I’ve been stretched with client work and other personal situations, and I haven’t spent much time at my desk. This also meant I didn’t get a chance to celebrate European Coworking Day yesterday (6th May); however, I’ve absolutely loved seeing all the updates from the coworking spaces in my network – keep them coming!

Despite the busyness of this week, I did attend a thought-provoking panel breakfast event on why members stay in flexible workspaces, hosted by technologywithin and NORNORM at Uncommon Holborn on Tuesday.

After reflecting on the panel discussion takeaways, I realised that some of the insights were too important not to share with you…

Member retention is perhaps the most essential aspect of running a coworking space. But why members stay — or leave — can be due to a combination of factors, some that keep cropping up, others that are unique for each member.

Landing on what impacts member retention can really help operators focus on the right things when running a workspace.

Tuesday’s panellists, whose job titles ranged from managing directors to heads of sales at some of the big flex players, including JLL, Huckletree, and x+why, shared various anecdotes from their own experiences.

As ever, these insights made me reflect on my coworking experiences. So, let’s get into it.

Why do people leave coworking spaces?

No matter how much work you put into delivering the best possible member experience, people terminate their coworking membership for a variety of reasons that may be beyond your control. These range from financial challenges to simply outgrowing a workspace.

If one of your members grows their business beyond the scale of your workspace, see this as a positive reason for their departure. It shows that your workspace did its bit in supporting an entrepreneur and/or business.

But if a member needs more space, and if you have your own growth plans, then perhaps forming a partnership can help retain that member and grow your coworking business.

This is exactly what happened at Mantle Space. When I spoke to CEO Guy Baker, he shared how one of their members only started with four desks the month the workspace launched. Soon after, the company needed two rooms and then upgraded to an entire floor.

Mantle Space even converted a 3,500 square feet office, which their member occupied for six years, before having a 9,000 square feet purpose-built office that the company have recently signed for a new 10-year lease.

One of Guy’s secrets to retaining coworking members was around engagement. Even though he’s the CEO, he wouldn’t hesitate to pick up the phone to a loyal member, and prides his team on their active engagement with members.

This was also discussed at the event. You can get ahead of your members’ growth plans by asking them regularly how their business is doing. That way, you can forecast whether they’ll likely stay, leave, or need something that requires more investment, such as a purpose-built office or floor.

Members may also leave when small frustrations build up over time. Often these issues are fixable, such as an unreliable internet connection. Catching issues early makes all the difference.

The last workspace I was a member of was an open-plan space. Everyone needed to respect one another during phone conversations; however, one particular member took multiple phone calls throughout the day and was extremely loud.

Eventually, we vocalised our frustrations to the community manager. She took the feedback on board, quietly taking said member aside to speak about the issue, which he received well, and we didn’t have many problems after that.

Of course, the reason this issue cropped up in the first place was that the space didn’t have any private areas, such as phone booths, for taking calls. Identifying issues early on can avoid friction points. In this case, that would involve purchasing a few phone booths for the space early on.

The essential role of community managers

In the example I just shared, the situation was handled really well, mainly due to our relationships with the community manager. We felt comfortable enough to share our frustrations with her; equally, the member causing the issue received feedback well. Essentially, no one left the space.

The event also highlighted the essential role of community managers in maintaining member satisfaction. It’s often the people closest to your members who truly understand what’s going on in the space. Community managers are typically in the workspace every day — they’re the ones nurturing and building relationships.

Meanwhile, general managers, operators, and owners might maintain a distance between members (although I’ve spoken to many operators/owners who are extremely close to their members).

One recommendation included: establishing an open-door policy to encourage members to come and talk about anything they need. Having regular check-ins with members helps the team learn what’s working and what needs improving in the space.

Community managers are usually on the ground, but in some cases, they also operate as receptionists and are therefore tied to a front desk. This means they can’t be as personable with members or see everything going on.

Although the recommendation was to have both a community manager on the ground and a host at reception, sitting behind a front desk can actually create a physical barrier between a team member and a customer, which isn’t the most welcoming first impression.

It’s something that Will Guidara wrote about in his bestselling book, Unreasonable Hospitality – the idea that these interactions come across as transactional.

When you ditch the front desk, podium, or the physical barrier between your team member and community member, you can provide a more personal and welcoming experience.

Remember: that’s the welcome your customers receive every time they walk into your space.

Does cost matter?

Workspace design impacts member experience, but when the audience was asked what they felt was the most important factor influencing member experience, the answers were split between two factors that arguably matter more: team and price.

In terms of price point, managers are sometimes in danger of prioritising new leads over retaining existing members. They create exceptional introductory offers while neglecting members who’d been part of the space for years.

It made me think back to the same coworking space I joined, where, only a year and a half into my membership, we were informed of a membership price increase in the coming months. This news wasn’t received well, and some of our group started looking for a new workspace.

The problem was that there was nothing to justify that pricing. It wasn’t a significant amount (something like £25 extra per month), but we didn’t feel like we were getting any additional value from the space, which was actually due to relocate up the road, to somewhere less desirable, in a building that wasn’t being managed in the same way. The space was becoming less premium, yet we were expected to pay more.

The coworking space also continued to offer incredible discounts to new members, including a free trial day and a ‘5 for £5’ offer, inviting non-members to work from the space for five consecutive days for only £5.

Although it was sold as an introductory offer, it cheapened the space. People would come and go, trialling it without sticking around. Transient ‘clients’ can be challenging, but it’s because of freebies and low-cost offers that don’t convert them into longer-term members.

At the event, it was discussed that the same discounts for new leads could be applied to existing members, but why offer a discount in the first place? If you know your pricing and you understand what members are prepared to pay, stick with that and increase pricing for new members as your overheads rise.

That way, you hopefully won’t run out of money and make panicky decisions, causing members to leave en masse.

What makes a coworking member stay — or leave

Ultimately, the panel reinforced something I’ve believed about coworking for a long time: members rarely stay because of one headline feature, such as internet connectivity or workspace design. It’s because of how a space makes them feel over time.

Members stay in spaces where they feel listened to, looked after, and understood. They stay where problems are addressed early, where teams notice when something feels “off”, and where operators build genuine relationships instead of transactional ones.

Perhaps that’s the biggest takeaway from this week’s discussion. Retention isn’t really about convincing people not to leave, but about consistently giving them reasons to stay.

The operators who do this best aren’t necessarily the ones with the fanciest fit-outs or the biggest discounts. They’re the ones who keep talking to their members, adapting as their needs evolve, and understanding that community experience is shaped in hundreds of small interactions every single day.

