This pair is rethinking how women can share space (and it’s not through coworking)

A shared desire to empower and forge relationships with ambitious women united Sandra Hong and Melissa Wong to found a new kind of community space for women in East Williamsburg.
Noticing an uptick in women’s groups and a need to gather in a more intentional way, the pair, both 29, envisioned a physical place for women to meet, connect and cultivate their passions. They landed a two-floor, 2,100 square foot space at 188 Woodpoint Rd., gave it the no-frills name New Women Space and just raised more than $17,000 on Kickstarter to help get it running (Kickstarter named it a “Project We Love.”) They just threw their launch party last Saturday.
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“We believe that there is a growing need to connect and to be seen in person,” Wong said. “We want it to be alive and full of activity with a real feeling of community. We hope that it will be a third space, a home away from this chaotic city.”
Both Wong and Hong dipped into their savings and quit their part-time jobs to commit full time to this project.
“We’re both bootstrapping and taking a risk,” Wong said. “Sometimes when you start a business, you have to pretend that you have everything figured out but it’s actually freeing to say that we don’t know.”
Both cofounders have experience running women-focused orgs. Wong previously launched Up Speak, a support group for professional women. Hong founded Girl Party, an events platform that aimed to unite women through unconventional spaces. Wong and Hong hope to continue working on their separate projects while continuing to build New Women Space.
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Unlike the rest of Brooklyn, the pair isn’t throwing another coworking space into the mix. (Though a women’s-only coworking space isn’t so novel.) Instead of renting out desks, they plan to make money through classes and other kinds of events, plus event space rental and merchandise sales. They do, however ,plan to offer “a collaborative work offering that will allow women who freelance or own their own businesses an opportunity to spend a series of workshop days with the same small cohort,” Wong said.
New Women Space will be focused on community classes, workshops and events. Within a week since opening applications for instructors, over sixty women have already applied.
“We’ve had applicants ranging from guitar tutors to life coaches to women wanting to give lessons on the history of Hindu-goddesses. The city has a rich pool of people who are into different things,” Wong said.
Workshops will focus on skill building for women in areas such as finance, marketing and professional development. Other events could include art exhibitions, live interview and watch parties, which would be co-produced with partners, sponsors, and organizations.
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The cofounders designed a model that aims to ensure that instructors will never lose money in collaboration with them, though Wong said it will take the first few months to determine if it is a dependable model.
“If you work with us, you’re never going to lose money,” Wong said.
The space will require a base fee plus percentage split of profits after ticket sales have ended.
Wong said she’s excited about the diversity of the crowd at their launch party.
“It was cool looking around the room and seeing men and women all from different backgrounds at our party,” she said. “We would feel like we had failed if there were only 24-year-old blond women.”