world of work.) THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

1. The Prepared Soloist

What it takes to be a soloist. Nearly every Solo City conversation—whether with thought leaders, solo practitioners, or urbanists—ultimately came round to this: What does it take to thrive as a soloist? What skills and characteristics do individuals most need in order to create their own jobs, career paths, and personal financial security? We began to make a list. Triggered by the list, two overarching observations emerged with surprising unanimity: First, that the most essential characteristic in today’s marketplace, and one that will only become more crucial in the future, is grit—the ability to endure setbacks, recognize and correct mistakes, and learn from failures. And second, that some sad combination of education design in our schools (“Now, class—our next standardized test…”) and parenting habits in our homes (Participation trophies all around!) virtually guarantees that future generations will be gritless. Grit, of course, is just a start. What other attitudes and capabilities will individuals need to possess in an economy that grows increasingly disaggregated, provisional, project-oriented, unpredictable, and netTHE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

worked instead of structured? Here’s the checklist that emerged from our inquiry: 1. Grit Resilience; the ability to endure setbacks and mistakes, to correct missteps quickly, to learn from failures 2. Tolerance for Ambiguity Ability to work hard for an uncertain outcome, and to make decisions in the midst of incomplete information 3. Creative Problem Solving Skills Ability to frame problems; to differentiate between critical, relevant info and “noise”; to identify ways to test potential solutions quickly 4. Collaboration Skills Capacity to work on projects with highly diverse team members 5. Network Savviness An intimate understanding of social networks, their ever increasing importance in getting things accomplished; ability to grow, use, and contribute to them 6. Self Awareness Fundamental understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses; ability to compensate for weaknesses

7. Business-Finance Literacy Understanding of value creation and the crucial issue of cash flow for independents and small teams; familiarity with personalfinance issues 8. Resourcefulness at Getting Help How to recognize when you need help; the ability to ask for it; how to identify trustworthy sources of advice and expertise 9. Sophisticated ability to Learn, Continually and Intentionally How to identify your learning needs, find ways to meet and integrate them into professional routines 10. Business-Development Skills How to identify opportunities; how to “market” self; how to build sales pipeline; how to close a deal 11. Adroitness at Personal “Branding” How to create visibility in marketplace; how to build reputation capital 12. Communications Skills How to explain, pitch, present, write, persuade 13. Design Awareness Understanding the role design plays in communicating the value of business ideas

First Move

••

Identify programs and organizations that intentionally cultivate “grit”— the military and Outward Bound come to mind. Are there techniques that could be adapted for application in public education and training?

2. The ‘Hollywood Model’ Goes Wide

“ What if we had no office?”

H E AT H E R S E E LY G I L E T

••

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FACES OF SOLO CITY

—Adrian Gill, founder of brand-building firm Ad Hoc Industries and former VP, Global Footwear, Puma AG, asking the question that prompted his abandonment of traditional corporate models. Gill’s Ad Hoc organizational recipe: soloist + small virtual team + loose confederation of specialized, highly talented contributors, all configured as needed according to temporary, project-specific requirements. “There’s an efficiency tradeoff,” says Gill, “but we can outprice, outcompete, and scale up a project faster” than conventionally organized firms. This “Hollywood Model” isn’t new. What’s new is its adoption by non-creative industries, its proliferation, and its desirability among networked soloists as the ideal organizational end-state.

First Move

••

Hybrid, virtual, “Hollywood Model” organizations make local economies more resilient and adaptive. Do they have unique needs? City or university researchers could convene leaders of such organizations to find out.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

The Coworking Wave

New worker, new work Maybe nothing depicts the expansion and professionalization of the independent workforce as powerfully as does the expansion and professionalization of the coworking industry. In 2007 there were 75 coworking spaces worldwide; in 2015 there were 7,800. In the past two years alone, the number of coworking enterprises has doubled, and membership in the average space has grown 30%. In an anonymous survey forecasting 2016 results, individual facility operators predicted that their membership would increase, their income would increase, and they would stage more events. Meanwhile, privately funded coworking giant WeWork has recognized a $16 billion valuation, and the industry’s growth has inspired what can seem like a thousand new business models in the office-space market. Liquidspace, Sharedesk, Pivotdesk, and Breather— to name just a few—had collectively raised $41.6 million in venture money as of July 2015. All of this despite the fact that the industry remains fragmented, and the hottest action may be opportunistic: 70% of operators run their coworking spaces part-time as a side job to their core careers. And there’s evidence that even as coworking continues to scale, the greatest growth in new spaces will be among the small, the specialized, the local, and the personal. (See Finding #10: DIY coworking.) The coworking phenomenon is still in its earliest days, but it has already raised questions by proving market needs for new kinds of workplaces: Exactly how are those needs evolving? How varied are they? What consequences does meeting them—or not meeting them—have for city economies as a whole? And what can cities do to help nurture the workplace evolution its talent force requires? THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

First Move

••

Create a taxonomy of workplaces, identifying their characteristics, who runs them, who uses them, and how they’re used.

Cocoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s flagship space is located on the historic trading floor of the former Minneapolis Grain Exchange.

place.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

Build an On-Ramp for Independents

Write the indie FAQ. As more and more individuals transition to an independent work life either by choice or necessity, the smartest cities will find ways to help them make that transition successfully. One of the simplest strategies: Demystify how indie life works. Write the indie FAQ for your city. Create a digital page that doubles as a repository of straightforward answers to simple questions and a resource guide to available help. Where are the city’s centers of indie activity? How do I comply with regulatory and tax laws while starting up? What roles do universities, foundations, and community groups play in the local indie ecosystem? Where can I find schedules for relevant events, classes, or workshops? And how can I find help and connections— to business advice, government guidance, networking opportunities, workspace options, professional development resources, activity calendars, and other people like me? Oh, and cities shouldn’t create these web pages themselves (or bury them in an impenetrable “.gov”). They should ask indies to build—and design—them. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

First Move

••

Assemble a roundtable of representatives from incubators, community econ-dev organizations, and coworking spaces. Whiteboard a question list. When it comes to operating in your city, what do indies need to know?

YVENS GERMAIN

••

FOU N DE R AT M I NOR I T Y BUS I N ESS EX P O, B OSTON, M ASSAC H US ET TS

FACES OF SOLO CITY

5. Wrong Questions

“ Up until a hundred years ago, there was no such thing as a ‘job.’ And yet there’s so much research on why someone leaves a job to start a company. What we should be researching is why anyone in her right mind would actually stay in a job in the first place. That’s the relevant question.” —Saras Sarasvathy, professor of entrepreneurship at Darden School of Business, University of Virginia THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

6. Indie Envy

VIRTUAL ORGANIZATIONS AREN’T NEW. REACTIONS TO THEM ARE. Marketing exec, entrepreneur, and thought leader Paige Arnof-Fenn launched Mavens & Moguls, a virtual marketing agency, 15 years ago. Reactions to her firm since then form a timeline of sorts, illustrating the coming of age of a new form of organization. 2001

“ When I launched Mavens & Moguls in 2001 my colleagues all said, ‘Oh, that’s one way to spend time before you go back and get another CMO position.’” One look at Arnof-Fenn’s bio explains the reaction. Stanford undergrad, Harvard Business School, high-level stints at brand powerhouses Coca-Cola and P&G, CMO at Zipcar, Launch Media, and Inc.com. Not the bio of someone whose next move was to launch a one-woman agency.

2005

2004-2005

“ People were nice but oh so patronizing. They’d often refer business to me, saying ‘Paige, here’s something that might interest you. It’s just too small for us.’ They simply didn’t believe a virtual agency could attract large clients. Then we signed Richard Branson, Merrill Lynch, and Colgate….”

2002-2003

“ Marketing friends and colleagues kept telling me I’d never be able to scale a virtual agency. Well, we had a solid first year, and then we quadrupled or tripled the size of our billings year after year for the next several years. This might not be hockey-stick growth, but it is scaling.”

2000

2001

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

2002

2003

2004

2005

“ This was when the phone started to ring, instead of me having to be pleasantly persistent all the time. It took me about this long for people to take our firm seriously. This was also around the time that people in very large agencies started to be threatened by us. People still are. They just don’t know what to make of us, we don’t fit into a box.”

2006

2007

NOW

Today every company is virtual to some extent. In fact, if an organization hires only full-timers you question its business judgment. And the virtual firm is changing the fundamental structure of the service industries, including legal, accounting, and consulting.

2009

“ After the meltdown in 2008, the tenure of high-level marketing execs hit an all-time low. Now, people who have left M&M for a top job in a high-profile company come back after a year or two, saying that top jobs come and go with amazing regularity, but M&M is still here. Friends who thought I was crazy in 2001 have had five jobs since then. You tell me who’s crazy.”

2008

“ Marketing fell off a cliff. We lost some very big, important accounts. But as the economy recovered, I think people began to really appreciate, in a way they never had before, the value of what we do. We bring together on a project the very best specialized talent for that client—not a bunch of people on staff that I have to keep busy. And, I have almost no overhead and can pass some of the savings to my clients.”

2008

2009

2010

First Move

••

It’s getting more difficult all the time to measure the value of a firm to a local economy. We know the limits of anecdotal information, but it’s time to respect its value in this arena. Policy makers need to immerse themselves in the market of independent professionals, creatives, and networked companies. At the very least you’ll begin to understand on an intuitive level the role these play in dynamic local ecosystems.

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

A Hunger for Good Work

“ For the first time in human history, individuals can design a life around the pursuit of interesting work.”

—Richard Saul Wurman, iconic soloist, originator of information architecture, founder of TED conferences, and creator of 80+ books. Wurman was leading the unconditional, unadulterated indie life before there was language to describe it. He may also be one of the first of another subspecies— the involuntary soloist. “I’ve worked on my own all my life because no one would hire me,” says Richard. Really? Wurman’s observation to the left summarizes what became a Solo City meme, worth recognizing for the role it plays in the economy at large as the most ambitious individuals increasingly choose to design their own work.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

An Emerging ‘Middle’ Place

“ The perfect commute is 10 minutes long.”

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT P H OTO G R A P H B Y O M A R YA S S E N

9. Fighting the Slow-Pay Practices of Corporate America

The Greater Boston-based coworking firm Workbar asked its members to specify, 1) the length of the actual commute to their main Workbar location, and 2) the length of a commute they would consider “ideal” (from zero minutes to any length desired). “Two things jumped out,” reports Workbar founder Bill Jacobson. “People are commuting a lot more than they’d choose to—no surprise. And if they got to choose, zero minutes wouldn’t be the pick. They want 10 minutes, sometimes ranging to 25. “People want a psychic separation [of work from home], and they want to feel like they belong somewhere. Your home does not give you the feeling that you’re a professional.” But the “somewhere,” for most people, wouldn’t be far. “Coworking, ideally, is largely a neighborhood phenomenon.” For Jacobson, as for most in the burgeoning coworking industry, this observation spells opportunity. But as indie professionals seek their new “middle place”—a professional “home” nowhere as far away as they used to travel, but not always inside their actual home, either— is there opportunity, too, for a partial repurposing of public spaces? Libraries, schools, universities, distributed government offices, even underutilized private commercial infrastructure…might any of these play some part in placemaking for the expanding independent work force? What are the implications as the new world of work redefines not only how work is done, but where?

BBBBB CREATE A SHAMING PLATFORM. In a 2014 survey by the Freelancers Union, 50% of independents reported they’d had trouble getting paid on time for contracted work over the prior 12 months. Of those, 34% reported they sometimes hadn’t gotten paid at all. Little surprise, then, that one loud refrain at the Solo City town hall event was the call for a “public shaming platform” that would “out” businesses that financially abuse indie contributors. “We need a Yelp to rate companies that use soloists.” In addition to placing abusers in virtual stocks on a digital public square, such a platform might include reports about what companies pay, their IP terms, and types of work offered. Or so goes the dream—since most indies recognize that a “dream” is what it is. Firms such as Glassdoor and Vault play the company-performance rating game, but it's hard to imagine that working in the indie space. Even for the Yelps and TripAdvisors of the world, it’s a challenge to publish credible and useful crowd-sourced reviews— and the reviewers on those platforms don’t confront the disincentives that an indie worker would feel about reporting frankly on a client (even a bad one). But what if we attacked the problem by focusing on its other end? Instead of shaming, what if we praised? Identify corporations that are exemplary employers of solo talent. Showcase their specific fair policies and practices, as well as, possibly, the talent-procurement advantages they achieved as a result. In other words, create publicly visible models, and celebrate them—in theory creating incentives for other organizations to learn from them and replicate their moves.

First Move

••

Start with libraries. They will never play the primary-office role that coworking spaces can, but what role could they play as dropin centers for an increasingly mobile, virtual work force? Convene a roundtable of library operators and soloists, and ask. Look for comparables.

First Move

••

Publish a magazine-like list of the “Best Companies to Work With.” Source it by surveying coworking space members. Name specific practices (the Net14 Pledge?) Among potential project leaders: a city agency, an advocacy group, a media organization, the coworking community.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

10.

