Coworking, as commonly envisioned, doesn't seem to work so well in a geographically dispersed city like Houston. Commute distances and commuting are too large, and the population of freelancers and the self-employed is dispersed enough to be a big challenge to the benefits of coworking. (Serendipity being chief among these) This is despite Houston's being the 4th largest city in the US.<p>That said, the resulting isolation is still a big problem for freelancers and the self-employed here. Perhaps widespread retail coworking centers with select services (like high-end telecommuting) could work. They'd have to offer something above and beyond the local Starbucks.
All of these models rely on physical components in the user experience. Good code is just one small piece of the startups here. Maybe a factor in why these models are seeing success.