OpenDesks: platform to connect freelancers and workspace pivots to launch CityPages startup community directory

In 2011, Chris DiFonzo launched OpenDesks, a service that would connect freelancers with open workspaces. More than 1,500 registered office spaces later, here’s what he’s learned:

“The need for paid space on demand is,” he wrote to the Philly Startup Leaders listserv, “sporadic.”

So, having already raised an undisclosed amount of funding, what’s next? [Updated, see below]

DiFonzo’s looking to a startup community directory. It’ll be your go-to place to find and get access to spaces, events and resources, he says, and he’s calling it CityPages.

Sign up here.

DiFonzo expects to launch by the end of the year.

There’s been talk on the PSL listserv of the need for a community directory like this. DuckDuckGo founder Gabriel Weinberg in particular has written to the listserv about a need for “a set of software tools to foster community connections,” including an all-encompassing startup jobs board and a Philly Crunchbase/AngelList, and recently updated his site FoundedinPhilly.com for that reason. If CityPages can span the whole community, the real question will be if the community itself will embrace it.

[Full Disclosure: Technically Philly has a jobs board.]

Updated 11:09 a.m. 11/1/12: The previous version of this article incorrectly stated that OpenDesks had raised $1.3 million, but actually, OpenDesks has raised an undisclosed amount of funding.