Prospect Commons

Prospect Commons is a tight-knit community of tech workers and entrepreneurs who live and work in Central Brooklyn.

We’re in our early days. Read more about what we’re trying to do, or jump ahead to join us:

⁠

Background

The tech scene in New York City tends to cluster in Manhattan. This makes sense because Manhattan is historically the nexus of corporate activity—the lowest-common-denominator center of the city.

But the NYC tech scene has grown and changed in recent years. Many of us who live in Brooklyn don’t want or need to commute to Manhattan anymore, including freelancers, founders, and fully remote or hybrid workers. Increasingly, there are also small startups rooted in the area.

Many people I know are working on their own projects or at fully-remote startups, but they’re tired of:

The isolation of working from home 100% of the time

Not having an in-person community of coworkers they can chat with or meet up with

Paying for an expensive or VC-backed coworking space that still lacks a community feel

Prospect Commons aims to fix all that, while having a grassroots feel that’s not trying to hyperscale in any way. We’re just a group of people who want to feel the magic of working with others, all within our own neighborhoods.

So, what is this exactly?

In its first iteration, this community is:

A hyper-local Slack community. Chat about topics of interest, share progress and get feedback, or just goof off a little, knowing that everyone you’re chatting with lives and works nearby.

A distributed coworking space. One or two days a week, go work from someone’s apartment or other common space. Get a change of scenery and get in the zone with other people trying to build great things.

As the community grows, we could expand to:

~Monthly events like meetups and tech talks. I already have access to an ideal space for these! We just need to identify topics people would be interested in and start putting this together.

Eventually, a dedicated coworking space. I considered just going for it and starting this as a small business, but I realized this would entail a lot of risk that I wasn’t willing to personally take on just yet. But this is still the long-term dream: a physical space to anchor the community in.

Who should (or shouldn’t) join?

Prospect Commons is ideally suited for freelancers, startup founders, and fully-remote workers who miss working in person. People who work at larger companies are welcome to join, but the community will have more of a small-scale focus.

If you’re at a small startup based in Brooklyn with your own office space, I encourage you to join. You can cross-pollinate with other startups in the area and help out the community by hosting coworking days. I think this can be a excellent way for you to recruit local talent in an organic way.

Because this community will initially grow out of my network, it will likely skew towards software engineers with an enterprise/B2B focus who are mid/late career. That said, I want all sorts of people to join: PMs, designers, marketers, salespeople, people building consumer companies, and more junior folks as well.

Who are you?

My name is Vipul, and I’m a product engineer who’s lived in Central Brooklyn since 2018. I’ve spent my career in enterprise software wearing many hats: product, client-facing, frontend, backend, and design work.

I love thinking about people and social dynamics, and shaping spaces and situations that help people connect with one another. I host people regularly at my apartment for gatherings and coworking days, and Prospect Commons is my attempt to grow what I’ve found to be successful at a smaller scale.

To learn more about me, you can read through my

personal website⁠

. Here are a few blog posts that seem to have resonated with folks online:

⁠

Beyond introvert vs. extrovert⁠

⁠

GPT makes learning fun again⁠

⁠

Reflections on a Sabbatical⁠

⁠

How do I join?

The process is simple:

Fill out the form below or just email me at

vipul@vipshek.com⁠

⁠

I’ll grab time to chat with you for 15 mins

I’ll add you to the Slack, which is also where coworking days are organized

I chat with everyone just to make sure all members feel invested and excited to actively participate. And because I’ll be talking to everyone who’s joining, I can help connect each member with others who share their interests.

⁠

Join us!

⁠

What’s “Central Brooklyn”?

A city like New York is defined more by transit accessibility than by actual geographic distance. I’m using the term to refer to the parts of Brooklyn off the A/C, 2/3, 4/5, B/D, N/Q/R/W, and F trains.

L train Brooklynites (and Manhattan residents) are welcome to participate, but we want the community to cluster around this southern half of Brooklyn.

If you really really want a strict definition, let’s say this: Any part of Brooklyn within 30-mins transit distance of Atlantic Av-Barclays Center:

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.