---
title: "Where Should You Work?"
section: "Operational Excellence"
sectionId: "operational-excellence"
date: "2026-05"
---

## Avoid Coworking Spaces

*Source: Y Combinator*

YC does not offer coworking space to its founders — because YC does not believe in coworking. Working out of a wide-open coworking space can be hazardous to the health of your startup.

## The Problems With Coworking

**Noise and distraction.** Open coworking floors are rarely quiet. Deep work — the kind that builds great products — requires sustained concentration. Constant background noise and interruption make that nearly impossible.

**Culture contamination.** Coworking spaces develop cultures of their own, and those cultures tend to overshadow the culture you are trying to create for your company. Your team absorbs the norms of the space they sit in.

**The wrong crowd.** Many of the startups in a coworking space are going through the motions without being truly serious about their work. Proximity to that kind of environment is not neutral — it normalises a level of effort and urgency that you do not want your team to absorb.

**Conformity pressure.** The best startups have weird ideas and do some things very differently from average startups. Having your own space with a door you can close gives you the freedom to be different, to move at your own pace, and to build your own rituals.

## If You Must Use WeWork

Get an **enclosed office** — not a hot desk. An enclosed office gives you control over noise, culture, and access. A hot desk gives you none of those things.

## The Principle

Your physical environment shapes your culture. Control it deliberately.