Alex Marshall
@marsh931
Having worked in a couple of coworking spaces, I've found that they aren't as social as I would have expected. Do you think that's because there isn't a platform available for people to connect on? Or just because they don't want to be social; they want to do their work and go home?
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dimitar inchev
@idmtr · Team Coworkies & StartupBerlin.co
@marsh931 Hey Alex, thanks for the question. I would say it depends on the space and the needs of people. We started Coworkies in the Rainmaking Loft coworking in Berlin where they get only startups. Few blocks away is Betahaus a coworking space with a lot of freelancers. So, we started to solve that problem how people see each other between different coworking spaces and look for ways to work together. Which spaces have you worked at?
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Joost Schuur
@joostschuur · Product manager, Playmob
@marsh931 Bigger places like WeWork make an effort to put on various events and informal gatherings for new members especially, but the downside can be that too much community and socialising with too many like minded people can make it hard to focus. Combine that with an open plan space, even for teams, and things can get quite noise quickly.
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dimitar inchev
@idmtr · Team Coworkies & StartupBerlin.co
@joostschuur Yup, during our research we found out that people in coworking spaces don't need a new Facebook like platform that is too social.
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Joost Schuur
@joostschuur · Product manager, Playmob
@idmtr WeWork has a whole members network, but a big chunk of it seemed to be members attempting to networking and sell services rather than socialising.
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dimitar inchev
@idmtr · Team Coworkies & StartupBerlin.co
@joostschuur That's to extend is also the feedback we got from people we interviewed. I am planning to write a more extensive blog post also on the survey we did as people join coworking spaces for a variety of reasons. This also is reflected in the type of coworking spaces they join. For now our approach with Coworkies is very lean, so we can facilitate what actually people need - work related opportunities, help or advice. We also talked to now over 60 coworking spaces about their needs and how we can help to promote the work done in each of them.
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Joost Schuur
@joostschuur · Product manager, Playmob
@idmtr FWIW, I found WeWork to simply be too big. It felt more like a real estate provider who went for scale beyond anything else.
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Attila Ilman
@attilailman · CEO, Hobtime
@idmtr @joostschuur Hi Dimitar, your focus makes a lot of sense. We noticed that people are not really social in such spaces. A directory of skills or services would be more useful so that help people find each other. Perhaps you should also motivate them to put their linkedin profile, or even force them to register with it. I can imagine browsing through lists of let's say web designers and then approach one that works at a space close to me.
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dimitar inchev
@idmtr · Team Coworkies & StartupBerlin.co
Hey @attilailman, spot on comment! Thanks for your personal insight. Indeed finding people on a local and global level is our focus now. As many people need local collaborators and on the other hand many startups need initial help in other cities. Regarding the social login option, we added it on our roadmap. Coming very very soon!
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