Until next time,

Lucy

Following a 20-year career in commercial property as a Director at JLL, Zoe worked across the hotel, retail, industrial, and logistics sectors before launching Spaces to Places in 2019 to support flex operators and landlords with research, placemaking, and marketing services. At its core, Spaces to Places is about defining what a place actually is and making flexible working work better for everybody.

Building on that mission, Zoe launched a new venture earlier this year: Office Tier List — after identifying a lack of clarity and end-user focus in the coworking market. Office Tier List brings greater transparency to the flexible workspace sector, helping end users understand and compare different workspaces.

In this conversation, Zoe shares what people are actually looking for in their workspaces and how truly understanding end-user needs, rather than just second-guessing them, is the greatest flex of all for coworking operators.

1. What first pulled you into the flexible workspace industry?

Zoe: What first pulled me in was a few different projects I was working on. I left JLL after a 20-year career in commercial property, working across all sectors: hotels, retail, industrial, and logistics. Lots of different things were happening, and having my son suddenly changed my perspective. I wanted to have some work-life balance and work closer to home.

The flex office sector was really changing the market; it was becoming more consumer-oriented and appealing. Having worked in hotels and retail, the office industry matched my skill set, and I started picking up contracts with large corporations. It was grassroots; that’s how Spaces to Places started.

Originally, Spaces to Places was going to focus on all property sectors, before I narrowed it down to the Build To Rent (BTR) and coworking industries. Everybody says the flex sector just draws you in; it’s fascinating. You start looking at the sector and understand the dynamics more and more.

My experience has always been place-making. That’s why my company is called Spaces to Places; I see spaces as empty and soulless in some ways. But a place has people, purpose, and meaning. It’s the difference between a house and a home. That’s where the big difference lies.

2. What problem were you seeing in the flex industry that made launching the Office Tier List feel necessary?

Zoe: In the commercial property industry, there’s a lot of ‘hope marketing’ (where time and money are invested in random marketing tactics in the hope that they bring in customers, with no underlying understanding of the location and demand drivers, and not enough focus on end-users).

I was constantly telling people you can’t just do ‘hope marketing,’ you need to understand your target market: who they are and their location. That’s coming from a much more end-user-centric perspective, and it’s exactly what we’re doing with the Office Tier List. We’re flipping it on its head.

Sometimes, I feel like the industry has been set up more for the property industry, not for end users. We’ve done quite a lot of research reports, including four last year, the last one being the ‘Voice of the Customer,’ which opened my mind up to the fact that we’re doing end users such a disservice.

There are so many wonderful workspaces, some are more industrial, others are more corporate — but there’s a flavour for everyone. Office Tier List is a matchmaking service connecting people with the right workspace for them.

We’re still using the same intelligence and know-how with Spaces to Places that we use with our clients’ workspace brands. But with Office Tier List, we’re targeting a different audience: end users.

Tier lists came from the gaming industry. You can decide who’s the fastest character or the strongest character. You can then put them in different tiers and decide which players you want when you’re gaming. Loads of people use tier lists, for example, children, to ascertain which is their favourite chocolate bar.

The whole purpose of Office Tier List is to celebrate the diversity of the market and help end users find great workspaces. We want everyone to be able to find the right workspace and understand the industry better.

3. What are some of the key metrics or signals you look at when assessing a workspace?

Zoe: It comes back to what the end user wants from their workspace. They need to know their needs, whether they’re looking for other businesses and energy, community and support, or access to training programmes.

Some businesses want greater productivity; they’re looking for head-down space and time efficiency, but in other cases, they’re looking at CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) factors.

We do a lot of work with brands. If you want productivity and control, and to access workplaces between regions, then maybe Regus is the place for you. Or maybe it’s WeWork — if you’re looking for a busy place. For fun and enjoyment, try Runway East. Meanwhile, Spacemade has a fashion and health business cluster, and Techspace is a tech-focused space, where you’ll meet other ambitious businesses in that sector.

To understand workspaces better, the easiest way to think about them is with a four-stage model:

You look at physical properties first: the building and location. That’s the key one, because you’re always going to want to work out the location. But what type of location – is it city centre or out of town? They all have different nuances.

Then you look at the intangibles of the service element, such as the people, processes and placemaking. That’s always our second level.

The third level is much more about your perception – is the price high or low, compared to what value it’s offering you? Pricing is always subjective because it comes down to customer value.

The final one is analysing workplace performance – is it constantly evolving? Are they looking after their assets? Who are their property partners? Who are they working with? Sometimes we see brand-new, shiny office buildings come up, but after five years, some still look brand-new, while others look tired.

Our ‘Voice of the Customer’ report uncovered that people and businesses are searching for Wi-Fi and meeting rooms. While we might assume they’re looking for gyms and other amenities, it turns out most people are thinking about the basics.

The other thing people are searching for is whether a workspace is furnished. That’s where the end customer doesn’t realise some of that is a given in coworking, although there are spaces where you take an empty shell.

Partly, that’s because they don’t understand this industry. We’re all constantly trying to educate, but it’s not always landing. That’s when we find people asking what’s included in the cost of coworking. We tend to overthink things in this industry, so we’ve got to go back to the basics.

Once people get into this sector and understand it, they’re blown away by these places. We want to get people to spend more than a day or a week, to really ingrain themselves in a community, and see what it means.

Overall, we make too many assumptions about what people want. That’s what the ‘Voice of the Customer’ research really showed us. Most people have worked in an office and have expectations, but as operators, we don’t do the research to find out what those expectations are; we think we know already.

Recently, I went to a student accommodation conference. That sector spends a lot of time understanding their end customers, like what students want in their accommodation, and their expectations. They’ve got phenomenal data and didn’t assume anything.

4. How do you factor in the human side of a workspace: community, belonging, or day-to-day experience?

Zoe: It depends on the end user. Neighbourhood workspaces are for people looking for a sense of belonging, especially the sole entrepreneur, who we’ve seen a rise in recently.

But the only thing about community is it’s two-sided, and you have to work at it. I see some amazing places, but you need the right culture to keep on inviting people, even if they say no.

Our research revealed that people want to feel like they’re a member – they want to be invited and know they could go to events even if they don’t attend. It’s nice to be invited and feel included. It’s the same with gym memberships. People like being part of a gym and knowing it’s there, even though they might not use it that much.

Sometimes, I find community is a trade-off. People are really drawn in by a community, but don’t necessarily get involved. For example, larger businesses tend to have their own culture, meeting rooms, and office space, but they try to get the best of both worlds by joining a coworking community. Having their own company culture makes it harder, though.

