They share business and technology resources, network with each other and hang out around the beer-stocked refrigerator, but they’re notcoworkers; they’re coworking.

The entrepreneurial trend is surging throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, and Chester County’s own Walnut St. Labs in West Chester is a hotbed for coworking and innovation.

“Today, everyone is focused on finding the next big thing, and it isn’t found by one person,” Philly coworking site CityCoHo Manager Drew Foulkes said in a Philly.com report this week. “It’s about finding it with the help of a support system.”

Indy Hall Founder Alex Hillman added that coworking has surged 100 percent per year globally for at least the past five years.

“Entrepreneurs in fields from law to cooking to clothes are flocking to the shared environments of coworking spaces because they offer cheap space along with the contacts and resources to grow a fledgling business,” the article stated.

Walnut St. Labs aims to foster new innovations in the county and beyond by providing coworking and meeting space, access to technology, marketing and software development services, ongoing events and training, investment and special projects. And the environment itself has become an attraction for innovators.

“People come to feed off the different kind of energy that’s here,” COO Mary Fisher said in an earlier VISTA Today article.

The company’s investments target “‘pre early-stage’ innovations and then supercharge them with hyper-focused go-to-market strategies, product development roadmaps, engineering support, marketing, legal and other back-office support.”

Read more about the surging coworking trend on Philly.com here, and check out VISTA Today’s coverage of Walnut St. Labs’ contribution to it here.