The Findings

DIY Coworking

FOR MANY SOLOISTS, THE ONLY KINDS COWORKING SPACES THAT WORK ARE ONES THEY INVENT THEMSELVES. “ We’d all been working from home and from various coffee shops for years and were ready for a dedicated space,” says Kate Arends, co-founder of The COMN (short for The Collective Minneapolis), a DIY workspace in the city’s North Loop, pictured below. Opposite, the low-key entrance to HeadquartersDC, the DIY space.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

OF THE

Coworking has come a long way from its dowdy roots. Today’s edgy spaces routinely feature glass-front offices and vibrant community areas, including meeting rooms, lounges, game areas, coffee bars, kitchens, and craft-beer carts. Spaces are crafted to allow members— soloists, small start-up teams, big-company execs—to get work done and at the same time encourage interaction— a far cry from the soul-crushing hermetic “executive suites” of the ’80s. But for some soloists, all the lattes and lounges of the WeWorks still don’t add up to that place you just can’t wait to go to each morning. And so they’re doing what creatives do—they’re imagining and building their own personal coworking spaces. Think DIY coworking. The COMN (left) is the brainchild of six creatives in Minneapolis, including clothing designer Lisa Hackwith and millennial tastemaker and brand consultant Kate Arends. Meanwhile, in the

Eastern Market neighborhood of the nation’s capital there’s a small industrial building refashioned by entrepreneur Zach Lyman and his wife, filmmaker River Finlay. Lyman explains the impulse to build his own digs. “I had sold my alternative energy company,” says Lyman, “and my wife River and I were looking for office space. Even four short years ago there was nothing here in D.C. that was similar to the coworking options we had seen when working in Brooklyn and San Francisco. “We couldn’t find a place we couldn’t wait to get to in the morning. So we decided to make our own. We bought what had been a small industrial space in Eastern Market. The space was big enough to house several small teams, and an assortment of independents. From the beginning we wanted a diverse, collaborative, healthy ecosystem—not all creatives. We didn’t want a space that felt exclusive. “For me, my work group has also been my social group, so the relationships are crucial. During the winter of 2014, given all the snow, people were going stir crazy so they started bringing their kids into work. It was fabulous. We also feel that we’re part of the Eastern Market community here, which we hadn’t expected. So it’s not just a place to work.

“What’s really surprised us, though, is that now that we own this asset that’s already paying for itself, we’re starting to think about all the things we could do with it. We could create fellowships and cram interesting people into the corners. We could create a secret coffee shop that only people in the neighborhood know about. “When you have an asset like this,” Lyman says, “it can become a place that supports all sorts of small-scale experiments, the types of experiments that are an important source of innovation. “The coworking scene here in D.C. has changed dramatically in the past several years, like the rest of the country. But still institutional spaces aren’t for everyone,” says Zach. “You can be as lonely in a crowd as you can at home.”

First Moves

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3Create a manual, print and digital, guiding people through the process of creating their own space, one which could be customized based on local zoning and regulations. 3Create tax incentives for individuals to create DIY coworking spaces in neighborhoods where the city wants to stimulate entrepreneurship and the small-scale testing that leads to innovation.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

“Truis 26

11.

The Findings

digit THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

ust not built

The Underrated Virtues of Connecting Face-to-Face

—Bill Jacobson, founder of the coworking firm Workbar, speaking for the many who argued for the necessity of physical, not just virtual, interaction—a challenge for independent professionals operating outside the enforced personal interaction of the traditional corporate office. “You can think of what [Workbar] is doing as LinkedIn merged with the water cooler. I’m from a tech background, so I’m always looking at what we can do digitally to enhance the physical experience [of a work space]. But it has to start with face-to-face communication, because that’s the way trust is built.”

ally.” THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

12.

The Findings

The Emergence of the Hybrid Firm

What would an organization look like if it valued its freelance talent as much as its employees? Among the faultiest perceptions about the new world of work and the solo economy is the idea that it’s binary—that workers are either soloists or employees, and that work is done either by an organization of traditional job holders or by a virtual network of indies (or just by one indie at a time). The truth is more complicated. Many soloists are sometimes employees, too. Most firms are mixtures of both employees and independents, of W-2s and 1099s. But Solo City research turned up a string of firms attempting something more ambitious—more intentional—than the common and haphazard employeeindie blend. Perhaps the best example is Mechanica a Newburyport, MA branding agency. Mechanica has a core staff of 25 or so, but draws constantly on its network of 1000 collaborators, working with 30 to 40 of them on projects in any given month. The firm has devotedly built itself as an indie network and an employee organization. Call this organizational THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

model the “hybrid firm”—a business that’s as much network as company. The hybrid firm gets access on a project basis to specialized talent it could neither attract nor afford as core employees. And the networked collaborators get project work they either wouldn’t capture or couldn’t execute as individuals. But the model poses inevitable management challenges too. As Mechanica grew its hybrid functionality, it found that it needed to focus on three capabilities that such firms must get right: 3Project management techniques. There’s a higher premium on tight schedule and cost estimation 3Network coordination practices. How to sustain collaborator relationships even when not working together 3Trust-building operational policies. Example: “We pay them well, and we pay them immediately.” As Mechanica’s hybrid operation evolved, the company’s leaders encountered a happy surprise. Having begun with the assumption that client projects would be secured by core employees

and then shared with the solo collaborators who helped execute the work, Mechanica discovered over time that new business increasingly surfaced via the collaborator network itself, whose participants chose to share the work with Mechanica. Today, “a third to a half” of new revenue is generated by the network, says Mechanica CEO Ted Nelson. Mechanica’s network has become not only its talent source, but its sales force. It isn’t just the hybrid firms and their networks that benefit from this new model. The model serves cities well too—but in ways that cities don’t yet understand or appreciate. Hybrid firms, in traditional statistical terms, remain small. But they generate an outsized quantity of what a local economy’s citizens need, which is work— even though the work is not packaged as “jobs” of a sort that governments count. As the work force tilts harder toward independence, cities will need more hybrid firms, and the firms will need to be healthy. How can they be encouraged and supported?

The staff of Mechanica gathers on the roof of their Newburyport, Mass.-HQ, overlooking the Merrimac River.

First Move

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Identify a few hybrids, and calculate their work-creation impact. Reconsider economic development strategies accordingly.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

13.

The Findings

The Solo-Friendly City

It’s important to feel like you matter. A simple but effective way for mayors to communicate with the growing indie population: run a PSA campaign around town telling local creatives and professionals, (1) you know they’re out there, and (2) they matter, you know they contribute to the economic and cultural vitality of your city. Get a small group of creatives to create the campaign. Do not go the largest agency in town. This ad had a dramatic effect on indies in NYC, despite having been produced by the Freelancers’ Union and not the city. “The first time I saw this ad on the subway,” one NY writer told us, “I couldn’t believe it. Someone out there was talking to me.”

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

First Move

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Enlist some locals to organize a JR-like event. Produce large portraits of local soloists and pave a street with them, plaster the outside of an abandoned building, project them onto the façade of city hall at night. Include the solo occupation on each portrait: writer, carpenter, attorney, illustrator, maker, consultant, designer, photographer. You’ll be amazed at the reaction.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

14.

The Findings

The Education We Need Now

How to prepare kids for the new world of work: (Start with three small moves.)

At Artists for Humanity, teens createâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and sellâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;their art (above), and design eye-catching annual appeal letters (opposite).

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

“ We ought to be teaching everyone entrepreneurship, starting in the In three short decades we’ve 4th grade.” built out the world’s most Teach students how to create jobs, not find them.

elaborate infrastructure to support mainstream entrepreneurship. In fact, we’ve overbuilt it, way overbuilt it. In the higher-ed arena, we don’t need another businessplan competition, or one more course ostensibly designed to teach students how to build and manage a highgrowth firm. What we do need, in the words of Darden entrepreneurship prof Saras Sarasvathy, is to “teach students to go out into the community and, working with local under-resourced small businesses, imagine jobs that don’t exist yet.” Sarasvathy says she knows this can work, because she’s doing it.

It’s Sarasvathy again, this time weighing in on what entrepreneurship has in common with science. “It wasn’t possible to teach science to nonscientists until we had identified the scientific method,” explains Sarasvathy. “Well, entrepreneurship research has gotten to the point where we’ve begun to understand the entrepreneurial method, so we can teach it to anyone, starting when they’re very young.” Sarasvathy goes on to argue that it should be taught not merely as a way to start a business, but rather as a set of skills that allow people a different way to think about, and create, a life.

Identify local organizations that do prepare people for the new world of work. Those of us in the entrepreneurship arena have been fascinated by the link between the arts and entrepreneurship, especially as it relates to youth. But the thinking and the practice have been long on wishful thinking and short on results. A visit to the studios of Artists for Humanity (AFH), pictured at left, at 100 West Second Street, in the Southie neighborhood of Boston, offers up compelling evidence of what’s been missing from other programs. AFH uses mentors to work with

inner-city teens during outof-school periods to expose them to art and design. There are fine art and studio art programs, including graphic design, video and motion, photography, and 3D design. Lots of programs may offer something similar, but AFH pays students minimum wage for their studio time, and expects them to participate in selling and marketing their work to corporate clients. You can see samples of their work on Facebook but to appreciate the power of this program you have to visit the studios. It’s only by listening to the teens using the language of trade—trade as in building relationships through a value exchange— that you truly appreciate the power of marrying art and commerce in building selfconfidence and resilience, and demystifying the world of business.

( And one BIG one): THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

Make education more American, not less. Yong Zhao has an unusual take on the state of education globally. The University of Oregon prof, author, and globaleducation thought leader argues that all education systems squelch creativity. Luckily for us, the U.S. just hasn’t been very good at it. When it comes to enforcing bureaucratic norms of any kind, we’re half-hearted amateurs. The Chinese, on the other

hand, have mastered the art of squelching. Virtually from infancy, Chinese children are groomed to test well. As a result, the Chinese lead the world in student test scores. Meanwhile, we have to console ourselves with leading the world in the creativity that drives entrepreneurship and innovation. In his book World Class Learners: Educating

Creative and Entrepreneurial Students Zhao writes: “What the Chinese find valuable in American education is a decentralized, autonomous system that does not have [universal] standards, uses multiple criteria for judging the value of talent, and celebrates individual differences…just what the Americans have been as enthusiastically trying to get rid of.“

J OS H UA R E S N I KO F F

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FOU N DE R & OW N E R , C U PP OW SOM E RV I L L E , M A THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

15. Pitching Your City

To win, “let the true voice of the city speak.” To listen to urbanists these days, you’d think second- and third-tier cities across the country have a downright unfair competitive advantage attracting young independents and entrepreneurs. Listen to Bryan Boyer— urban strategist, entrepreneur, placemaker—on the subject. “Large cities—New York, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C.—have simply become too expensive for even successful independents and young entrepreneurs to carve out a modest and sustainable quality of life. “But this isn’t just about real-estate prices,“ Boyer explains. It’s about how a place feels, too—about what it’s like to lead an indie life there." So, lured by vacant industrial space, low cost of living, affordable urban housing, and participation in formal and informal networks that connect them to professional and cultural activity, young, ambitious, and adventurous creatives and professionals are loading up the van. Including inveterate Brooklynite Boyer. “My girlfriend and I leave for Detroit in June. We bought a townhouse designed by Mies van der Rohe for one-quarter of the price of a bare bones condo here in Brooklyn.” And yet, even the most dynamic small urban areas have no idea how to communicate all this to outsiders. “If you want to attract young independents,” explains Boyer, “you have to let the true voice of the city speak. Let the photographers, artists, musicians, makers, writers, designers, filmmakers represent the city. Any ‘official’ program is going to ring hollow. If you send them to the Chamber, or to a site created by the city, it’s just another marketing campaign that’s going to fall completely flat. But if a city can enable popular authentic production, that works.”

First Move

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Do some simple reporting to find out who is already speaking for your city. (Who’s blogging about it, making videos, creating location-themed art?) Then convene them, and ask how the city can help their work spread.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

FACES OF SOLO CITY

The Findings

16.

Collaborators Are the Best Counselors

WHERE INDIES TURN FOR ADVICE

How many lawyers does it take to advise a soloist? Zero.

Poll: “Among the people you rely on for work-related advice, whom do you rely on most?”

37%

A collaborator who is not a partner but whom I’ve worked with

27% My spouse/ partner

12% A friend

A business partner

Someone else

My coach

My lawyer

My accountant

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

17. The Money Problem

Not a surprise result. (Well, maybe a little. Doesn’t anyone have that consiglieri of an attorney we love in the movies?) What was a surprise, reflected both in Solo City interviews and in the Town Hall Poll, was who indie workers ranked first as their most relied-upon advisor—not a business or personal partner, but “a professional collaborator I’ve worked with who isn’t a partner.” Research question prompted: How can communities make it easier for would-be collaborators to find each other and form such “loose-tight” relationships? Which kinds of networks, spaces, programs, and organized experiences are helping, and which kinds are not?

Needed: new forms of credit to finance the new world of work. During Solo City research interviews, we heard a story: Seems a writer we know wanted to build a little studio for himself. He got the designs, the permits, the contractors. Then one day as the work is about to start he heads down to the local lumberyard to open a $5000 line of credit so the trades can pick up materials. Reviewing his credit application, a clerk in the office asks, “Who’s your employer?” “My employer? I don’t have one,” he replies. “I’m a writer. Last couple years I’ve worked for myself—so, no employer. But I do have a couple million dollars in the bank. Does that help?” The clerk just keeps looking at the application. “Your wife,” the clerk says finally. “She works in the office at the high school, right? Why don’t you bring her down here and we can get the paperwork taken care of in no time.” Which he did, and which they did. But isn’t it time—the writer asked us—that creditworthiness rested on something more nuanced than just a W-2? Well, yes. But in mainstream banking and commerce, especially in the housing market, proof of assets doesn’t trump proof of income, and 1099 income is still considered “funny money” compared to “reliable” W2 wages. Will the credit industry change as undervalued and underserved portions of the indie market swell and start to look more and more like an opportunity?