Meanwhile, other companies choose more managed space to meet their size requirements. They’re not looking for community beyond that. And some people’s prime need is head-down space. If it’s noisy at home, or they’re constantly out and about selling, they need a quiet space for work. That’s a different need.

Other people with a competitive nature like to see others working around them. Or businesses in growth mode have a work culture where everyone comes in and works late or on different hours. They need micro moments more than community – rather than having long conversations, it’s more about seeing other people working, and feeling part of something bigger, so you don’t feel lonely.

When people look at workspaces, a good question to ask is: What are the other businesses in the building? Generally, the people coming to the community are the ones who can go up and ask others what they think, who are open and transparent.

5. Which coworking trends are you excited about, and which ones make you a bit sceptical?

Zoe: I’m excited about the industry maturing. Today, brands are focusing on their customer and doing persona work — knowing who they’re for and who’s not right for their community.

That’s where we really see the big players in the market grow their locations. Those brands are tuning into the right buildings, locations, and attracting the right people. Some offer coworking, serviced offices, enterprise suites, or virtual memberships exclusively; others provide the full spectrum — supporting businesses from one desk to 100. That’s where I’m seeing much more diversity coming into the industry.

We’ve also got more niche coworking spaces: maker spaces, health tech centres, a vibrant mix of creatives, or people in the music industry. That’s where we’re seeing these specialists coming together and evolving their models.

The brands with more locations know what works for them and who they connect with. They’ve built tribes. What excites me is seeing the evolution of elevated standards in flex.

The industry has been constantly progressing since COVID, but it’s always disheartening to see the other side when spaces close down. They’ve built up a community and want to get that mix going, but haven’t been financially viable. Creating a great end-user customer experience is one thing, but it must be commercially viable.

The misconception is that you can set up a workspace and make huge amounts of money, but there’s more to it than that. The service element is particularly hard work.

This industry has been around for a long time now — 50 years for the serviced office sector. But it’s only starting to really mature, that’s the joy of it. As the industry progresses, I’m seeing more people benefit, which brings more investment to the industry and helps it evolve even further.

In the UK, over 70% of workspaces have one to three locations. While it’s always been quite fragmented and location-oriented, we’re now seeing some bigger brands with greater size and scale. We also still have the small independents. That’s where I’m celebrating diversity across the board.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking space founders and community builders who share their journeys of bringing people together.

Edition #27 of People Make Coworking interviews Zoe Ellis-Moore, CEO and founder at Spaces to Places and Office Tier List.

Read more coworking stories.

On my very first day, I was introduced to two people in the community, who came up and just started chatting to me. In the first week, I went for lunch with someone. By the end of my first month, I’d been going to the workspace several times a week and felt a true sense of belonging.

But when that coworking space sadly closed down, I decided not to join another workspace straight away. Instead, I started working regularly from a coworking café in Bermondsey.

Although it was conveniently located close to my gym, with fast WiFI and a bit of a buzz, and was perfectly fine for getting work done, it was completely different from the coworking space. And despite calling itself a coworking café, it wasn’t really “coworking” in the traditional sense.

While I had the odd conversation with someone sitting next to me, I never saw that person again, nor did I ever get invited to a social or get properly friendly with someone.

It felt like a distanced version of coworking where people shared space, rather than time. Not only that, but the coworking café didn’t provide the conditions for people to flourish. There weren’t the same opportunities offered at my coworking space, yet I still went along.

I’m now starting to unpack why.

In fact, this situation raises a bigger question for coworking operators: What are people choosing when they decide not to join a coworking space?

Let’s dive into this.

The real choice isn’t coworking vs coworking

When we talk about competition in coworking, it’s easy to assume that workspaces are competing with other spaces opening nearby. Another operator launches down the road, or a new workspace enters your area, and you worry about the impact on your space.

But the new workspace down the road isn’t the real competition, because people are still choosing between their local cafe, library, or hotel lobby. In some cases, they’re not leaving their homes at all, preferring the comforts of working from home rather than being out all day.

This is in part due to the large number of people who still don’t know what coworking is, or don’t understand its value. I’ve heard people misunderstand coworking as a private office, or on the other end of the spectrum, an expensive, noisy café.

But the true power of coworking is a place where connections form, businesses develop, ideas spread, and new opportunities happen.

Without stepping into a coworking space first, many people won’t understand its value. So they continue to pop into cafes and lobbies, thinking that’s the best place to get their work done.

Making your coworking space truly welcoming

How do we go about spreading awareness of coworking so that people not only learn that your coworking space exists, but that they understand the power of coworking?

I’m not suggesting that you offer a free day pass. Although some spaces choose to provide day passes, it can devalue a workspace as community managers spend valuable time with prospects who never return again.

But don’t discount (pun intended) giving people ways to access your space. You could host out-of-hour events at your space in the evenings or on weekends, or offer a short free session that just opens the doors on a quiet morning.

When I recently spoke to coworking expert Maggie Terhune, she told me about Baltimore Coworking Week – an incredible programme she co-created, where the local workspaces will open their doors across one week in August.

They also hosted events, with one on the topic of how those coworking spaces were supporting people’s businesses. The inaugural event was such a success that Maggie and her team ran it again last year, coinciding with International Coworking Day.

Baltimore Coworking Week reflects the industry’s collaboration over competition mindset; the Baltimore coworking spaces came together to provide workspace for the same prospects.

We must remember that we don’t compete with other spaces, but appreciate that every player adds something special to the ecosystem. A neighbourhood workspace may be best suited for a creative or a parent with fragmented time, whereas a branded workspace in the city centre attracts start-ups and business owners.

Each coworking space brings something different to the table.

The true power of coworking

When people choose third spaces (cafés, hotel lobbies etc.) over a dedicated workspace, or they don’t discover coworking spaces, they’re missing out on the power of coworking.

I’ve seen a really great example of this from the workspace I joined, where two members have just launched a brand new cafe in Chingford together. Their launch party was last weekend.

Without the coworking space, they wouldn’t have met. But it goes deeper than that, because there were certain conditions in the space that deepened our connections, such as:

• The community manager facilitated connections between members

• Regular workshops and social events held at the space brought the community together to share ideas (and have fun)

• The design of the workspace enabled serendipitous connections, such as the kitchen area in the middle of the space

• Community members were awesome, extremely friendly, and welcoming to everyone

This is where coworking spaces totally differ from third spaces. Though ideal for short bursts of activity, third spaces don’t facilitate the conditions for development beyond that.

