Pioneering coworking space Affinity Lab changes hands

It was love at first sight, but he didn’t know it yet.
Mike LaRosa is the new CEO and co-owner of Affinity Lab, possibly the first coworking space in the country.
Wednesday, the space announced its acquisition by an investor group led by LaRosa — a coworking consultant and organizer for the Global Coworking Unconference Conference.
“Affinity Lab was actually the first coworking space that I ever visited back in 2009,” he said. At the time, he was charting the best places to work in D.C. for the Washington Business Journal.
Besides being created in 2001 — that’s near-antiquity in the timeline of the coworking movement — what also sets the U Street space apart from its growing field of competitors is that “people that are members of this space, it’s like a family,” said LaRosa.

He began planning for the acquisition in May when he returned to D.C. after wandering the world, and sought a place where he could settle to work in.
“I hate working at Starbucks, I hate working at home,” he said.
As the new CEO, he hopes to update the company’s business strategy by developing a new pricing model, upgrading the facilities and changing the membership benefits.
LaRosa has also “considered the possibility” of expanding, once these changes kick into gear.