First Move

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For the legal and accounting industries, this is not bad news—this is opportunity. The solo talent force is growing as a market.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT P H OTO G R A P H BY FA B I A N B L A N K

18.

The Findings

The Evolving Solo HQ

What soloists want. (A checklist.) For all the rising complaints about life as an employee, organizations do a lot for their workers. No, really, a lot. Soloists learn this fast after leaving corporate life, quickly coming to miss both the obvious (benefits; tax and regulatory compliance; IT support; vacation days) and less obvious (social engagement; a routine; psychic ballast; an anchoring place simply “to go to”). All soloists fantasize about how to solve this. All soloists have a list of supports and services they’d love to have ready at hand, in a place where they’d love showing up. But one soloist we interviewed had not just a list, but “The List.” We’re sharing it, just as it stands. Think of it not as a literal design brief for an actual place (even the listmaker knows that’s not feasible), but as one window onto what soloists need—and a set of clues about what cities might help provide.

P “Work desks (unassigned OK)” P “Yoga” P “ Editor-communications guru

(“Is my message getting across?”)”

P “ Membership fee subsidized

by city (from job-creation funds typically used to attract/ subsidize large employers)”

P “Accountants for advice” P “Lawyers for advice” P “ Personal financial advisors for, um, advice”

P “Tech support & app maven” P “ Tech equipment for occasional use (print, scan, copy)”

P “ Hungarian food (OK, any food that’s good, fun, and cheap)” P “ Warmth, defined any way you want”

First Move

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Organize a one-day Solo Center popup. Enlist whatever local employers (big users of contractors, freelancers, consultants), universities, public agencies, and non-profit groups are eager, and temporarily operationalize “The List.” Publicize the crap out of it. See what you learn about what soloists value most, and how your city could improve its supply.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

P “ Website design-construction support bureau (soloists could pool resources for this)”

P “ A skills-building and general-

intel curriculum, by members for members, with outside pros dropping in”

P “ Social space, possibly around the bottomless coffee urn”

P “ A member online network, ‘What I’m up to…’”

P “Wellness center” P “Meeting rooms” P “ Mailboxes, complete with attending logistics pro”

P “ Office supply kiosk

(I’m not saying it’s free!)”

P “ Programmed access to business coaches, life coaches, and mentors”

P “ Project-economy matchmakers— headhunters, agents, recruiters seeking help for big companies that soloists could provide (think of a sophisticated temp agency)”

P “ A ‘job bank’ where employers could post “sustainably paid” gigs (a girl can dream)”

P “ A collections agent” P “ An insurance agent” P “ A biz-dev team that could

generate leads (not close deals) for small teams and would get paid commissions”

P “ Put it on a corner, on a busy

street beside good public transport; corners are good”

P “ Parties, but only occasionally

(I’m pretty good at organizing my own)”

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT PHOTOGR APH BY JESSE ORRICO

19.

The Findings

Nurturing the Indie Habitat

CREATE AN ASSOCIATION OF PLACEMAKERS.

The lesson about the workplace needs of the rising independent population: More is better, diverse is best. To support a rich solo talent pool, cities will need to be home to many kinds of spaces: coworking spaces, mobile dropin centers, office-on-demand venues, incubator locations. The build-out of the biggest of these spaces will increasingly take care of itself as national and international players chase the growing demand for coworking. At the same time, large companies will increasingly offer cool experimental spaces (Google’s London space for small tech startup teams; Wix’s New York coworking space, free to their users; and Levi’s pop-up Commuter Workspaces in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and London.) But it’s the small, extremely neighborhood-based, often highly personalized coworking experiments that may prove most nourishing of a robust indie economy (see DIY coworking, Finding #10). Can they flourish as the footprint of the big players grows? (Think of what Starbucks did to independent coffee shops.) How cities can help: Instigate an association of placemakers that convenes indie operators and evolves into a learning community sharing smart practices, sustainable business models, and strategies for brand differentiation. A simple wiki could document ideas. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

First Move

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Identify a handful of indie coworking operators. Invite them to a roundtable. Ask what they wish they could learn from each other. Second move: build an ever-evolving database of all the independent coworking spaces that can be found.

20. The New ‘Career’

“ I don’t look at candidates just for the job I’m trying to fill. I look at them as people I want long connections with.” First Move

R I CA E LYS E E

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FOU N DE R & OW N E R , B EAU T Y L I N K B OSTON, M A

FACES OF SOLO CITY

—David Fernandez, senior recruiter for the Boston inbound marketing juggernaut HubSpot, in acknowledgement that the line between organizational employment and independent work has now officially become permeable. Even the most desirable recruits refuse to stay “employed.” Neither do they stay solo. They do both—sequentially. So recruits aren’t “recruits” anymore; they’re persons of interest. Not interested in taking a job now? Later, they might be. Oh, and maybe they’ll do some valuable freelancing for you in the meantime. Recruiters know it’s now the long game that matters.

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Fix current policies that make it hard for individuals to slide back-and-forth between traditional employment and soloing. Employers: reevaluate recruiting practices to learn whether long-term relationships are being sacrificed to short-term needs.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

21.

The Findings

Innovation and (Intentional) Serendipity

Bump and connect. “So, little story, this was before Workbar,” says Bill Jacobson, who founded Workbar, one of Greater Boston’s earliest and bestknown coworking companies, in 2009. “It was the ‘90s and I was doing a tech startup, internet-based, and what made that company take off was a game of Frisbee in Kendall Square. I was playing with some friends, open space but lots of people around, crowds coming and going, and a toss got away and the Frisbee hit somebody—shit!—and it turned out that the somebody we hit worked for Ziff Davis. And suddenly there I was having a chance meeting in the middle of Kendall Square and

next thing you know Ziff Davis becomes a client—our major client, really. “And my company from that moment on took a very different trajectory. It took off. All because of a serendipitous interaction (and, OK, a shortage of Frisbee talent). “Point is, later when I started Workbar it was around the idea of taking the chance out of those trajectory-changing accidents. Networking is something everybody does, but it’s a four-letter word, or should be—I don’t know how many letters are in it. You always want to do more of it, but it’s work. So the concept here was, ‘Hey, can you make some of those chance Frisbee meetings happen just by go-

ing about your everyday business?’…That, at core, is what we wanna provide internally at Workbar. “And as we studied how to do it, we came across the work of Bob Krim.” In 2006, Robert Krim conducted a seminal research study of Boston’s innovation history, identifying key forces and drivers behind the region’s successes. What emerged is now renowned as Krim’s “bump and connect” theory, with its attendant metric, the “bump rate.” “The Bump Rate,” writes Krim, “describes the potential for people to meet, often serendipitously, due to their proximity. It has been identified as a factor affect-

ing innovations in the areas of idea sharing (abolitionists, Suffragettes), service trading (during the lucrative salt cod trade, where merchants, sailors and farmers all traded services), and the [emergence of] innovation communities, as seen in the decision Novartis made…to move their international research labs and headquarters to Central Square in Cambridge (vs. Burlington, Mass., San Diego, or several other places they looked at) so that their researchers would be able to grab a cup of coffee with colleagues, teach at Harvard Medical School or MIT, or come over to the lab to talk… The success of innovations is dependent on [this kind of] local network, a network which often crosses silos. As Harvard Provost Stephen Hyman said about Boston’s successful networks, ‘Oh, it’s the Bump Rate.’”

First Move

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The main floor at Workbar’s Cambridge, Mass. outpost

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Increase the bump rate. Connect everything, especially across silos. Foster places, events, and directories that enable social friction and raise the general awareness of each other by varied constituents.

B I L L JAC O B S O N

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C OFOU N DE R & C EO, WOR K BA R B OSTON

FACES OF SOLO CITY

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Findings

22. Where Indie Work Comes From

Social media is useless. WHAT’S YOUR SINGLE MOST VALUABLE SOURCE OF NEW BUSINESS?

88%

CLIENT REFERRALS & PERSONAL NETWORK

FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM, BLOGS, ETC…

Sure, without technology independent professional life could not exist as we know it—but that doesn’t mean technology breeds business. Most indies (66%) do some marketing online. But only 4% of indies say those platforms are their best source of business. Fully 88% say their best source is either people they’ve worked with (44%) or people they know (44%). Upshot: Prioritize personal marketplaces over digital ones. Cities (not to mention soloists themselves) need to foster exposure, mutual awareness, and contact among independents. No one should confuse a digital presence for an effective business-development plan. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

I’M NOT SURE

COLD CALLING

First Move

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How, when, and where do indies want to connect? Ask them. Conduct a survey.

23. Help Leaders See Indie Life From Inside

Blend soloists and city hall. Independent workers and government officials don’t understand each other—so throw them together. Distribute city hall employees to work part of their time from coworking and shared workspaces, side-by-side with soloists and small startup teams. Embed soloists on key city hall committees investigating public policy reforms or undertaking leadership transitions. Expose government workers first-hand to the diversity and vitality of the indie talent force—and to its challenges—and expose indies to the levers and challenges of civic change-making. (Beneficial byproduct: creative energy that’s not always available inside the four walls of city government. More fun for all.)

First Move

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E R I N G I F FO R D

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M A R K ET I NG DI R ECTOR , C OV E WAS H I NGTON, D C

FACES OF SOLO CITY

Pilot one small government team in one location. Gather city-employee volunteers (don’t worry, hands will go up) and ask coworking enterprises to host them. In three months, take stock of what’s been learned. Second move: establish a distributed network of city hall bureaus in key solo neighborhoods.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

24.

The Findings

The Strength of Weak Ties

“ PEOPLE VALUE HUMAN SPACE FAR ABOVE OFFICE SPACE.” —Jacob Sayles, cofounder of the Seattle coworking space Office Nomads, summarizing a national survey of coworking members produced for the 2015 Global Coworking Unconference Conference. Sayles adds: “Three key attributes of coworking space membership are consistently cited as being valuable by members: 1) A work environment that expands their networks, leading to greater professional success; 2) A social environment that improves their life; 3) A workplace where they’re engaged, motivated, learning and growing.” All of which is quantitative support for an idea that coworking insiders have long understood anecdotally: a space’s reclaimed-wood feature walls and beer taps are nice, but it’s the peopleconvening power that matters. Coworking, it turns out, is a growing argument for the “strength of weak ties”—so labeled by pioneering Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter way back in 1973. Strong ties— close, frequent, long-term contacts—have unquestioned value. But weak ties—infrequent, casual contacts—link us to knowledge, connections, and opportunities we would have been less likely to find for ourselves. “Strong ties are unlikely to be bridges between networks, while weak ties are good bridges,” writes MIT economist Andrew McAfee, a top thinker on tech-driven change. “Bridges help solve problems, gather information, and import unfamiliar ideas. They help get work done quicker and better. The ideal network for a knowledge worker probably consists of a core of strong ties and a large periphery of weak ones.”

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

First Move

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Do a census of places and ways that casual physical interaction is fostered. Ask whether there are ways the city can help. Social friction matters.

Coworking isn’t always easy. This striking Philadelphia space was 3rd Ward’s second, after Brooklyn. But they overextended and shut down both sites. ImpactHub took over the space, couldn’t make it work and bailed, leaving it to makerspace NextFab.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

25.

The Findings

What Indies Want

Cities, and a soloist’s capacity for risk. You’ve read elsewhere that Brian Boyer is decamping from Brooklyn to Detroit. (From rowhouse to van der Rohe house, to be exact—Finding #15.) He’s not unique. By resettling in Detroit, he’s adding to a tide of soloists flowing to second- and third-tier cities that not so long ago would have struggled to qualify as the magnets they’re becoming: Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Chattanooga. At first blush, this trend looks like a simple case of following the money—from where you need more of it to where you need less of it. But Boyer reminded us that for soloists especially, even following the money is really about something bigger. It’s about “increasing your capacity for risk.” Boyer is a Renaissance soloist—an urban strategist, entrepreneur, designer, writer. No surprise, his decision about where to live involved a lot of variables—not just the reductive question of “where can THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

I find a job.” Soloists, he said, “are optimizing on a whole set of concerns, not just one—it’s quality of life, where work is, where loved ones are. “This is never just about real-estate prices,” Boyer explained. It’s about what those lower prices get you, if you’re a soloist. Including: More Freedom to Experiment and Discriminate. “A different cost profile means different career risks are possible,” Boyer explained. A comparatively low monthly nut enables individuals to explore work that might produce less— or less steady—income, or to turn down unappealing work. Career switching is more possible. Professional experiments of every kind are more sustainable. More Resilience. When sinking roots requires a less onerous investment, there’s a lower cost to failure—an easier path to making corrections. “Something would really have to go wrong

[in Detroit],” says Boyer, “for us not to be able to pick up and relocate in a couple years.” Less potential damage from failure equals more personal resilience. Less Wasted Life. “When you’re an independent, everything you do is zero sum—every extra 15 minutes on the subway is 15 minutes not spent doing your work, learning a new skill, or finding new business.” That’s not true for people who work office jobs, Boyer points out; for them, all the costs of non-productive inconvenience are borne by their employer, who pays them regardless. For soloists, it counts big when a city is affordable enough that you aren’t forced into a long commute or frustrating daily logistics. So, off Boyer goes to Detroit. Reminding soloists what it looks like to create an enlarged capacity for risk, and reminding cities how they can compete by providing it.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT P H O T O G R A P H B Y E U TA H M I Z U S H I M A

Solo City 2015: The Main Event

The Event 09/10/15 SEPT. 10, DISTRICT HALL, THE INNOVATION DISTRICT, BOSTON

The Solo Project convenes 120 soloists to explore the new world of work. The town hall gathering was stage three of the Solo City research initiative—a collaboration of The Solo Project and the Knight Foundation to kickstart a national conversation about the emerging solo movement and the opportunity for cities to reignite growth by positioning themselves as premier destinations for indie professionals. What can cities do to attract and support soloists? What do soloists need done? The event attracted an SRO crowd of Boston’s top independent professionals and creatives, including teams gathered by table hosts such as Workbar; Fort Point Arts Community; Mind & Hand Associates; the Commonwealth’s Office of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Technology; Future Boston Alliance; and Commonwealth Kitchen. There were filmmakers and photographers, new product developers and branders, attorneys and accountants, talent wranglers and chefs—and a voice actor.