You wouldn’t really move around a cafe quite so freely, or be introduced to someone without building a relationship first. Some cafes run events (my ex-coworkers are doing that), but most people are coming into a third space to work, and won’t necessarily participate or be aware that those events exist.

That’s not how a community is built.

In coworking, your core service is the service (or hospitality). That’s what brings people back into your space day after day, signing up for membership, a desk or a private office.

The more people show up and engage with a space, the stronger those connections are — building a true sense of belonging. It’s such a powerful differentiator for coworking spaces.

Why belonging is the real competitive advantage

More often than not, people are deciding between paying for a coworking space or defaulting to something that’s already available to them for free: a café, a library or even their kitchen table.

All of these places offer somewhere to sit and work, but they don’t create the same outcomes, and that’s where coworking is fundamentally different from other spaces you can cowork. It creates the conditions for people to return, recognise one another, build relationships, and, over time, to feel part of something.

Those moments of connection, the conversations, and the collaborations rarely happen by accident but are shaped by the environment, people, and the way a space is run day to day.

For operators, your task isn’t simply to compete on space, price, or amenities. It’s to think more deliberately about how welcoming your space actually is in practice, rather than how it looks or feels at first glance, but what happens after someone walks through the door.

To get started, ask these questions:

• Do you introduce new members and visitors to someone when they first come in?

• Do they then go and speak to people of their own accord?

• Have you seen any serendipitous moments, events, or workshop requests coming out of member interactions?

• What feedback are you getting from members when they move on to somewhere else about the level of hospitality in your space?

I’d love to know what you find out! Don’t hesitate to reach out.

The true power of coworking is no longer just about finding somewhere to go. It becomes about finding somewhere to belong.

Until next time,

Lucy

From his own experience of navigating a new city in Tallinn, Estonia, Alistair recognised a common challenge among expats around building meaningful connections in a quieter society. In response, Alistair started hosting informal networking sessions at a trendy cafe every Friday.

For two years, these sessions brought together business, academic, and government people – the “triple helix,” as Alistair refers to it – before it became clear that the community needed a more permanent home.

That new home became Fraqmented, a coworking space in Tallinn that Alistair set up with two entrepreneurs, Cagatay and Markus, whom he met through his networking sessions. Celebrating diversity, Fraqmented welcomes people from all walks of life, working in different industries and from all parts of the globe.

Alistair’s journey reflects a consistent thread: connecting people across boundaries. Fraqmented is a space where meaningful relationships and impactful ideas can flourish. This conversation shares how the coworking space came to be.

1. What sparked the inspiration behind Fraqmented?

Alistair: People move to Estonia for many different reasons. I’m British, Cagatay is Turkish, and Markus is Danish — we all moved here for a better quality of life. But when we arrived, we also shared similar challenges around integrating and getting to know people in a quiet, slightly insular society.

I set up my own networking group to meet people in the city. Every Friday, we had a day of connecting on a Viking long table at the front of a famous art gallery and cafe, owned by a Swedish design company, called Fotografiska.

People could just walk in; there were no rules. It was a triple helix – for government, academic, and business people.

It went on for two years. We started growing and growing, booking the table weekly, but every now and again, the cafe wouldn’t honour our booking, because they’d have a big event and needed the space. We were bringing over 20 people to their cafe every Friday, eating cakes and drinking coffee. After a while, we realised we were getting nothing out of the deal.

We built up a community, and then a lady took it upon herself to become our community manager. I met my cofounders through the Friday networking event, who were sitting at one of the Viking long tables, but I didn’t know them well enough until they approached me to set things up properly. They’re serial entrepreneurs with great ideas, and they felt that I was good at building this network. Within two months of approaching me, we’d set up Fraqmented together.

At the same time, some of our community members expressed that it was hard to get work done in the cafe because everyone was chatting. If they wanted to take a call, they’d sit in a far-flung corner and hope no one would sit next to them. Or they’d sit together at the Viking tables, talking about a business idea, but other people visiting the cafe sat alongside them. They needed something a bit more professional, without it being too straight-laced and corporate.

We knew that Fraqmented would always be larger than the first community, and that some of them would come with us. But others wouldn’t, because although we were moving to a community-first model, we wanted it to be commercial and make a profit.

2. How did you go about finding a physical space for your community?

Alistair: Tallinn is a huge city — it’s where half the Estonian population live. There are a bunch of coworking spaces here, a lot of them being very corporate, but there are also some lovely, beautiful spaces. There are also grungy ones, where you have to be into tech, otherwise you’re not going to fit in. But they’re all awesome.

Finding a space was tricky. We couldn’t afford much, as is usual in coworking, but we just looked around in all the different zones of the city, whether it was the old town in the centre, on the periphery, the tech area, or the central business district.

Coming from hosting events in an ultra-cool, trendy cafe with massive ceilings and art everywhere, we wanted to build a workspace into our own feel. We knew it had to be good for our community and the future.

Some of the places we looked at were just shells, others were very corporate. But when we walked into this space, in the middle of the old town, it had wood, stone, a higgledy-piggledy wall, and it was ready and accessible — we immediately said, “Yes.”

At our Friday meet-ups, our community members would talk about business ideas together at one end of the long Viking tables. So we set up Viking tables here. We’ve got several coworking spaces, pods, and a self-serve cafe. Except for our fixed desk room, a lockable office with 10 desks, a couple of meeting rooms, and conference rooms, everywhere is coworking at Fraqmented.

3. Has a specific success story or collaboration come out of the Fraqmented community?

Alistair: It’s not just one, there are loads.

We’ve been open about 13 months, and our members have set up between 12 and 13 businesses between them. That’s roughly one new business a month – it’s big for us.

Four of our members set up a dating business together. Another one is a tech UX company, based at the university. They set up here, bid for some funding, and are now on an incubator course. My cofounders and I have just set up another international relations company. There are so many different examples of people setting up here.

In Estonia, it’s very easy to set up a company, so we all help each other with the questions, like: How do you do that? What’s the best way? How do I save money? Everyone here is working with the same accountants, using our office address, and so on.

Our community just helps each other and combines their skill sets, but they’re small companies. They set up here, but who goes on to survive and become bigger? That’s another question. We’ll see how it goes.

4. How does Fraqmented contribute to the broader startup and tech ecosystem in Tallinn?

Alistair: ​​We’d love to contribute as much as we can. Right now, we do that in two or three ways. One is soft diplomacy: the name, Fraqmented, came about because we bring together fragments of society from different walks of life. Here, we have small, medium, and large businesses, and people from business, academic, and government backgrounds. The fragments are all isolated without the space.

