Work it

Keith Pandeloglou is so confident in the future of the co-working space model, he quit his six-figure sales job to start his own business in the industry.

Pandeloglou is doing that with CoworkLWR, in Lakewood Ranch in east Manatee County. Pandeloglou spent the past six years with the Lakewood Ranch office of national human resources consulting firm TriNet. First he worked in IT, and then he oversaw a sales team that grew from three to 75 people under his leadership. He left in January to start CoworkLWR and a consulting firm for entrepreneurs and startups, UTC Venture Group.

Pandeloglou realizes this is far from a sure thing, given how new the model is to the area. Lakewood Ranch, while a hub for Sarasota-Manatee companies, also doesn't have the mass of businesses and people where co-working spaces traditionally thrive.