“ WHAT DO I WANT? 1) A MENTOR. 2) A GUIDE. 3) A WORK THERAPIST. 4) A CONNECTOR.” THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Solo City 2015: The Event

THE SOLO CITY SURVEY The event featured lightninground table discussions prompted by real-time polling results, which follow. Which of the following best describes you now? I’VE WORKED ONLY AS AN INDEPENDENT IN MY PROFESSIONAL LIFE. . . . . . . . . . 8% I WAS AN EMPLOYEE, THEN STARTED TO WORK INDEPENDENTLY.46% I AM AN EMPLOYEE, BUT WORK INDEPENDENTLY ON THE SIDE. . . . . 9% I AM AN EMPLOYEE, BUT WANT TO CREATE AN INDIE WORK LIFE. . . . . . 14%

“ What if community development were viewed as being as important as economic development?”

I MOVE BETWEEN BEING AN EMPLOYEE AND AN INDEPENDENT. . . 19% I’M INDEPENDENT NOW BUT WOULD PREFER A FULLTIME JOB . . . . . . . . 3%

Which of the following do you hope will best describe you in a few years? I’M A FULL-TIME SOLOIST, AND KILLING IT . . . . . . 73% I MOVE HAPPILY BETWEEN BEING AN EMPLOYEE AND AN INDEPENDENT. . . 10% I’M A FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE, WITH INDIE WORK ON THE SIDE . . . . . . . . 6% I’M A PART-TIME EMPLOYEE, WITH INDIE WORK ON THE SIDE . . . . . . . . 6% I’M A FULL-TIME EMPLOYEE, ADMIRING INDIE LIFE FROM AFAR. . . . . . . . . . . . 4%

Which of these best describes why you work independently? I HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER MY TIME. . . . . . . . 24%

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

“THINGS ARE CHANGING TOO RAPIDLY. WE HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO LEARN, NOT LEARN A SPECIFIC SKILL.”

I’VE CREATED THE OPPORTUNITY TO DO MORE INTERESTING, FULFILLING WORK . . 31% I GET TO WORK WITH PEOPLE I RESPECT. . . . . . . 12% I GET TO WORK WHERE I WANT . . . 17% I JUST GOT TIRED OF WORKING FOR BAD BOSSES. . . . . . . . . 11% I LOST MY JOB. . . . 2% FRANKLY, I DON’T PLAY THAT WELL WITH OTHERS... . . 3%

When it comes to your solo business, what is the biggest source of anxiety? MY NEXT PROJECT AND PAYCHECK. . . . . . 36% HAVING TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE WORK. . . . 38% GETTING PAID ON TIME. . . . . . . . . 4% SELLING MYSELF FOR FUTURE WORK. . . . . . . . . . 19% NEGOTIATING ON OWN BEHALF . . . . .4%

Which statement best describes how you choose your jobs, projects or clients? I HAVE A SYSTEM FOR EVALUATING OPPORTUNITIES. I’M HIGHLY “INTENTIONAL” ABOUT IT. . . . . . . . 8% I DON’T HAVE A SYSTEM, BUT I WEIGH FACTORS AND I’M PICKY. . . 67% REALLY, I’M NOT THAT PICKY (I TAKE MOST OF WHAT COMES MY WAY). . . . . . . . 23% WAIT, PEOPLE “CHOOSE?”. . . . . . . 1%

What is your single most valuable source of new business? REFERRALS FROM PRIOR OR EXISTING CLIENTS. . . . . . . . 44%

“ Scope creep is everywhere. Clients want more work for less money, and work standards are lowering—client pressures don’t allow for great work, only ‘good enough.’”

CONNECTIONS FROM MY NETWORK (APART FROM PRIOR OR EXISTING CLIENTS) . . . . . . . . . . 43% POPULAR MARKETING PLATFORMS (SEE NEXT QUESTION) ..............4%

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Solo City 2015: The Event

REALLY, TO BE HONEST, I’M NOT SURE........................9%

Which of the following platforms do you rely on most for marketing? PERSONAL WEBSITE. . . . . . . . 32% BLOG . . . . . . . . . . . . 1% FACEBOOK . . . . . 13% PINTEREST. . . . . . . 0% LINKEDIN. . . . . . . . 9% INSTAGRAM. . . . . . 5% YOUTUBE. . . . . . . . 6% TWITTER. . . . . . . . . 6% NONE OF THE ABOVE . . . . . . . . . 34%

Which most accurately describes how you price your work? I CHARGE A PREMIUM. . . . . . . 23% PRICE IS DRIVEN BY INDUSTRY NORMS. . . . . . . . . 48% I MUST UNDERPRICE TO WIN WORK. . . . 7% I’M A POOR NEGOTIATOR SO I OFTEN DISCOUNT. . . . . . 10% WHO KNOWS, IT’S A TOTAL GUESS . . . . . . . . . 12%

Which of these best describes your personal network? OH IT’S HUGE, BABY. AND EFFECTIVE. COULDN’T ASK FOR BETTER FROM IT. . . . . . . . 12% IT’S PLENTY BIG (JUST CHECK MY STATS), BUT I’M NOT SURE I LEVERAGE IT WELL. . . . . . . . . 39% IT’S NOT THAT BIG, BUT I’M HAPPY WITH HOW IT WORKS FOR ME. . . . . . . . . 24%

“ The challenge is, How do I balance doing the ‘work’ with the biz dev efforts required to getting the work?”

FORGET SIZE— I DON’T TAP MY NETWORK WELL AT ALL. . . . . . . . . . 21% SOME NIGHTS, I DREAM OF HAVING A NETWORK. . . . . . 4%

Who are the people you rely on for work-related advice? MY SPOUSE/ PARTNER . . . . . . . 27%

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

“ THE OBVIOUS TROUBLE WITH THE REGULATORY STRUCTURE IS THAT IT’S CURRENTLY BUILT AROUND CORPORATIONS, NOT INDEPENDENT WORKERS.”

A BUSINESS PARTNER . . . . . . . . 9% A PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATOR WHO’S NOT A PARTNER BUT WHOM I’VE WORKED WITH. . . . . . . . . . . 37% MY LAWYER. . . . . . 0% MY ACCOUNTANT. . . . 0% MY COACH . . . . . . 5% A FRIEND . . . . . . . 12% SOMEONE ELSE. . . . . . . . . . . . 9%

How has working independently impacted you financially?

“It’s hard for changemakers in government to pass judgement or effect progress if they don’t live in the experience they’re pushing to change. Get more people from government in our environment.”

DONE ABOUT THE SAME AS IF I HAD PURSUED A MORE TRADITIONAL CAREER PATH . . . . 6% HAD TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT FINANCIAL TRADEOFFS. . . . . 48% DONE BETTER THAN IF I HAD PURSUED A MORE TRADITIONAL CAREER PATH. . . . . . . . . . . 23% IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW ONE WAY OR THE OTHER . . . . . 23%

How old were you when you started working on your own? 20-29 . . . . . . . . . . 43% 30-39. . . . . . . . . . 32% 40-49. . . . . . . . . . . 2% 50+. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0%

Based on your experiences, what do you think is the ideal age at which to start working independently? 20-29 . . . . . . . . . . 43% 30-39. . . . . . . . . . 55% 40-49. . . . . . . . . . . 2% 50+. . . . . . . . . . . . . 0%

How much vacation time do you typically create for yourself? LESS THAN TWO WEEKS . . . . . . . . . 46% TWO TO FOUR WEEKS . . . . . . . . . 32% MORE THAN FOUR WEEKS, LESS THAN TWO MONTHS . . . . . . . 14% TWO MONTHS OR MORE. . . . . . . . 8%

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Solo Phenomenon

Here Comes Everybody A BRIEFING ON THE SOLO PHENOMENON AND THE NEW WORLD OF WORK The U.S. economy is in the first stages of the biggest change in a century in how daily business gets done, as men and women forgo traditional jobs to work independently—as freelancers, indie professionals, creatives, free agents. As what we can call, in aggregate, soloists. The gap between a world of “jobs” and a world of “work”—work that individuals increasingly have to create for themselves as soloists in order to build sustainable professional and financial lives—is what triggered this Solo City inquiry by The Solo

Project and the Knight Foundation. This article is an introduction to the solo phenomenon and emerging indie worker population, focusing separately on the evidence about it, the economic history that creates its context, and the economic and cultural forces that are driving its expansion. DATA & EVIDENCE Today, there are 53.7 million people working independently. Or there are 23.7 million. Or, 7.5 million. Or, wait, hold on sec, make that 60.6 million.

As macro-economic data collectors attest, the numbers that should help us understand the solo phenomenon are a mess. (Need more proof? Note that those last two tallies—7.5 million and 60.6 million—come from the same source: the government General Accounting Office, which, to its credit, transparently does some throwing up of its hands.) But if we can get clear about specifically where each number comes from and why, and more importantly about what it is that urban and business leaders really need to

know, we can make enough sense of the statistics to make them useful. To begin with, the wide variances in independentworker population totals are explicable; the different numbers in fact measure different things, are collected in different ways, and have different purposes. Taken together as a system, they’re broken. For a fuller explanation of that breakdown, see “Why Independent-Worker Data Is So Damn Bad,” on following pages. Here we’ll skip to the conclusion, which is that the most credible source of the

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT PHOTOGR APH BY JOSÉ MARTÍN

kind of information policymakers and business leaders need to know right now is a 2015 Edelman Berland report commissioned by the Freelancers Union and Upwork. It’s survey-based, and tries to understand the solo population as dynamic instead of static, recognizing (as most government data approaches don’t) that many Americans are neither “only” job holders or “only” independents; they’re often both. They’re also often transitioning from one circumstance to another—jobholder; soloist; a hybrid of jobholder and soloist—and in many cases even yo-yo’ing back and forth among them. According to that report, there are already 53.7 million people whose lives involve some form of soloing, and thus whose changing needs and wants increasingly need to be addressed. That’s more than a third of U.S. work force. Of the 53.7 million, 21.8 million are soloists full-time. Approximate corroboration for those numbers can be found in another 2015 survey, by Emergent Research for MBO Partners, which puts the full-time indie work force at 17.8 million using somewhat different definitions. How fast is the population growing? A recent RANDPrinceton University study, doing its best to parse government data, reported that the share of workers in “alter-

native work arrangements in their main job” increased by over 50 percent from 2005 to 2015, during which time the total of “traditional” job holders declined. The report stated: “A striking implication of these estimates is that all of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements.” [Italics, theirs.] But if the statistical evidence about the emergence of the indie population can be confusing, other kinds of evidence are not. The “wisdom” of the markets, for instance, is already legitimizing the trend—as evi-

denced by the global buildout of coworking spaces, the creation of “open” talent marketplaces for every imaginable type of non-traditional professional, the launch of proprietary talent exchanges by firms as different as PwC and Facebook, and the increasingly sophisticated back-office infrastructure offerings designed to help independents collect receivables, build technology platforms, manage personal finance, and procure benefits. Perhaps, though, the most credible evidence of the new world of work is more anecdotal even than that. Most of us already see soloists all around us. They do our taxes,

53.7 million

†

SOLOISTS IN U.S. WORKFORCE, BY CATEGORY:

FULL-TIME SOLOIST

PART-TIME JOB + SOLO WORK

26%

41% 25% TEMP WORKER

FULL-TIME JOB + SOLO WORK

design our apps, create our new LLCs, write the scripts for our favorite TV shows. And in most of our households, we’re already experiencing some level of contact with this indie world, whether it’s a spouse freelancing to supplement income or test the idea of going solo fulltime, or a parent creating a professional backup plan, or a kid telecommuting to a job and discovering how appealing it is to conduct work on her own terms. Most of us already know the solo world better than we think. HOW WE GOT HERE Years from now, economic historians will have captioned our present moment. “The Revolution of Independents?” Undoubtedly not—though the label would reasonably bookend “The Industrial Revolution,” which pins down the other end of the arc that spans from a disaggregated economy to an aggregated one and now back toward disaggregation again. We were all farmers once, and shopkeepers, and tradesmen—each making our individual way. Then the Industrial Revolution gathered steam in the 19th Century, its inventions enabling work to happen at a new kind of scale, and it drove labor into bigger and bigger organizations. Farmers moved to factories, and the 20th Century THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

†FREELANCING IN AMERICA: 2015 BY EDELMAN BERLAND, COMMISSIONED BY FREELANCERS UNION AND UPWORK

The Solo Phenomenon

60% OF SOLOISTS REPORT THAT THEY EARN MORE MONEY SINCE LEAVING A TRADITIONAL JOB

became the invention ground for the corporation as we know it today. We forget sometimes that the very large modern corporation is as new a construct as it is—that it hasn’t been here forever—because until recently this concept of aggregated corporate bigness was the most powerful organizer of American life. Then, some 40 years ago, all hell broke loose again, once again on account of an invention, and once again challenging our ideas about scale. This time the invention was the semiconductor, and it didn’t take as long as the steam engine did to produce its effects. Beginning in the ‘80s with the rise of the entrepreneurial economy, in which the small and the agile began to outperform the large and inflexible, and continuing into today’s landscape of the internet, the cloud, and everything mobile and linked, we’ve been able to do our work on a an increasingly small scale—eventually on the smallest scale: THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

bility to oversee, measure, and lower the transaction costs of using distributed labor, increasing their willingness to demand it. With momentum from both the supply and demand sides, new work-life options are proliferating.