In Estonian culture, everyone keeps to themselves a bit, maybe because of the former Soviet times. But many people coming to Estonia like to experience more of a day-to-day social scene and networking capability. That’s also why we built Fraqmented.

This lends itself to reinvigorating the city centre. Like many other places, there’s been a slight decline in shops and high streets here, but opening in the Old Town, we’re bringing a different kind of clientele who go out for lunch, shop, and head into town every day.

We’re also partnered with the Estonian government’s formal e-residency programme, with two of our co-founders (including me) being official envoys. We’re showing people how that works, and helping them set up their companies in Estonia.

Bringing together these three disparate parts – academia, business, and government – hasn’t really been done on a systemic scale anywhere else in Estonia. You have events around it at universities, but none of the coworking spaces is doing triple or quadruple helix with civil society. They’re either for tech bros or appear very corporate. Meanwhile, we’re all about events, and we’re mixing it up.

When we coined the phrase Fraqmented, the ‘Q’ in fragmented was like the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ+ – it’s all about the diversity within the business sector, and the diversity of people.

We believe we can contribute to the economy by applying disruptive thinking, mixing people together and bringing them to the town centre rather than in peripheral areas. From the centre, you always meet people very easily. We wanted Fraqmented to be in the heart of Tallinn, bringing disparate people together who wouldn’t usually mix.

5. What’s your vision for Fraqmented over the next few years?

Alistair: We’d like to be more visible across the Nordics and globally, not just in one place, so we’re forming alliances to give our members access to Fraqmented when they’re moving around the world. For example, we’ve joined AT World — a German organisation, where we’re part of a global coworking space booking app.

Although we like forming alliances with the city and the government, we need to provide more for the locals, too. There are lots of transitory people here, nomadic people who’ve heard about the tech scene or are part of the e-residency programme. They’ve started an Estonian company, but they then go away a month later.

We want people to stay and be part of a community, and we want to welcome Estonians. Right now, we’re running a campaign targeting Estonians.

We’d like to absolutely nail the triple helix, ensuring people understand its power. It’s not just about being a business person selling to a government person; it’s also about the different ways of seeing the world and thinking.

We’d also like to break even within the next two months and then make a profit. For 13 months now, we’ve been running like a non-profit out of the goodness of our hearts and building this community because we believe in it. We’ve been profitable for three months out of 13, but it’s just up and down.

Now we’ve taken a strategic decision to lose one of our six rooms, which makes us profitable overnight because we’ll switch out a rented pod and buy one instead. We need to turn profitable now, and we’re not ashamed to talk about that.

We always talk about community first, but that’s part of our vision as well. Fraqmented is a business, and we’re helping other people with their businesses – that’s what our consultancy is about. We should be able to run a business ourselves, without losing money.

While those are our visions, we’re not losing sight of why we set up Fraqmented in the first place. We like hosting events, and for external people to take away a little bit of Fraqmentedness with them, and understand more of what we’re all about. We’re a community helping each other, first and foremost, and we’re about diversity.

We only advertise spaces that are within our confines, so we only have space for 70, but if someone wants to run a large event, say for 150 people, we can help you get a good deal through one of our partner spaces.

We’re just trying to become slightly bigger than what we are – that’s what Estonia represents in the world. It’s bigger than what it really is, and we want to lead beyond our authority. Right now, we’re just a little business in the town centre, but we want to be more than that. We want to say something about certain things, work with big charities here, and the founders of unicorns. And we want to do good things.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking space founders and community builders who share their journeys of bringing people together.

Edition #26 of People Make Coworking interviews Alistair Starling, co-founder of Fraqmented coworking space in Tallinn, Estonia.

Read more coworking stories.

It had its own entrance, but once inside, it felt more like a café than a place designed for work. It was beautifully designed, but impractical, with café-style tables and chairs, no proper desks, phone booths, or variation in work zones. Whenever someone took a call, everyone heard it.

What struck me most, though, was the lack of any real welcome. No one greeted people as they arrived or explained how the space worked.

After a couple of hours of feeling distracted and uncomfortable from the café-style seating, I knew I’d be far more productive at home and left.

That experience got me thinking about how sometimes, coworking spaces feel like an afterthought, or an add-on, rather than intentionally designed for a specific type of user.

While hot desking might not be the biggest revenue driver for some operators, if you’re going to offer it, it should still be considered.

A welcoming experience is something I notice in every coworking space I visit, and I often speak about it with other freelancers. So, let’s get into it: what actually makes a coworking space feel welcoming?

A low-pressure way in

A welcoming coworking space is more than how you feel when you’ve joined or entered a space; it’s also about how easy it is to walk through the door in the first place.

That’s why offering a day pass (coworking’s most flexible offer) is a supportive, low-barrier entry to coworking. However, I’ve recently noticed that day passes are being repackaged, or in some cases, removed altogether from workspace models.

After writing about this topic, one piece of feedback I received was from an operator, who shared that their day pass users rarely become community members. From what she sees, they’re just utilising the workspace to their advantage, whether they’re in town for a day or having some WiFi issues at home.

Day-pass users don’t always contribute to the community in the same way as members, and overly generous access can end up devaluing the space. I totally understand that. But I’ve also heard the other side – when people try out a workspace, love it, and keep returning.

After leaving a London workspace after only three months, I was cautious about joining another. So, I used a couple of day passes to test out a workspace in Islington. These experiences were so fantastic that I joined as a member and stayed for two years.

When done well, day passes create a low-commitment entry point, allowing people to test the atmosphere, understand the community, and decide whether it’s a coworking space they actually want to return to.

Otherwise, a space that doesn’t really allow that flex seems exclusive, and the community can be a little insular.

The goal isn’t offering unlimited cheap access. Creating a pathway into your coworking space must feel fair, intentional, and inclusive on both sides.

A friendly (and present) community manager

We often say in the coworking world that a great experience is about more than just the physical space. Sometimes you walk into a workspace and immediately feel at ease. That feeling doesn’t come just from the furniture or the design; it's the vibe, and it stems from the people.

In fact, the person responsible for shaping that experience more than anyone else is the community manager.

When I joined the coworking space in Islington, the community manager completely changed my expectations of what a workspace could feel like. The previous workspaces I’d experienced had community managers, but I couldn’t tell you their names because we rarely interacted.

This space was different. From day one, the community manager made a point of introducing herself and offering a tour. It sounds simple, but knowing where everything was, how the space worked, and feeling acknowledged straight away made me feel comfortable.

