Blue Co was born out of firsthand experience and a clear gap in the market.

After stepping away from Founded Communities, I acquired a biohazard remediation company. One of the first things that struck me was that the business was operating out of a residential storage facility. As I looked closer, I realized this wasn’t unique—many service-based businesses like plumbers, electricians, and restoration companies were doing the same.

Running a company out of a storage facility was inefficient and frustrating. The experience made it clear that these businesses were settling for spaces that didn’t truly support their operations. That led me to ask a simple question: Could we take the flexibility and community of coworking and apply it to operational, service-based businesses?

To validate the idea, I partnered with a team of students from NC State’s e-Clinic to conduct in-depth customer discovery. The feedback was consistent and overwhelming—this was a real, widespread problem, and there was no purpose-built solution.

Across the cities we researched, operators repeatedly faced the same challenges:

1. Spaces that didn’t fully fit their needs, with no room to grow
2. No loading docks, forcing costly lift-gate deliveries
3. Time wasted waiting on shipments and coordinating access
4. Poor infrastructure for inventory, vehicles, and crews

And that was just the beginning.

With that insight—and with the guidance and support of my advisors—I made the decision in 2023 to step away from Raleigh and Cary Founded and launch Blue Co Warehousing: a flexible, community-driven warehouse and operations platform built specifically for service-based businesses.

The rise of AI, macroeconomic conditions, and cultural trends are increasing the supply of businesses Blue Co serves.

According to multiple reports from 2025, trade school enrollment rose approximately 14.4% from 2023 to 2024 alone and the 5 year annual growth rate is expected to grow around 6.6% through 2030. It was 3.2% for the 5 years prior. (1)

There are over a million unfulfilled skilled labor jobs in the US.

Additionally, the ‘convenience economy’ has driven over 1.1m third party sellers to be created in the US alone.

Then there’s the rise of unattended retail - smart vending, micro markets, and autonomous “smart stores” which leverage computer vision, cashless/tap-to-pay systems, and AI-driven inventory analytics. Smart vending and micro markets are growing ~13% annually projected to reach $10.5 billion by 2030 (2).

These types of businesses need flex space as they grow and this doesn’t even scratch the surface of HVAC, plumbing, and other trade-based businesses.

Our collective team and advisors have scaled business to over $100m in sales.

Our networks include businesses from various industries Blue Co serves so it gives us a “leg-up” when we’re having conversations with potential tenants.

This might explain our conversion stats.

We believe our proposal to conversion rate would be higher as we’ve had to turn down multiple potential tenants who toured because we don’t have enough space.

And yes, our platform also helps businesses receive their deliveries so they don’t have to ‘wait around’ or hire full time staff just for receiving.

There are of course competing companies in co-warehousing, but we have leveraged our network and experience in building co-working for over a decade to incorporate the key features the target businesses we serve need.

It’s not just that our families have chosen to call this place home and build businesses here.

NC has been ranked #1 for business by CNBC 3 out of the last 4 years.

In the worst case scenario, we become run a cash flow positive 5-location operation in NC which partially owns its real estate:

1. Raleigh
2. North Raleigh - planning to own real estate
3. Charlotte
4. Durham - planning to own real estate
5. Fuquay-Varina - rights to buy its real estate

But considering the demand we’re receiving organically, our plan is to expand throughout the Southeast with partners who want to solve this need for this growing segment of US small businesses.

Adding just 2 to 3 sites per year until we reach 20, we could be at $24m+ of annual revenue by 2032.

We’ve already identified 3 projects for 2026 alone.

And our projections above doesn’t even include the potential value of the real estate.

Additionally, we believe sustainable demand exists to open more than 4 locations per year and possibly even more by partnering with real estate partners.

For comparison, Raleigh Founded leases all of its locations and has made and continues to make real estate developers a lot of money.

So for Blue Co, we plan to be the real estate developer / general partner and share in 20% of the ownership. Then we lease that real estate back to Blue Co’s operating company, adding more value to our community-owned enterprise.

The future of Blue Co is co-ownership in and among its members and allies.

Collectively they invested to scale what is currently the fastest growing part of the employment economy and share in asset value created.

We welcome you to join our Blue Co investor community.

Warmly,

Jason Widen