But that “arc” is the narrative from 35,000 feet. Let’s separate out the most critical forces that are driving the solo phenomenon right now:

3 Corporate layoffs and diminished “traditional” opportunity During the past decade, many Americans have been forced into the ranks of independent workers as one industry after another has been disrupted by new technology and new business models. This has resulted in what economists refer to as a “dramatic loss of scale” among U.S. corporations, a trend that’s accelerating. That contraction has eliminated some jobs, made many stillavailable jobs dramatically less attractive, and generally undermined employer-employee trust.

3 The enabling power of new tools and technology Ever-evolving computer, web, and communications technologies have enabled individuals to work on almost anything, with almost anyone, from almost anywhere—making distributed collaboration a recently realistic prospect. For large corporations—often the “clients” whom indies serve—technology has increased the capa-

3 The proliferation of project work Project work isn’t new; consultants, craftsmen, and Hollywood cinematographers have been doing it forever. But its spread throughout nearly every facet of the talent marketplace has exploded (not least because technology trends have made it possible, and corporate scale-destruction has made it necessary). Work

a unit of one. As individuals. As soloists. Maybe the explanation of this arc isn’t more complicated than the Aristotelian idea that if a thing can be done, it will be done—and done in the simplest feasible way. Why did we get here? We got here because, thanks to what each new stage of innovation made possible, we could. DRIVING FORCES

both inside and outside organizations is increasingly being parceled into defined, temporally finite chunks. Corporations benefit from increased speed, flexibility, cost control, and short-term access to talent that it might otherwise be unable to hire. Indie professionals benefit from unprecedented new demand for specialized talent. 3 Rising indie status and a hunger for “good work” As significant as the economic forces driving the solo movement is a cultural one: the rising status of the indie professional. Soloists are disproportionately thought leaders, creatives, and tastemakers—outsized influenc-

MILLENNIALS GOING SOLO 43% of workers aged 18-34 go solo, more than any other age group.

301+399= 217+483= 203+497= 203+497=

43%

31%

29%

18-34

35-44

45-54

55+

4�

PROJECTED 5-YEAR GROWTH OF SOLOISTS OVER TRADITIONAL WORKFORCE*

50%

OF SOLOISTS SAY THERE IS NO AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WOULD COMPEL THEM TO TAKE A TRADITIONAL JOB

ers not just of the strategies of our corporate leaders and policymakers but of everything we watch, eat, listen to, and consume. Those who choose to work on our own, once suspect, are now respected and admired as never before. In much of the population, that enhanced social and cultural stature has created a new sense of personal possibility, making some old hungers stronger and harder to ignore—hungers for good work, for more psychically and emotionally rich lives, for greater control over how we get our work done when the work of even the best managed companies is impersonal. Those hungers are helping turn the solo life into the work life that ambitious, independent people aspire to. Still, however we parse each individual driver of the solo phenomenon, it may be more important to observe that there’s something cumulative going on.

Dissatisfaction with work inside organizations is at an all-time high, for many reasons, including ones that even the best-managed companies can do little about. There’s the relentless market pressure to cut costs and the incredibly poor working conditions that often result. (In our reporting over the past five years, we consistently encountered corporate managers and staffers who claim that one person now handles the work formerly done by three.) Less obvious but perhaps just as toxic are the reports that, as more and more work is done by independents, or hybrid teams of full-timers and independents, executives are becoming project managers, taking them further and further from the actual work that motivated them in the first place. The indies seem to be having all the fun, they seem to be saying. Still, maybe there’s always been dissatisfaction with work. William Whyte and John Cheever thought so. But in the past, your path to economic survival was to take a job, whether it meant dissatisfaction or not. For most of the past century, you didn’t have a whole lot of choices. Maybe what’s changed is that now, increasingly, you do. In fact, we’re all more and more surrounded by people exercising that choice, opt-

What do soloists do? HERE COMES EVERYBODY.

A little bit of everything: (TOP ROW, L-R) art-installation creator; best-selling management author, retail account manager, equine therapist, strategic planner, agency founder, marketing strategist. (SECOND ROW) network builder, voice actor, lifestyle blogger, information architect, teacher, art director. (THIRD ROW) marketing professional, research director, branding specialist, creative director, filmmaker, retail shopkeeper, beauty entrepeneur, hotelier. (FOURTH ROW) brand director, maker, executive coach, yogi, grocery operators, typographer, web publisher.

ing for independence over organizations, and illustrating for us in real time that it’s possible to trade nominal sacrifices (money, sometimes) for extraordinary payoffs in terms of the life you want to lead. Already this seems to be creating an increasing returns effect. The more examples we see, the more our perceptions change about what our relationship with

work can be, about what we’re entitled to ask of it. Soloing provides us with the opportunity to reimagine work at its best—what we work on, who we work with, where we work, and how. That breeds new options, which propel more people to independence, which in turn multiplies the examples all around us and accelerates the cycle producing the change. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

*STATE OF INDEPENDENCE IN AMERICA 2015 BY MBO PARTNERS

The Solo Phenomenon

Why Independent-Worker Data Is So Damn Bad (Forgive us, it’s about to get a little wonky up in here.)

Try this experiment: Ask a handful of your indie professional friends, “Last week were you employed by government, by a private company, a nonprofit organization, or were you self-employed?” If your sample goes anything like ours usually do, more than half the respondents will name the organization that was paying them, despite technically working for themselves. Others will ask you to clarify the question before they can answer it at all. “Someone who has worked on a freelance basis for a single corporation could identify themselves as either privately employed or selfemployed. So too could a contract worker or a consultant,” write data analysts at NewAmerica.org. Nevertheless, that blackor-white question is what drives the main reporting about independent work from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that tracks unemployment rates. Based on responses to it, the March 2016 BLS report counted selfemployment at 15.3 million, up 2% over the year before. Yet even our simple experiTHE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

ment—not to mention contradictory survey evidence and explicit critiques—suggest that those numbers are wildly understated, or at least highly questionable. The government already knows that. As long ago as 2007 it commissioned a “Panel on Measuring Business Formation, Dynamics, and Performance” to study the collection of business data by statistical agencies, with the hope of improving those systems. The panel’s conclusion: “As it stands, the U.S. business data system is inadequate for understanding…the dynamics of firm and job creation…[and] can yield less accurate, potentially misleading, measures of changes in economic activity.” That’s bureaucratese for “Holy shit, this set-up is screwed.” Know the saying about how the hardest step toward solving a problem is admitting that there is one? Not true, in this instance. The next step—fixing the data collection system so it provides an accurate picture of economic change and how people work, especially the changing role that indies play—is far

harder. It helps to understand a few reasons why. 1 The system originated in a different age, for a now outdated purpose. “U.S. government databases are designed to count in ways best suited to measuring the health of big businesses and their macroeconomic impact,” summarize the NewAmerica.org analysts. The assumptions governing data collection in the 1950s weren’t wrong. It’s just that it’s not the 1950s anymore. 2 Classification roulette: What the hell’s an “independent,” anyway? Among government data collectors alone, the definitions are a Scrabble game: contingent worker, non-employer business, temp worker, self-employed worker (“incorporated” and “unincorporated”), sole proprietor, day laborer, freelance worker, independent contractor… just

for starters. And among nongovernment survey researchers too, the variations among definitions make apples-toapples comparisons equally impossible. (How many hours a week of 1099 work qualify you as an indie? Do you count if you’re a hybrid—a part-time jobholder who works solo as well? Each research instrument contains its own unique answers.) Again, none of this is news to the data overseers themselves. As the Government Accounting Office explained in relation to just one small obstacle, in this case involving its attempt to tally “contingent workers”: “No clear consensus exists among labor experts as to whether contingent workers should include independent contractors, self-employed workers, and standard parttime workers.” What statisticians tell you is that “no clear consensus exists” about anything.

“ A striking implication of these estimates is that all of the net employment growth in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015 appears to have occurred in alternative work arrangements.”

3 Longitude is beatitude. Sure, the classifications stink—but if you change them you’ll lose the ability to understand changes over time. And what’s economics without an ability to make comparisons? That necessity, more than anything, may be what puts data collectors in a thankless bind. Emergent Research’s Steve King, one of the very best analysts of the indie economy in the nongovernment camp, told HBR. org’s Justin Fox that despite what you may think, the BLS’s “household survey is really good. I don’t think they’re missing people who are working; they’re just categorizing them using methods they developed in 1950. Changing that survey takes an act of God, because it messes up all the time series.” Those reasons, of course, help explain why the official data about independent work today are likely so inaccurate. But they also illustrate that there’s nothing sinister or lazy about government efforts to make data collection better and paint a more accurate picture of the evolving economy. It may be that the roadblocks to fixing the government’s statistical system are just too big. In the meantime, those roadblocks suggest why the newer survey-based assessments—such as Edelman Berland’s for The Freelancers Union and Emergent

Research’s for MBO Partners—which dig for more detail from respondents about individual work arrangements, experiences, and attitudes, are the most credible current source of insight. (Though even these projects, despite their strengths, require disclaimers, since the organizations that underwrite them tend to have a pro-indie dog in the business-landscape fight.) We predict that it will be a proliferation of private, independent, non-government data-collection and research sources that will increasingly clarify the changes in the new world of work and their consequences. That proliferation will happen because, in the end, good numbers matter. Economists and policymakers ultimately rely on them to assess the consequences of existing policies and to decide what new policies to enact. The numbers help tell leaders what levers to pull. And the numbers matter to whole swathes of the private and social sectors, too. Corporate marketers and entrepreneurs, not to mention social agencies, philanthropic organizations, and educators, are already hungry to understand the emerging population of indies. How many are there? Who are they? What are their needs? That new taxonomy of work can’t come fast enough.

source : The

All Workforce Growth is Indie CHANGE IN U.S. EMPLOYMENT, 2005-2015:

–0.3%

+66.5%

T R A D I T I O NA L JO B S

I N D E P E N D E N T WO R K

Total employment

2005

140.4

2015

CHANGE % CHANGE

149.4

9.1

6.5%

(In millions)

Employment in traditional jobs (standard employment arrangements) Employment in alternative work arrangements as individual’s “main” job

126.2 125.8 –0.4 –0.3%

14.2

23.6

9.4

66.5%

Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015, March 29, 2016; Katz, Harvard University; Krueger, Princeton University.

The Register The Register

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

7. In the process of creating Solo City we’ve engaged with hundreds of people—elected officials, soloists, corporate execs, educators, coworking founders, makers, entrepreneurs, angel investors, economic development professionals, economists, and more. This report has been influenced by all of them, and we thank them for their generosity of time and spirit. — A smaller group of participants in this project comprises something more—the first community of practitioners and thought leaders focusing on the profound changes taking place in this new world of work, and in particular the evolving role that soloists play in contributing to the dynamism of local and national entrepreneurial ecosystems. Their names and their bios comprise The Solo Register, which begins on the following page. — This group will have already grown by the time you read this, and will continue to evolve rapidly, we believe, as one individual “bumps” into another, and as networks connect and comingle. But this was where the conversation started.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Lauren Abda

Margaret Andrews

Suzanna Andrews

Andrew Anselmo

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Food Entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder, Branchfood 1 CV

Analyst, Salt Venture Partners; managing director, at The Food Loft; Fellow, World Trade Organization

1 PROFESSION

Higher education aficionado 1 CURRENT

Founder, Mind & Hand Associates 1 CV

Vice provost, Hult International Business School; associate dean at Harvard University; executive director at the MIT Sloan School of Management 1 RESOURCE

Andrew’s blog for Inside Higher Ed on some of the groups disrupting the business education arena

New York 1 PROFESSION

Journalist 1 CURRENT

Contributing editor, Vanity Fair and More magazines

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Mechanical engineer 1 CURRENT

Director of automation, BrightSpot Automation 1 CV

1 CV

Contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Rolling Stone

Principal engineer at Clipboard Engineering; process development scientist at Evergreen Solar; member of and instructor at Artisan’s Asylum, the pioneering makers space 1 RESOURCE

“How to Make a Makers Space” recounts the experiences of the founders of Artisan's Asylum, featuring written material and videos

“My challenge is turning my huge social following into a sustainable business. THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Kate Arends

Paige Arnof-Fenn

Bernard Avishai

Scott Bailey

1 LOCATION

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Millennial tastemaker, designer, blogger 1 CURRENT

Founder of Wit & Delight studio and blog 1 CV

Olympian Pinner, more followers on Pinterest than Martha Stewart; consultant to national brands such as Target, Levi’s, Gap and Kate Spade, among others

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Marketer, brand strategist 1 CURRENT

Founder and CEO, Mavens and Moguls 1 CV

VP of marketing at Zipcar, inc.com, and Launch Media; marketing positions at Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble

Hanover, N.H. and Jersualem, Israel 1 PROFESSION

Writer, professor, political economist 1 CURRENT

Visiting professor of government, Dartmouth College; adjunct professor of business, Hebrew University 1 CV

Leadership and management positions at Monitor Group, Harvard Business Review, and KPMG; a contributor to The New Yorker; Guggenheim Fellow

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneurship executive 1 CURRENT

Managing director, Mass Challenge Boston 1 CV

Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies; Launch VT 1 RESOURCE

The Mass Challenge accelerator model (“Look, Ma, no equity required”) that’s been replicated in Mexico, Israel, Switzerland, and the UK

My fear is that one wrong move, and it will all disappear.” Kate Arends THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Don Ball

Greg Ball

Dennis Barrie

Kathleen Hickey Barrie

1 LOCATION

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, coworking executive 1 CURRENT

Co-founder and chief creative officer, CoCo Coworking 1 CV

Co-founder and instructor, Jump! School, a program to help individuals find their calling; partner, Polymer Studios; a director at Funacion Comunidad

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Writer, media strategist 1 CURRENC

Editor-in-Chief, KillerBoomBox.com 1 CV

Freelance journalist, contributing to The Boston Globe and Boston.com; deputy editor at The Bay State Banner

Cleveland 1 PROFESSION

Museum director, cultural historian 1 CURRENT

Principal, Barrie Projects 1 CV

Co-creator and former executive director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum; developer of the International Spy Museum; director of Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center 1 RESOURCE

Terrific news for the Barries and other residents of industrial cities. The Smartest Places On Earth examines how “rustbelt” cities here and in Europe are transforming themselves into the “brainbelts” of tomorrow.