It wasn’t a one-time thing, either. Every morning, the community manager greeted people as they walked in, asking them how they were doing. She knew everyone, on a deeper level – what they did, how often they came in, even who might benefit from being introduced to each other.

That’s what makes a really welcoming coworking experience.

Since leaving that workspace, I’ve realised how rare that level of care actually is. For some operators, having a full-time community manager might feel unnecessary, especially if coworking isn’t the core product. But without someone owning that experience, it’s often the first thing to slip.

Small hospitality touches

A community manager does so much more than facilitate introductions or tour new members around the space. The best ones create small, thoughtful moments that shape how a space feels.

This is the difference between service and hospitality — something Will Guidara’s book, Unreasonable Hospitality, talks about extensively. While service is doing what’s expected, hospitality is how you make people feel while you’re doing it, and going the extra mile.

While a coworking space can have everything it needs, like desks, WiFi, and meeting rooms, it can still feel flat without those small, human touches that make the experience feel considered – the unreasonable hospitality.

It might be as simple as:

• offering someone a coffee when they arrive

• remembering their name and what they do for work

• introducing them to someone they might get on with

• noticing it’s their first day and checking in

These little actions signal to visitors something important: you’re not just another person passing through this space.

I’ve experienced this firsthand in coworking spaces. When I joined my very first workspace in Edinburgh several years back, the community manager not only toured me around the space but also invited me to stay and work for the rest of the day, and join a Yoga class the following day.

The events kept coming, turning the workspace into somewhere I wanted to return to, and of course, I signed up as a member. A welcoming experience all around.

These are also what create the stories people tell afterwards: the spontaneous events, the unexpected connections, and the moments where you feel genuinely included.

The “welcome phase”

Something I’ve come to realise from my own coworking experiences is that whether a space feels welcoming isn’t decided over months; it’s in the first few days.

There’s actually a term for this: the “welcome phase,” coined by Sarah Travers, CEO at Workbar. If you can retain a member beyond their first 90 days, their likelihood of staying long-term increases significantly.

Those first 90 days are when people feel the most uncertain, because they’re still figuring out how to use the space, how to interact with others, and whether they really belong there.

Looking back, that perfectly reflects my own experience.

When I first moved to London, I joined a coworking space after attending an event there. I loved the design, the atmosphere, even the small details like the scent in the space. But once I actually started working there, things felt very different.

No one really spoke to each other. There was no guidance on how to integrate. Even at a members’ brunch, people ended up taking their food back to their desks and eating alone.

I didn’t last 90 days.

It was around that time that I tried the Islington coworking space nearby, and the experience couldn’t have been more different. The difference wasn’t the design, but the welcome.

This is where everything we’ve talked about comes together:

• A low-pressure way in, like a day pass, gets someone through the door.

• A community manager humanises that first interaction.

• Small hospitality touches make someone feel seen.

But there’s another layer to it: how the space itself supports that experience.

Hidden barriers in coworking

One of the ideas I love from Unreasonable Hospitality is the concept of removing barriers, both physical and emotional, between people in hospitality spaces.

In Guidara’s restaurants, this showed up as the podium problem: the physical stand at the entrance where hosts check bookings. It’s functional, but it creates distance – a literal barrier between you and the person who’s supposed to welcome you.

When the podium was removed, the experience immediately felt more human.

In coworking, the reception desk is coworking’s own version of the podium. It can often feel quite stiff and formal.

But when a community manager sits amongst members, it makes the entire experience more welcoming. Our community manager did this in the Islington workspace, and it felt like she was working amongst us — there was no barrier.

I also really like the workspace design at Work.Life. In all the spaces I’ve visited, the front desk is entirely absent; instead, community managers mill around the workspaces, sometimes coworking amongst members, other times perched at the kitchen counter. They’ll always be on hand to answer any questions and never hidden behind a large computer screen.

A welcoming coworking space removes friction before you even notice it. It’s those small shifts in positioning — where people sit, how they move, and how visible they are — that determine whether a space feels open or closed.

Where welcome really begins

The design of a coworking space, the coffee, and not even the community events on their own can make a space welcoming. Instead, a welcoming workspace is defined by all of these elements working together, especially in those first moments of arrival.

In fact, the “welcome phase” starts long before someone joins as a member, from the very first interaction with a space. When that’s done well, people don’t spend their first few days trying to figure the space out; they immediately become part of it.

From the way you’re greeted at the door, to how easily you can understand where you’re meant to be, to whether someone helps you feel like you belong, these are all part of the same system.

So, how do you actually make your coworking space feel welcoming? Get in touch, I’d love to know what you do in your space.

Until next time,

Lucy

That experiment became the foundation for Cohere Coworking – one of the early independent coworking spaces to open in the United States.

Launched in the shadow of the economic recession, Cohere began as a 1,000-square-foot loft in Fort Collins, Colorado, filled with freelancers and consultants. Sixteen years later, Cohere remains intentionally small, fiercely independent, and deeply community-led.

In this conversation, Angel reflects on her journey to launch Cohere, why she’s chosen to build a lifestyle business instead of a scalable brand, and what coworking really stands for.

1. Take me back to the beginning – how did you start Cohere Coworking?

Angel: I took a traditional career path, went to college, got a psychology degree, and then worked in retail. Part of that job involved interviewing people, but I wanted to be on the other side of helping people get jobs, so I became a career counsellor.

What I really aspired to be was an internal career counsellor at a company, and I reached that — becoming an internal career development specialist at a new local startup. My favourite part of the job was sitting in each department with the different creatives, professionals and technicians. I learned the basics of SEO sitting next to a lady named Mary, and we’re still friends.

I got a lot out of that job and met lots of different technical professionals, from web developers to PR teams. But on day 89, I got fired. It was clear they needed traditional HR rather than internal career development, and with 75 employees, the organisation didn’t have the legal foundations. It was really shocking, though. I thought I’d landed my dream job and would work there forever.

I didn’t know what to do with my life next; I truly was adrift. So, I started volunteering at an entrepreneurship incubator and assisting the receptionist, which was very humbling.

While I was there, a guy named Kevin introduced me to this ‘new concept in California’ called coworking – where freelancers work together instead of alone. I decided that’s what I was going to do.

I asked the incubator director whether I could experiment by hosting a weekly coworking session in the reception area nobody used. Five weeks later, we ran out of chairs, broke their internet, and they asked us to move along.

2. What was Cohere like in the early days?

Angel: The origins of Cohere were part luck, part serendipity, and part finally feeling like I’d been clued in to an idea that was new enough that I could get traction with it. That’s how we got started.

