Tired of holding business meetings at coffee shops and bored with working alone at home, two L.A. entrepreneurs decided they needed an office. Then they realized that if they were struggling to find a place to work, other office-less Angelenos might have the same problem.

So Avesta Rasouli and Cameron Kashani decided to open the CoLoft, a collaborative office space with desks and meeting rooms for rent.

“Starbucks wasn’t working and neither was home,” Kashani said. “The lack of social interaction was turning us into zombies.”

The colorfully decorated Santa Monica loft can hold about 40 people at computer workstations, empty desks and conference rooms. With large open spaces and group work areas, the CoLoft model encourages collaboration, Kashani said.

“This space is good because people get to speak together and work together,” she said. “It sparks more creativity.”

Kashani and Rasouli, who are engaged to be married this summer, go to CoLoft every day to run their two startup websites, medical document delivery site Medminister and mobile application site Appshows. The couple used revenue from the websites, plus some savings, to open the CoLoft for business in February.

Since then, they have relied on word of mouth and curious passers-by to find members. Currently, about 15 to 20 people rent space at CoLoft each day, including founders of small tech startups, entrepreneurs and freelancers. Rates range from $35 for a day pass to $495 per month.

Desk and computer stations are first-come, first-served. Members can reserve the meeting rooms by using an online schedule.

Although the couple struggled at first to afford the pricey rent of their Santa Monica Boulevard building, Rasouli said the area’s strong tech community – it’s home to the headquarters of Mahalo.com, and the L.A. offices of Yahoo and Google – made it a natural fit for CoLoft.

“Santa Monica just happens to be a very techie town,” he said. “It’s helped us become a little hub for startups.”