Cleveland 1 PROFESSION

Museum design and development 1 CURRENT

Principal, Barrie Projects 1 CV

Founding executive director of Cleveland’s public art and civic discourse organization (Cleveland Public Art, now LAND Studio); developer of the International Spy Museum; led the integration of research and content development, curatorial direction for the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage and The Mob Museum.

“‘Imposter syndrome’ fades. Now I worry less about what people think and THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Susan Battista

Mary K Baumann

John Bielenberg

Bryan Boyer

1 LOCATION

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Market research strategist 1 CURRENT

Director of strategy and messaging, Visual Dialogue 1 CV

Founder and research director of Topic 101, a market research firm that targets college students; proprietor of 1630, a Boston-themed pop-up shop

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Graphic designer 1 CURRENT

Partner, Hopkins/Baumann 1 CV

Creative director of American Craft; faculty at the Yale Publishing Course; creator of the SeeChange Conference

Belfast, Maine 1 PROFESSION

Designer, serial and social entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder, Future Partners; Founder, CCA Secret Project 1 CV

Founder, Project M, a social-venture design initiative; co-founder of COMMON, the first collaborative brand; co-founder of C2, a branding studio 1 RESOURCE

An interview with Bielenberg about Project M and using design to address social issues (plus, John's smart thinking about thinking smart)

Brooklyn, N.Y. 1 PROFESSION

Strategic designer 1 CURRENT

Partner, Dash Marshall 1 CV

Co-founder of Makeshift Society, Brooklyn; co-founder of Helsinki Design Lab; director, Public Policy Lab. Author of Brickstarter, a guide for DIY neighborhood and community projects. 1 RESOURCE

A trenchant article exploring the challenges facing a coworking startup, ones that led to the demise of Brooklyn favorite Makeshift Society

more about the work—the problem being solved.” Dan Cederholm THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Jennifer K Brown

Erik Brynjolfsson

Elizabeth Cagen

Dan Cederholm

1 LOCATION

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Marketing and branding professional 1 CURRENT

Founder, Chester Square Consulting 1 CV

Leadership positions at Partners-in-Health, Fidelity Investments, Worth magazine, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Economist, professor, info tech futurist 1 CURRENT

Professor, MIT Sloan; director, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy 1 CV

Coauthor, NYT bestseller The Second Machine Age; also Race Against the Machine, others; research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research; director, MIT Center for Digital Business

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Talent management professional 1 CURRENT

Director of Operations and Strategy, Stratabeat 1 CV

Client services manager at iProspect; search marketing manager at America’s Test Kitchen

Salem, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Designer, entrepreneur, technologist 1 CURRENT

Co-founder of @dribbble 1 CV

Founder of design studio SimpleBits; founder of Corkd.com; author, speaker, and expert on CSS 1 RESOURCE

Interview on The Great Discontent

1 RESOURCE

Chapter 1 of Second Machine Age for a good overview of coming effects of tech on talent market dynamics

“When I started my virtual firm back in 2001, my b-school friends said, ‘Well, THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Kevin Chang

Devin Cole

Kyle Coolbroth

Jared Cosulich

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Software developer 1 CURRENT

Designer, Hudl 1 CV

Front-end developer at Ubersense, HackStar, and TechStars; software development track, Startup Institute

1 PROFESSION

Coworking executive 1 CURRENT

Director of business development for Workbar Network 1 CV

Boston World Partnerships; ONEin3 Boston; Boston Redevelopment Authority 1 RESOURCE

Boston has more millennials per capita than any other city in the country. Cole’s former employer, ONEin3, is one example of what cities are doing to retain their young talent

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Serial entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder and CEO, CoCo Coworking 1 CV

Founder and leadership positions at Unlimited Options, Rust Consulting, Home Plan Options

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Software engineer, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder, the Puzzle School, an alternative public K-12 school in the planning stage 1 CV

Founder of Irrational Design; founder of CommunityWalk; director at Pivotal Labs

that’s cute.’ Now they tell me, ‘Well, that was smart!’” Paige Arnof-Fenn THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Deirdre Coyle

Brian Dant

Nancy De Santis

Susan Dorsch

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, marketing and branding professional 1 CURRENT

Co-founder, AllWorld Network (researches and promotes entrepreneurship in the developing world) 1 CV

VP and director of marketing and communications, Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC); co-creator of the Inner City 100, a joint project of ICIC and Inc. Magazine; director, Weber Shandwick

1 PROFESSION

Web application developer 1 CURRENT

Soloist 1 CV

Developer, Startup Institute

Santa Fe, N.M. 1 PROFESSION

Equine therapist, social worker, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder of Horses for Heroes—New Mexico 1 CV

Co-leader, with husband Rick Ianucci, of the “Cowboy Up” program, designed to help post-9/11 combat veterans reacclimate to civilian life

Seattle 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, coworking executive 1 CURRENT

Founder, co-owner, Office Nomads, coworking space 1 CV

Facilitator, Cotication, a community-building program for coworking spaces; founding partner, Re-Vision Labs; associate, Cascadia Consulting Group 1 RESOURCE

For a management-side look at coworking, see this New Work Cities post about exit strategies

“I don’t know if I have a ‘team.’ That’s one of my failings. I could use one.” THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

David Duncan

Lara Palmer Edwards

Rica Elysee

Marc English

1 LOCATION

Atlanta

Boston

Austin

1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneurship executive 1 CURRENT

Director, Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurial Development, Clark Atlanta University 1 CV

Leadership positions at Squared Pocket, Startup Atlanta, EO Atlanta; co-founder of Paddywax, Inc.

1 PROFESSION

Communications professional 1 CURRENT

Media Manager, Discover Roxbury 1 CV

Visual artist, Living Color Arts Studio; executive positions at Wellesley Centers for Women, United Way Mass Bay

1 PROFESSION

Development professional, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder and CEO, BeautyLynk 1 CV

Owner, Boston Naturals; editorial director at Amour Creole Magazine; Nurses Care for Haitian Children; Prescott Area Women’s Shelter

1 PROFESSION

Designer, shaman 1 CURRENT

Principal, Marc English Design 1 CV

Design faculty at Conestoga College, Academy of Art University (SF), Savannah College of Art and Design, Universidad de Monterrey; AIGA board member; director, Austin Film Society; author, Designing Identity: Graphic Design as a Business Strategy 1 RESOURCE

Intro to Designing Identity, musing on why “no selfrespecting business goes to work without a logo”

Mark English THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Eryn Erickson

Jen Faigel

Tim Ferguson

Tim Ferguson-Sauder

1 LOCATION

1 LOCATIOE

Atlanta

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Social entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder and President, So Worth Loving, a lifestyle brand 1 CV

Recording artist, Eddy Music; Art Director, The reThink Group

1 PROFESSION

Community economicdevelopment leader 1 CURRENT

Executive Director, CommonWealth Kitchen, a leading non-profit food incubator 1 CV

Consultant at Urban Idea Lab; Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Economic Development Corp.; Cambridge Housing Authority 1 RESOURCE

From the newly launched— and excellent—The New Food Economy, eight leading models for food accelerators

1 PROFESSION

Finance executive, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder, chairman and managing partner, Next Street, growth advisor to urban entrepreneurial leadership teams 1 CV

Wenham, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Designer, educator 1 CURRENT

Creative Director, Gordon College 1 CV

Founder of Return Design at Gordon College; owner of asmallpercent design

Head of Investments at Putnam Investments; CEO of HSBC Asset Management; CEO of County NatWest Securities; director at Initiatives for a Competitive Inner City

“We soloists don’t have a marketing plan. We have a plan to market.” Jen Faigel THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

David Fernandez

Nicole Fichera

Samantha Finigan

Virginia Fitzgerald

1 LOCATION

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Talent recruiter 1 CURRENT

Recruiting team lead, HubSpot 1 CV

Research associate at Dana Associates; director of client services at Summit Educational Group

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Non-profit executive 1 CURRENT

General manager, District Hall, a meeting space in Bostonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s innovation district; co-principal, Roxbury Innovation Center 1 CV

Innovation district manager at the Boston Redevelopment Authority; designer at Hacin+ Associates

Portsmouth, N.H. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, designer 1 CURRENT

Co-owner, Gus & Ruby Letterpress, a stationary boutique 1 CV

Account executive at the ad agency Rumbletree; manager of brand services at the youth marketing group, Mr. Youth; designer at Modus Operandi Design

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Artist 1 CURRENT

Artist at Virginia Fitzgerald studio 1 CV

Independent artist, designer, and photographer; artist-in-residence at Dana Hall School, Vermont Studio Center

1 RESOURCE

Brookings has developed a tool to determine if a city has the right stuff to support an innovation district. At last count, 90 U.S. cities didn't wait for the tool to launch a district of their own.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Richard Freeland

Helena Fruscio

Bonnie Gibson

Adrian Gill

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

University leader, higher-ed thought leader 1 CURRENT

Professor, Northeastern University 1 CV

Former commissioner of higher education for Massachusetts; former president of Northeastern University; director, American Council of Education

1 PROFESSION

Public sector leader 1 CURRENT

Deputy assistant secretary of innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology, Massachusetts 1 CV

Creative economy industry director for Massachusetts; director of the Berkshire creative economy council

1 PROFESSION

Marketing professional 1 CURRENT

Digital marketing director at Boston Logic Technology Partners 1 CV

Content creator at RAMP Holdings; independent marketing consultant

1 PROFESSION

Branding and strategy professional 1 CURRENT

Founder, Ad Hoc Industries, a branding and marketing firm 1 CV

VP of Global Footwear for Puma; consultant, AT Kearney; Executive Producer of Antebellum Pictures

1 RESOURCE

Authored one of the wisest articles we’ve read on the compelling need for practice-based higher ed.

“ Claims for the moral superiority of liberal education reflect a bias against—even THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Samantha Hammar

Roy Hirschland

Will Hopkins

Sara Horowitz

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Community engagement professional 1 CURRENT

Director of strategic partnerships, MassIT 1 CV

Executive director at The Capital Network, a non-profit providing seed-capital education; Scale Up Milwaukee; Boston Redevelopment Authority

1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, real-estate professional 1 CURRENT

Co-founder and CEO, T3 Advisors, real-estate and workplace-design consulting firm to highgrowth companies 1 CV

Senior vice president at Spaulding & Slye Colliers; regional sales manager for Procter & Gamble 1 RESOURCE

T3’s Innovation Studio is an example of an established company creating a coworking space within its own offices

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Designer 1 CURRENT

Partner at Hopkins/ Baumann design 1 CV

Art Director of Look; founding partner of American Photographer and American Health; redesigned Forbes, Food & Wine, Architectual Digest; faculty of the Stanford University Professional Publishing Course

Brooklyn, N.Y. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, attorney 1 CURRENT

Executive Director of the Freelancers Union, a community of independent workers 1 CV

MacArthur Foundation “Genius” fellow; Deputy Chair, Federal Reserve of New York; one of the World Economic Forum’s 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow; author of The Freelancer’s Bible 1 RESOURCE

“Freelancing in America 2015 Report” is among the best survey-based explorations of the indie workforce.

a disdain for—the workaday earning experiences of most adults. R. Freeland THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Anne Hubert

Stephen Humphries

Ira Jackson

Jess Jacobs

1 LOCATION

Boston

New York 1 PROFESSION

Entertainment executive 1 CURRENT

Senior VP, Viacom Media Networks 1 CV

Head of Scratch, a creative consulting unit of Viacom; vice president at MTV Scratch; director of integrated programming, mtvU 1 RESOURCE

Hubert has access to more millennial real-time data than anyone we know. Most of it is proprietary to her employer, Viacom. Here’s some of what she’s willing, or able, to share via a Goldman Sachs conversation

Jamaica Plain, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Music journalist and arts editor 1 CURRENT