We began the weekly meetup sessions in late 2009 at the height of the recession. People coming to my sessions had been laid off from their corporate jobs and became freelancers and consultants to make ends meet. Nobody knew what they were doing.

The pace was blistering. Five weeks after launching, I found a commercial lease a few blocks away in our downtown, which was suffering from the effects of the recession – a 1000 square-foot, downtown loft, with a curmudgeonly landlord.

I hired someone off Craigslist to build us some custom curved desks with integrated power. My friend and I drove eight hours to the nearest IKEA in Utah, filling a U-Haul with the basic startup kit for a coworking space – chairs, the couch, and some dishes. We drove it back, built everything, and opened up several weeks later. March 15th 2010, is our anniversary (we’ve just celebrated 16 years).

We felt so fancy. We had 12 workstations, a couch, a six-by-six meeting room, and a conference room that we shared with the landlord and another tenant. That was it.

Over a year later, we outgrew that space before moving several blocks away to a larger building. We rented it for 13 years, adding spaces in that building as they became available. At the end of 2024, I bought a unit in a building and downsized us to 1,800 square feet.

3. What does surviving this long say about your model?

Angel: Chasing hot, new amenities is exhausting. We’ve always been people-focused and less amenity-focused. As someone who used my checking account to start a business, I don’t know how people have enough money to pull that off.

There were never any investors or VC money, so we always leaned really hard into the scrappy philosophy that we’re in this together and helping each other. When somebody needs something, you announce it to the room, and we all dive in and help.

That happened because our space was so small. In the beginning, only 400 square feet of the space contained those 12 desks, so you could reach out and touch your neighbour. That’s how close together we were. The physical density of that worked in our favour, making it impossible to ignore what they were going through.

We all felt like doing everything as a unit. We worked all day and went to lunch together. Before having kids, we’d stay late, go to an art walk or see music in the square. It cemented our bonds, which compounded over time. In a couple of weeks, I’m participating in one of our original members’ conferences, and members who moved away still text me to share their news.

To still be here 16 years on, 50% of it is just how the space was fostered, and the other 50% is that I’m super stubborn and wasn’t willing to let it die. Even during COVID, and our challenging economic and political landscape, I believed so strongly in the power of community – it can get us through almost anything.

4. Many coworking brands aim to scale fast. Why have you chosen to stay independent?

Angel: I’m invested in Cohere being a lifestyle business for me. I don’t work full-time or subscribe to the grind. I’m into lifestyle architecture, and growing the business will just use up more of my time.

We’re simple folk, so the desire to scale, grow, have more, and do more and be recognised never resonated with me. Women in tech are always asked whether money is the motivator, but I always feel like it’s the wrong question. I hardly ever meet women who want more money. I want balance and flexibility; to be able to go to my kids’ programmes, stay home when they’re sick, or when I’m sick, and have more flexibility in life.

One of the coworking OGs, Alex Hillman (co-founder of Indy Hall), describes coworking like a restaurant. You can walk into a McDonald’s, and you can walk into a farm-to-table local restaurant, and while you’ll get a meal at both, what’s the quality of that meal like? Where did they source the ingredients from? What’s your experience like? Will you remember that experience after you leave?

That’s what coworking has become. Everyone walks in to get a meal, and we all get served something. But unless you experience the other type of restaurant (or coworking in this case), you don’t know what you’re missing. Coworking has become a ubiquitous term for shared office space, but the value you get from place to place differs wildly.

People must explore different options and ask better questions on their tour. I don’t feel like they ask the right questions. We had a period when people asked if we had a printer — that’s not the point.

We’re always communicating to people that our physical container holds us, and it’s deeply useful to get work done, but you can do that anywhere: at home, in a coffee shop, or at your friend’s house. It doesn’t matter what I have in the space, but what if you meet your new best friend here?

5. The core offer at Cohere Coworking is community friendship rather than desks and amenities. What does that look like in practice?

Angel: Lately, I’ve been working really hard on my marketing at Cohere to attract more of the type of people that we want in our space.

In town, we’ve got some amenity-heavy, shiny, beautiful new coworking spaces with the ‘wow factor’ when you walk through their front door. Those spaces sell an aspirational lifestyle for someone who’s hustling, grinding, and performing work for a crowd of people on camera.

Cohere is the antithesis of that. We’d like you to come as you are. We’ll make you a cup of coffee, sit with you, and listen to why you’re struggling today or what you’re trying to get out of this space.

We’ve had people who just got laid off and brought their whole messy selves to us. What we’ll do is match you with somebody who’s into the same things as you, and now you can do it together instead of alone.

Cohere has grown up with me, and I tend to attract people of a similar age and phase of life. More members are married, have kids, and are mid-career remote workers. Although we have a handful of freelancers, almost everyone at Cohere is a well-paid remote worker managing people. The coworking space is seen as an easier line item in their budget. We’re all into the same stuff – there are lots of outdoor people, bicyclists, and skiers.

6. What would you like to see more of in the coworking industry?

Angel: I’m desperate for the kinds of gatherings that the OG operators used to have. We’ve lost the scrappy, bootstrapped ways we used to connect, and part of it is just life circumstances.

Now, many people have moved on from running their spaces or are doing other things. It’s really rare to have been in coworking this long and still be boots on the ground in a space, refilling the toilet paper and holding people during life’s moments.

I don’t want to go to a shiny conference with sponsors; I want to hang out with the war-torn, experienced grassroots, coworking operators who aren’t in a franchise or a chain, who don’t have VC funding, and who just show up, and believe so passionately in coworking as a force for good.

I don’t really identify with the conferences anymore. They don’t speak to me in any kind of meaningful way. But I still believe in gathering in three dimensions. As an old-school operator, I want to rent a house by the beach and hang out, and cook dinner together.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking space founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces.

Edition #25 of People Make Coworking interviews Angel Kwiatkowski, founder of Cohere Coworking in Fort Collins, Colorado.

It piqued our interest, not because we fancied a slice of Basque cheesecake (I’m not even sure what it is), but because the shop was dedicated exclusively to one item. It might have seemed unusual, however, only a few months earlier, an empanada store had opened up opposite the cheesecake store, and last summer, a chocolate shop chain took over another two high street units.

Walking past queues of twenty-somethings waiting in line for their £7 slice of cheesecake, we started talking about everything that was missing from our local high street. What happened to the beloved vintage shop that once occupied the space where the Basque cheesecake store now stands? And where can we go to a local deli, a butcher, or an independent restaurant?

It also made me think about the lack of third spaces in Greenwich; places to linger and connect with other people. This is exactly the kind of gap coworking should be stepping into.

