What Jelly! does

Jelly is a community-driven coworking event network, not a software company. Founded in February 2006 in New York City by roommates Amit and Luke, the concept emerged from the founders' desire to retain the freedom of remote work while recovering the creative brainstorming and camaraderie of a traditional office environment. The model consists of semi-weekly work-together gatherings hosted in homes, coffee shops, or offices across more than 100 cities worldwide, organized by volunteer community members rather than a central operations team.

The service targets freelancers, independent professionals, designers, developers, musicians, cooks, photographers, writers, and other creative workers who want casual collaboration without the structure of formal coworking spaces or the isolation of working from home. Jelly provides chairs, sofas, wireless internet, and access to interesting people; participants bring their own laptops and a friendly disposition. The supporting infrastructure is lightweight: a website (workatjelly.com), a wiki directory (wiki.workatjelly.com) for locating local events, a Vimeo video, an email newsletter, and a Google Group for organizers. There is no proprietary software platform, no mobile application, and no API.

Jelly operates as a free community service with no pricing, no membership fees, no sponsorship revenue disclosed, and no monetization model. The company has not raised institutional funding and is founder-owned and bootstrapped. With approximately 8 employees, the organization functions more as a community steward than a commercial enterprise. Earned media coverage in Wired, NPR (multiple programs), CNN, NBC's Today Show, NY Post, and Current TV has built brand recognition within the coworking and future-of-work conversation, but the offering remains a non-commercial community concept rather than an investable venture.

Name

Jelly!

Website

https://workatjelly.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Jelly is a free, community-driven coworking event network operating semi-weekly gatherings in 100+ cities worldwide, serving freelancers, designers, developers, and creative professionals who collaborate in homes, coffee shops, or offices. Founded 2006 in NYC by Amit and Luke.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Coworking Community Services

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Coworking Cafes / Work Cafes (THAFADAJ)

Keywords

• Community coworking events
• Casual coworking meetups
• Freelancer collaborative workspace
• Informal coworking gatherings
• Peer-organized coworking

Headquarters

HQ city

New York City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Community Service (Free): Jelly operates as a free community service. No revenue is generated from participants. The founders (Amit and Luke) created Jelly to address their own need for collaborative workspace without monetization. The model is sustained by volunteer organizers who host events in their local areas.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Jelly! hosts casual, semi-weekly coworking events in homes, coffee shops, and offices where freelancers, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals bring their laptops to work alongside interesting people for collaboration and idea-sharing. Hosts provide basic physical amenities — chairs, sofas, a table, and wireless internet — and the community spans over 100 cities worldwide. The offering is free, community-driven, and operates as a non-commercial volunteer-organized event series.

Product overview

Jelly is a casual coworking/work-together event service, not a software product. The single offering is the Jelly coworking event model, where participants gather in various cities (over 100 worldwide) to work alongside interesting people in a home, coffee shop, or office setting. Participants bring their own laptop and work in proximity to designers, developers, musicians, cooks, photographers, writers, and other creative professionals, enabling collaboration and idea-sharing. The service connects the coworking community through organized events and provides resources for starting new Jelly events via the Jelly Organizers Group.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Jelly Coworking Events Casual, semi-weekly in-person coworking events held in homes, coffee shops, and offices across 100+ cities worldwide. Designed for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and creative professionals who bring their own laptops and work alongside interesting people for collaboration and idea-sharing. Hosts provide basic physical amenities (chairs, sofas, table, wireless internet); attendance is free.

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights1 record

Emerging players

• Coworker.com: Global coworking marketplace listing 25,000+ workspaces. Comparable as a discovery layer for freelancers seeking coworking environments; overlaps with Jelly's role of connecting remote workers to appropriate workspaces, though commercial rather than community-organized.
• Workfrom: Online community and directory for people seeking remote-friendly workspaces, cafes, and coworking-friendly locations. Comparable because it serves the same need — connecting remote workers to productive, social work environments — though delivered as a discovery platform rather than an event organizer.
• Nomad List / NomadX: Community-driven platform for digital nomads to discover cities, meetups, and workspaces. Comparable in serving the location-independent professional segment with a community-led, peer-organized structure, though digital-first rather than physical meetup-driven.

Direct peers

• Impact Hub: Global network of impact-focused coworking spaces with local community programming. Comparable in the 'global coworking network with local community chapters' model and freelancer/entrepreneur target audience.
• The Yard: Independent coworking operator in major US cities focused on creative professionals and small teams with strong member community programming. Comparable target customer (designers, makers, freelancers) and overlapping philosophy that community is the core product.
• Workbar: New England coworking network offering shared workspaces with community events and member gatherings. Comparable in serving independent professionals in suburban/non-urban markets and emphasizing peer-driven collaboration.

Broad incumbents

• Spaces: International coworking brand owned by IWG, offering flexible office space with curated community events. Comparable in serving the same freelancer/independent-professional segment and emphasizing creative collisions, but operating as a paid, fixed-location network.
• Industrious: Premium flexible workspace operator with member community events and programming. Comparable target customer (independent professionals, freelancers) and overlapping value proposition of 'workspace plus community,' but delivered via subscription offices rather than free rotating gatherings.
• WeWork: Largest global coworking brand offering paid shared workspaces with community programming. Comparable because both serve independent professionals seeking collaborative work environments, though WeWork operates fixed, paid locations rather than Jelly's free, rotating, volunteer-hosted model.

Others

• BarCamp: Grassroots, volunteer-organized unconference series with global chapters. Comparable because it is a community-organized, free, peer-run gathering model referenced directly by Jelly's founders (Amit co-organized BarCamp NYC), sharing the same decentralized self-organizing philosophy.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/jelly-

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Jelly!