Editor, Steven Wilson Newsletter (digital minimagazine); freelancer 1 CV

Author, The Art of Rush; writer and editor, The Christian Science Monitor; contributing feature writer and critic for Filter, PopMatters, Under the Radar, American Way

1 PROFESSION

University and philanthropic leader 1 CURRENT

Vice provost, UMass Boston 1 CV

Executive and leadership positions at The Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Peter F. Drucker School of Management at Claremont University, the Legatum Center at MIT

1 PROFESSION

Software and web developer 1 CURRENT

Technology lead, BioPrint Fitness 1 CV

Director of development for Yes All Women Boston; lead engineer, Tastemaker Labs; senior developer, Hii Def Inc; principal software engineer, Digitas

“ Grit isn’t something you’re born with. I watched my son develop it for the first THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Bill Jacobson

Matt Jakubowski

Peter Janzow

Miro Kazakoff

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Workplace-design thought leader, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder and CEO of coworking firm Workbar Networks 1 CV

Partner at Techpoint Ventures; co-founder of Pickup Zone (acquired by Shoprunner)

1 PROFESSION

Talent recruiter 1 CURRENT

Recruitment Lead at Deep Information Sciences; founder, Elephant Technology, software-development recruiting firm 1 CV

Recruiting manager, LogMeIn; manager, MBA and college recruiting, athenahealth; employee relations, Harvard University

Buffalo, N.Y. 1 PROFESSION

Education-industry strategist and executive 1 CURRENT

Senior business director and open badges lead, Pearson VUE 1 CV

President, Brownstone Learning; publisher, John Wiley & Sons; co-founder of boutique children’s book publisher Winterlake Press; extensive solo consulting career as leading player in ed-tech industry

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, professor 1 CURRENT

Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management 1 CV

Co-founder, Testive, educational-testing prep firm; executive producer and host, The MBA Show, a live podcast about MBA life and learning; director of product management, Compete, Inc.; consultant, Bain & Company

1 RESOURCE

Fast Company article emerging role of digital credentials (“badging”) as matchmaking lubricant in new talent marketplace

time as he became an Army Ranger.” Ira Jackson THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Kristine Kern

Don Kilburn

Steve King

Fritz Klaetke

1 LOCATION

Oakland, Calif. 1 PROFESSION

Media executive, teambuilding professional 1 CURRENT

Consultant, The Table Group 1 CV

Director of business development, Inc. Magazine; General Manager, The Build Network, a spinoff of Inc. Magazine; leadership positions at Tango and Wired magazines

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Learning-industry executive, educationaltechnology pioneer 1 CURRENT

President, Pearson North America 1 CV

President, Pearson Custom Publishing; editor in chief and president, Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing 1 RESOURCE

Chronicle of Higher Ed overview (2013) on changing “ed-tech”: “In the early days of TV, the first things you saw on TV were radio shows, and only over time did the next format evolve for that medium. We’re at that stage right now [with textbooks].”

San Francisco 1 PROFESSION

Research and marketing professional 1 CURRENT

Partner, Emergent Research, a leading source of research about the small-business and freelance sectors 1 CV

VP, corporate marketing, Macromedia; vice president and general manager for Lotus Development, Asia/Pacific

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Designer 1 CURRENT

Principal and design director, Visual Dialogue 1 CV

Clients include The Art Institute of Boston, Barbara Lynch Gruppo, Harvard University, MIT, Moshe Safdie & Associates; Grammy Award recipient for design of The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection

“Our education system is designed for a world that no longer exists.” Matt Kressy THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Gary Knight

Lora Kratchounova

Matt Kressy

Gary Kunkle

1 LOCATION

Medford, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Conflict photographer, teacher, social entrepreneur 1 CURREN

Faculty, Tufts University 1 CV

With John Stanmeyer, launched the VII Photo Agency; named the third most influential entity in photography by American Photo

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Marketing and branding professional 1 CURRENT

Principal, Scratch Marketing + Media 1 CV

Managing director, InkHouse Media + Marketing; vice president of marketing at OurStage.com, a music and film platform; senior manager, Amex Canada; director, MIT Enterprise Forum, Cambridge

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Industrial designer, professor 1 CURRENT

Founder and director, MIT Integrated Design and Management Program 1 CV

Founder and president, Designturn, an industrial design firm; lecturer at MIT; adjunct professor, Rhode Island School of Design

Charlotte 1 PROFESSION

Economic researcher 1 CURRENT

Founder, Outlier LLC, an economic-research firm that specializes in identifying elite growth firms 1 CV

Director, Institute for Exceptional Growth Companies; Maryland Business Center Europe; KPMG 1 RESOURCE

A provocative, informed look at where the “job creation” is actually taking place in the U.S.

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Malia Lazu

Diana Levine

Alexa Lightner

Bob Litan

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Non-profit leader 1 CURRENT

Executive Director, Future Boston Alliance 1 CV

Executive director, The Gathering for Justice; Community Innovators fellow, MIT; strategic consultant, Access Strategies Fund; adjunct professor, Emerson College

1 PROFESSION

Photographer, designer 1 CURRENT

Photographer specializing in shooting top performers in the music industry 1 CV

Clients include AOL, Billboard, Bumble, BuzzMedia, Converse, MTV, Ogilvy and Mather, Rolling Stone, The New York Times. Launched two magazines at Clark University

1 PROFESSION

Community builder 1 CURRENT

Community manager, Society of Grownups, a “masters program for adulthood,” launched by MassMutual 1 CV

Director of community development, Workbar Network; co-founder, Clark University Thrift Store

Saint Louis 1 PROFESSION

Economist, attorney 1 CURRENT

Partner, Korein Tillery 1 CV

Director of research, Bloomberg Government; Vice president of research and policy at the Kauffman Foundation; vice president, Brookings Institution; associate director, Office of Management and Budget; deputy assistant attorney general, Department of Justice; Author of Better Capitalism, a policy guide for reinvigorating entrepreneurship in the U.S. economy

“Indie work is a distributed system—decentrailzed, with the intelligence pushed THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Zach Lyman

Nadeem Mazen

Andrew McAfee

Marion McGovern

1 LOCATION

Washington, D.C. 1 PROFESSION

Strategy consultant, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder and managing director, Reluminati, an innovation strategy firm 1 CV

Owner of Headquarters, a small “do-it-yourself” coworking space on Capitol Hill in D.C.; founder and chief technology officer, ZeroBase Energy Systems; managing partner, Innovative Charitable Solutions; programmer, Frog Design 1 RESOURCE

Maybe the ultimate experience for the DIY crowd: Building your own, personal coworking space

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneurship educator and public servant 1 CURRENT

City councillor, City of Cambridge; CEO, danger!awesome 1 CV

CEO, Nimblebot; director of educational best practices, Axiom Learning; MIT MediaLab

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Economist, author, business-change seer 1 CURRENT

Principal research scientist, MIT 1 CV

Co-author, NYT bestselling Race Against the Machine, as well as Leading Digital and Enterprise 2.0; cofounder, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy 1 RESOURCE

One of his TED talks, “What Will Future Jobs Look Like,” describes how machines and humans will (and won’t) collaborate

San Francisco 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, author, professor 1 CURRENT

Chairman, ReSurge International, an international NGO providing reconstructive surgery to the poor 1 CV

Founder and CEO of M2, one of the first networked consulting firms in the country; director, Alliance of Chief Executives; adjunct professor, University of San Francisco 1 RESOURCE

Her book: A New Brand of Expertise: How Independent Consultants Are Transforming the World of Work

out to the edges. Distributed systems are always more resilient...” Zach Lyman THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Mark Maloney

George McGowan

Dave McLaughlin

Chris Meyer

1 LOCATION

Boston

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Real estate professional, urban-policy leader 1 CURRENT

Principal, MMInvestments 1 CV

Director, Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA), Boston; president of Boston World Partnerships; director, Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership; former owner of 40 Berkeley, hostel and coworking space

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION

Modern marketer, growth catalyst 1 CURRENT

Founder, Sense of Wonder 1 CV

President, iC3 Ventures; chief growth officer, CoCo Coworking and Collaborative Space; executive vice president, Navitor Inc.

1 PROFESSION

Coworking executive 1 CURRENT

General manager, WeWork, multinational coworking company 1 CV

Co-founder of Vsnap, a video-messaging system for sales reps; director at Boston World Partnerships; award-winning filmmaker

1 PROFESSION

Consultant, author 1 CURRENT

CEO, Nerve 1 CV

Advisor, Future Trends Forum, Bankinter; founder, Monitor Talent, Monitor Group, one of the first attempts to build a thoughtleadership portal for business; director, Center for Business Innovation, Ernst & Young; author, Future Wealth, with Stan Davis, about the growing importance of human capital

“Ten years ago it was hard to get people to take temporary or project work— THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Leslie Mitchell

Galen Moore

Morgan Mosher

John Mottern

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Talent acquisition professional 1 CURRENT

Manager, global talent acquisition & HR operations, Intralinks 1 CV

Recruiting manager, HubSpot; search consultant, HireMinds; national account manager, Linkage; recruiting manager, Robert Half International

1 PROFESSION

Journalist 1 CURRENT

Editor-in-Chief, Streetwise Media, sites in Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Austin. 1 CV

Award-winning journalist at American City Business Journals, Boston Business Journal, Gatehouse Media

1 PROFESSION

Banking and finance professional, community builder 1 CURRENT

Director of Brand and Culture, T3 Advisors 1 CV

Co-founder and president, Camp Kita; positions at Eastern Bank, Santander Bank, Bank of America

Natick, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Photographer, videographer, art impresario, community builder 1 CURRENT

Documentary filmmaker and freelance photographer 1 CV

Award-winning international photographer for The Boston Globe, Agence France-Presse, others; founder and curator of Gallery 55, an exhibition and performance space; catalyst of the Natick Cultural District, a community of creative soloists

everybody wanted secure, full-time jobs. Not anymoreâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201A; Leslie Mitchell THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Georgia Murray

Kit Murray Maloney

Andrew Nalband

Ted Nelson

1 LOCATION

Boston

Denver

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Real estate professional 1 CURRENT

Chairwoman, Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, Boston 1 CV

Vice-president, director, The Boston Financial Group; director, Franklin Street Properties; director, First Commons Bank; director, Initiatives for a Competitive Inner City

1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Founder and CEO of O’actually, adult entertainment for women 1 CV

Founder, Collaboratory 4.0, a coworking space for women-owned startups

1 PROFESSION

User-experience designer, developer 1 CURRENT

CEO, Cut and Fold, a web design and development company 1 CV

VP of Product, Bookity; director of user experience, UberSense; a veteran of three TechStars classes

Newburyport, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Branding and marketing professional, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Co-founder, CEO, and strategy director at Mechanica, an award-winning marketing and branding firm 1 CV

Co-founder, Engine90, a networked strategy consulting firm; managing partner and brand strategy director at Mullen Advertising; senior account planner, Chiat Day 1 RESOURCE

If you want something done cheap, outsource it. Done well? Upsource it.

“We used to hide that we used freelancers. Now we’re lauded for ‘bringing in THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Sara Noble

Jordan Nollman

Paul Northrup

Ashley O’Brion

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Executive recruiter, media executive 1 CURRENT

Recruiter specializing in top editorial, thought leadership, and communications talent for global firms 1 CV

Editor and executive at Harvard Business Review, Inc. Magazine, The Atlantic, Time

1 PROFESSION

Designer, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

CEO and principal at Sprout Studios, a concept-to-launch product design firm 1 CV

Founder of newSprout Foundation, a web and mobile app developer for non-profits; chief creative officer, Clio Designs; lead designer, Astro Studios

1 PROFESSION

Developer 1 CURRENT

Developer at The Gnar Co. 1 CV

Developer at Me You Health and the Startup Institute, front-end developer at Bentley College

Portland, Maine 1 PROFESSION

Designer 1 CURRENT

Digital art director, Inc. Magazine 1 CV

Art director, The Build Network, Mansueto Ventures; art director, Maine Magazine and Maine Home + Design; associate art director for O, The Oprah Magazine; Senior Designer, Boston Magazine

outside thinking.’ Collaboration with soloists is accepted” Ted Nelson THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Emily O’Neil

Michele Outland

Jules Pieri

Steven Pedigo

1 LOCATION

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Non-profit executive 1 CURRENT

Executive director, Fort Point Arts Community 1 CV

Executive director, Charles and John Gross Family Foundation; special events and corporate partnerships officer, American Repertory Theater

New York 1 PROFESSION

Designer 1 CURRENT

Cofounder and creative director, Gather Journal, a print food magazine 1 CV

Freelance art director, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; art director, Nylon; freelance designer, The New York Times

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Industrial designer, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Cofounder and CEO, The Grommet, showcases makers’ products online; helped launch FitBit, SodaStream, IdeaPaint 1 CV

President and COO, Ziggs; VP of strategic planning, Striderite/Keds; VP, Continuum, industrial design firm; indie projects for Playskool/Hasbro, Ulster Bank, Smirnoff; entrepreneur-in-residence, Harvard Business School

New York 1 PROFESSION

Economic development professional 1 CURRENT

Director, Initiative for Creativity & Innovation in Cities, NYU 1 CV

Director, Creative Class Group, with Richard Florida; VP, Initiatives for a Competitive Inner City; VP, business marketing and research, Greater Portland Inc.

“I haven’t found my ‘guild.’ But then, I’m conflicted about whether I even want THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Tom Peters

Tahl Raz

Eric Reinholdt

Susan Rodgerson

1 LOCATION

South Dartmouth, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Leadership thought leader, author, speaker, soloist 1 CURRENT

Principal, The Tom Peters Company 1 CV

Author, In Search of Excellence; 2,500 speeches; 17 books, 10,000,000+ copies sold; 600 syndicated columns; 250 miscellaneous articles; 3,000 blogposts; 50,000 Tweets; 130,000 Twitter followers; 55,400,000 Google hits 1 RESOURCE

“The Brand Called You,” seminal Fast Company article about modern personal branding

New York 1 PROFESSION

Storyteller of big ideas 1 CURRENT

Co-author of Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It 1 CV

Best-selling author, including Never Eat Alone; CEO of online education MyGreenlight; writer/ editor at Inc. Magazine, Fortune, Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Jerusalem Post 1 RESOURCE

“The 10 Secrets of a Master Networker,” Inc. Magazine article

Mt. Desert, Maine 1 PROFESSION

Architect, writer 1 CURRENT

Founder, 30x40 Design Workshop, a residential architecture practice 1 CV

President, ARTIFACT. design; architect, Elliott + Elliott architecture; author of Architect and Entrepreneur: A Field Guide to Building, Branding, and Marketing Your Startup Design Business

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Artist, social entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Executive and artistic director, Artists for Humanity (AFH), studios where teens are paid to explore their creativity and interact with the larger business community 1 CV

Inspired AFH models in Rhode Island, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, London and Haifa, Israel; created Boston’s first Platinum LEED-certified facility, AFH’s location in the South End; subject of case studies at the Harvard and Stanford Business Schools

one… . Hell, I probably do.” Tahl Raz THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Saras Sarasvathy

Jacob Sayles

Michael Schrage

Jeff Shinabarger

1 LOCATION

Charlottesville, Virginia 1 PROFESSION

Professor, author, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Professor of entrepreneurship, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia 1 CV

Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; named one of the top entrepreneurship professors in the U.S. by Fortune Small Business; director, Lending Tree; regular contributor to Economic Times

Seattle 1 PROFESSION

Coworking entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Cofounder, Office Nomads, coworking space 1 CV

Director, Open Coworking, promoting collaboration among coworking spaces; senior software engineer, Serials Solution; developer, Healthetech 1 RESOURCE

“Coworking By the Numbers: 2015 GCUC/ Emergent Research Coworking Survey”

Cambridge, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Researcher and writer on innovation 1 CURRENT

Research fellow, MIT Sloan School of Management 1 CV

Researcher, MIT Media Lab, Entrepreneurship Center; visiting fellow, innovation and entrepreneurship, Imperial College Business School, London; author of several books, including Serious Play: How the World’s Best Companies Simulate to Innovate, and, most recently The Innovator’s Hypothesis: How Cheap Experiments Are Worth More Than Good Ideas

Atlanta 1 PROFESSION

Social entrepreneur, author 1 CURRENT

Executive director, Plywood People 1 CV

Author of More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity, and Yes or No: How Your Everyday Decisions Will Forever Shape Your Life

“When I take the daily look at my bank account, it’s not about the money, it’s just THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Daniela Stallinger

Reed Sturtevant

Fiorella Valdesolo

Erik Vonk

1 LOCATION

Brooklyn, N.Y. 1 PROFESSION

Photographer, publisher 1 CURRENT

Founder of online travel magazine, Bearleader Chronicle; freelance photographer 1 CV

Trend-scouting consultant and photographer specializing in fashion, portrait, and travel for editorial and commercial clients in Europe and the U.S.

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, investor, new product creator 1 CURRENT

Managing director, Project 11, a pre-seed fund investing in tech-driven startups 1 CV

Co-founder, Startup Institute; founding member of The Awesome Foundation; lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and Olin College of Engineering; leadership positions at Techstars Boston, Microsoft, Eons, Idealab, and Lotus Development Corp.

New York 1 PROFESSION

Writer, editor 1 CURRENT,

Co-founder, editor of Gather Journal, an awardwinning recipe-driven food magazine 1 CV

Freelance editor and writer for New York Magazine, Nylon, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Glamour, and many others

Richland, Georgia 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur and distiller; banking and corporate finance leader; thought leader on the independent workforce 1 CURRENT

Proprietor and Distiller, Richland Distilling Company 1 CV

Leadership positions at Randstad Holding, N.V. and Randstad Staffing Services; Gevity HR; Danka Office Imaging; People2.0; founder of Back of the House, a back-office solution for independent workers. 1 RESOURCE

Wrote Don’t Get a Job, Get a Life

to answer the question, ‘How much freedom do I have?’” John Mottern THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Register

Alan Webber

Melissa Webster

Mitchell Weiss

Sharon Werner

1 LOCATION

Boston

Sante Fe, N.M. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, author, politician 1 CURRENT

Founder, One New Mexico, an “idea bank” for new solutions to public problems 1 CV

Founding editor, Fast Company; New Mexico gubernatorial candidate; editorial director, Harvard Business Review; coauthor, AARP’s Life Reimagined: Discovering Your New Life Possibilities, with Richard J. Leider 1 RESOURCE

In @issue, excerpt from Rules of Thumb on how design is differentiation, whether for cities, companies, or individuals

1 PROFESSION

People mobilizer and operations fanatic 1 CURRENT

Founding principal, Ferry Management Consulting 1 CV

Director of product marketing and global services for Qliktech; VP, Skanska USA Building; marketing director, Ledgewood Construction

1 PROFESSION

Public-sector leader 1 CURRENT

Senior lecturer, Harvard Business School 1 CV

Chief-of-staff for Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; member of team that created the New Urban Mechanics, Boston’s innovation strategy; executive director of the Tobin Project, driving transformative research in the social sciences, and winner of the 2013 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions

Minneapolis 1 PROFESSION,

Designer, branding professional, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Owner, Werner Design Werks, a marketing and branding firm 1 CV

Children’s book author, for series of books that teach kids how to use design to communicate feelings; senior designer, Duffy Design Group

“I love being my own boss—but there’s a downside, which is that now with lots THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Matt Workman

Richard Saul Wurman

Gene Zaino

Yong Zhao

1 LOCATION

Boston 1 PROFESSION

Cinematographer, entrepreneur 1 CURRENT

Cinematographer specializing in previs, motion control, and virtual production 1 CV

Clients include Facebook, Converse, Orbitz, Google, PBS, IBM, BMW, Intel, Skype, many others. Founder of Cinematography Database, a site and blog that focuses on modern cinematography

Golden Beach, Fla. 1 PROFESSION

Designer, entrepreneur, author, thought leader 1 CURRENT

Writing and designing Understanding Understanding, a book about how the world’s most creative people learn 1 CV

Creator, and for 18 years, host of TED conferences; author and designer of more than 80 books, including Information Anxiety; created 555 Conference, the WWW Conference, TEDMED; inventor of the discipline referred to as “information architecture” 1 RESOURCE

“Get Dumb and Grow Rich,” Inc. Magazine article

Washington, D.C. 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, thought leader on the independent workforce 1 CURRENT

President and CEO, MBO Partners, a multination firm that develops a wide variety of tools that support indie workers and their clients 1 CV

Led a variety of venturebacked consulting firms; management consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick; director, Human Capital Institute; frequent contributor to ABC News, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, The New York Times

Eugene, Ore. 1 PROFESSION

Professor, author, thought leader on the state of global education 1 CURRENT

Presidential chair and director of the Institute for Global and Online Education, University of Oregon 1 CV

Fellow, Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University, Australia; named one of the 10 most influential people in educational technology 1 RESOURCE

World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students [Corwin, 2012]

of clients I have many bad bosses. Cuts both ways.” Stephen Humphries THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Sponsor

Alberto Ibargüen

Carol Coletta

Benjamin De La Peña

1 LOCATION

Miami 1 PROFESSION

Foundation director, media executive, thought leader 1 CURRENT

President and CEO, and trustee, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation 1 CV

Publisher of The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald; former chair of the World Wide Web Foundation; director at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Wesleyan University, Smith College; trustee emeritus of the Newseum in Washington, D.C.; board chair PBS; board positions at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Committee to Protect Journalists and ProPublica

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

Memphis, Tenn. 1 PROFESSION

Foundation executive, urban thought leader 1 CURRENT

Senior fellow, American Cities Practice, The Kresge Foundation 1 CV

Vice president of Community and National Initiatives for Knight Foundation; CEO of CEOs for Cities; director of ArtPlace; executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design

Miami 1 PROFESSION

Foundation executive 1 CURRENT

Director of community and national strategy, Knight Foundation 1 CV

Associate director for urban development, Rockefeller Foundation; associate director at the Smart Growth Leadership Institute

The Solo Project Founders

George Gendron

Michael Hopkins

Patrick Mitchell

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Editor, media executive, thought leader 1 CURRENT

Founder, The Solo Project 1 CV

Editor-in-Chief, Inc. Magazine and inc.com, creator of the Inc. 500; editor-inchief, Boston Magazine; arts editor, New York Magazine; founder and director, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, Clark University; board member at City Year, Initiatives for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), Community Wealth Partners; fellow, Kauffman Foundation.

1 PROFESSION

Editor, writer, media strategist 1 CURRENT

Founder, The Solo Project 1 CV

Editor-in-chief, MIT Sloan Management Review; executive editor, Inc. Magazine; director, Monitor Networks, the Monitor Group consultancy; creator “Future Monitor,” a selforganizing digital community of global thought leaders; The Wall Street Journal

1 PROFESSION

Designer, media branding strategist 1 CURRENT

Founder, The Solo Project 1 CV

Principal, Modus Operandi Design; founding creative director, Fast Company; creative director, O: The Oprah Magazine; Clients include: Nylon Magazine, National Geographic Society, Levi Strauss Foundation, Kiplinger’s, The Atlantic; 2-time winner and 6-time finalist for National Magazine Award

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Solo Project Team

District Hall Event Host & Sponsor

Dawn Curtis Hanley

Aaron O’Hearn

1 LOCATION

Duxbury, Mass. 1 PROFESSION

Event marketing strategist 1 CURRENT

Founder and principal, Anchor18 1 CV

Clients include: Boston Magazine, GDF Suez, Drew Company, MIT Media Lab, Wynn Resorts, Red Sox Foundation, Streetwise Media, Boston Athletic Association, The Boston Foundation, The Boston Globe

Austin 1 PROFESSION

Entrepreneur, tech exec

District Hall is Boston’s home for innovation—a dedicated gathering space for Boston’s innovation community. Its mission is to create impact for Boston-area entrepreneurs through their spaces and programs.

1 CURRENT

Business-development lead, Funsize 1 CV

Talent wrangler, The Solo Project; co-founder and CEO, Startup Institute; special projects lead, Techstars Boston; entrepreneur-in-residence, Le Camping, Paris, France; market-expansion manager, LivingSocial

Nicole Fichera

Sheila Gill

Andrew Singleton

Kevin Wiant

Evan Spetrini THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

The Solo Project/Solo City Contributors

Jonathan Kozowyk

Melanie Stetson Freeman

Tim Mulavey

Jackson Mitchell

1 LOCATION

Boston

1 PROFESSION

Photographer, surfer 1 CURRENT

Freelance advertising and editorial photographer 1 CV

Clients include: Ogilvy & Mather, Hill-Holliday, Arnold Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, LL Bean, Mullen Advertising, Fortune, Yankee, Forbes

1 PROFESSION

International photojournalist 1 CURRENT

Staff photographer, The Christian Science Monitor 1 CV

Reporter, writer, and photographer for magazines, newspapers, non-profit social service organizations

1 PROFESSION

Architect 1 CURRENT

Principal, Mulavey Studio 1 CV

Clients inclide: Animation Technologies, The Atlantic, Boston Center for Adult Education, Broadstreet, City Sports, Seth Godinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Do You Zoom?, Fast Company, Galleria Italiana, Harvard Common Press, Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Institute for Human Centered Design, Nitro Communications, Phillips Exeter Academy, Roxbury Technology, Storyville Productions, Tom Peters Company, many more

Storrs, Conn. 1 PROFESSION

Multimedia journalist 1 CURRENT

Student, University of Connecticut 1 CV

Digital editor, The Daily Campus; digital intern, WBUR Here & Now; digital intern WNPR

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

K N I G H T F O U N DAT I O N � T H E S O LO P R OJ E C T

A B O U T K N I G H T F O U N D AT I O N

The Knight Foundation in Miami, Florida, is renowned for its work driving and supporting journalism and media innovation, its programs fostering the arts on a local level, and its aggressive efforts to promote civic innovation that enables communities to succeed in a rapidly-changing world. KnightFoundation.org

ABOUT THE SOLO PROJECT

The Solo Project makes media and conducts research that documents the romance, drama, and challenges of creating an intentional work life. We provide inspiration, ideas, tools, and community for the country’s most ambitious soloists—people animated by the opportunity to design a life around the pursuit of interesting work. TheSoloProject.com

THE SOLO CITY 2016 REPORT

K N I G H T

F O U N D A T I O N

�

T H E

S O L O

P R O J E C T

Solo City Report Mission: Launch a national conversation about the role that government, universities, corporations, and the social sector can play to help individuals and communities make the transition from the traditional, employer-based economy to an emerging one in which individuals design their own work, create their own jobs, and take responsibility for their own financial and professional security.

“ F O R T H E F I R ST T I M E I N H U M A N H I S TO R Y, I N D I V I D UA L S C A N DESIGN A LIFE AROUND THE PURSUIT OF I N T E R E ST I N G WO R K .”