Who are we designing the high street for?

Living in my London bubble, I wondered whether a high street full of hype stores is something we see exclusively in the capital. Perhaps in local towns and smaller cities, practical stores and third spaces still exist.

But then I came across a LinkedIn post from a developer who proudly announced he was turning an empty high street pub in Nottingham into a coworking space. It seemed like good news to me, until I reread his LinkedIn post and noticed the catch… the pub would be turned into a “luxury coworking space for entrepreneurs and founders.” My heart sank a little.

Calling a space ‘luxury,’ be it coworking or something else, seems exclusive. Plus, his desired target audience – entrepreneurs and founders – excludes a whole group of people who would truly benefit from a coworking space on their doorstep.

I’ve never been to Nottingham, so I don’t know the exact demographic. But, surely a high street workspace in a town like Nottingham could be geared up towards graduates exploring job opportunities, local parents working close to home, and older people learning new skills? A place that also welcomes founders and entrepreneurs, but isn’t exclusively for them.

We don’t need overly rigid labels for who a space is for. The reality is that usage is often shaped by design, tone, and pricing long before anyone walks through the door.

Buzzwords like ‘luxury’ and ‘entrepreneurs and founders’ suggest that this coworking space is going to become an exact copy and paste of what we’ve seen before – workspaces optimised for a narrow demographic, often lacking diversity, community, and accessibility.

The bottom line for neighbourhood coworking spaces

Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this developer. After all, taking over a commercial unit is a brave decision in this current climate. On Greenwich high street, for example, commercial rents easily run into several thousand pounds a month. Add skyrocketing business rates hitting the coworking sector, plus spiralling energy costs for the foreseeable future, and it makes sense he’s prioritising profit before affordability.

A similar line of conversation came out of the Unreasonable Connection Live! event last month. Coworking spaces, especially independent spaces in expensive cities like London, are struggling to keep the lights on.

I think back to the coworking space I was part of for two years. Despite having a genuinely thriving community, being truly affordable, and in a premium location (Old Street), the workspace still couldn’t afford to stay open long-term, closing after only three years in business.

But what’s the alternative? From where I see it, turning an empty commercial unit into a ‘luxury’ space, whatever its usage, contributes to the problem where we still don’t have affordable, accessible third spaces for local people to participate in.

When third spaces disappear

Take the fact that the new coworking space in Nottingham is located in a redundant high street pub. This represents something even more unsettling.

Traditionally, pubs were the heart of British culture – places to gather, linger, and connect. Norwich, the city I studied in, was said to have a pub for every day of the year and a church for every Sunday. But, I’m not so sure it does anymore. Soaring overheads, business rates, and rising cost of living for punters in recent years have forced many to close.

We still need third spaces, but perhaps their functions have changed. Maybe we don’t need to pop to the pub for a pint, but instead, go there to enjoy a community event or participate in a neighbourhood celebration.

Recently, Vibushan Thirukumar, founder of Oru Space, articulated a similar point:

“Something happens when you give neighbourhoods and high streets a PROPER third space. For those who don’t know about this third space chat... it used to be our religious spaces, community halls, town squares, markets... but our views have moved on and so have our lifestyles BUT the need for third spaces hasn’t.”

Oru Space does third spaces really well. With sites in Dulwich and Sutton, and another announced earlier this week coming to Limehouse, Oru combines coworking, hospitality and wellness in each place and embeds deeply in the local community.

A couple of years ago, I spoke to Vibushan about his journey of building the coworking brand for Allwork.Space.

Vibushan’s words also take me back to something Stephen Carrick-Davies, Director at Facework, once shared with me about the lack of third spaces for people to meet and that we’ve become too time-poor to connect, even in places like the school gates.

And it’s true. Everyone seems to like the idea of being part of a village, but fewer of us have the time or the space to be a villager. That’s the real challenge.

So, if coworking is going to take its place on the high street, it has to be more than just a well-designed workspace. It has to make it easier for people to show up, to linger, and to feel part of something without friction or exclusivity. Otherwise, we’re just redesigning third spaces for fewer people.

Coworking: the missing piece of the puzzle

High streets shouldn’t just be tourist attractions or trend destinations, but they should be places where locals feel they belong. That’s what third spaces have always offered.

Coworking has a real opportunity here. Not to replicate what we’ve seen before, but to rethink what a neighbourhood space can be – more open, accessible, and rooted in the communities around it.

When it works, high streets stop being places you pass through and start becoming places you return to.

Until next time,

Lucy

Looking around, Michael saw countless other inventors and innovators struggling with the same barriers: brilliant ideas constrained not by creativity, but by infrastructure. That became the foundation for Blue Garage.

Housed in a rare industrial building on Lewisham’s high street, Michael has built an affordable makerspace in the heart of the capital. Blue Garage has evolved into a home for hardware startups, creative manufacturers and makers who want to prototype, produce and scale – all within Zone 2.

In this interview, Michael shares how Blue Garage flips the traditional coworking model on its head, supports companies that struggle to access affordable manufacturing facilities, and the exciting opportunities the makerspace brings to Lewisham.

1. What sparked the concept of Blue Garage, and why build it in London specifically, rather than a smaller town or industrial area?

Michael: The concept was to create the environment and support that I wish I had when starting my company. Looking back on the success of my business, the hardest thing to overcome wasn’t making the product, but manufacturing it in the UK, especially while living in London.

I empathised with these brilliant inventors and creative startup businesses around me, and their challenge of spending money on overpriced, unnecessarily large spaces and signing up for long-term leases. I thought I was the right person to fix that problem.

Lots of creative people start their businesses in London, often after university. There’s a huge demand for space for early-stage startups, but there’s hardly any supply. Everything is so expensive here, and buildings are often converted into flats or offices.

There are fewer makerspaces, creative spaces, and opportunities for people to scale their business on their terms, rather than under the banner of another accelerator with its own agenda.

I wanted to create something independent and to help startups by providing equipment and space at the lowest possible cost. We needed something large, but also accessible, and on the high street.

Most industrial spaces are on a soulless industrial estate. Everybody’s driving there; it’s impossible to get the train, and you’re not part of the community. The buildings themselves are normally big, empty sheds, with companies stacking them high with racks and shipping boxes. At Blue Garage, we wanted something accessible with character, on a high street in an up-and-coming area.

We looked at many buildings, but there was nothing like the one we found in Lewisham. It was the perfect fit for us – an industrial building with three huge concrete floors, a lift that goes between them all, and a big delivery bay.

It’s ideal for lots of small companies, but not for one big company, and it can’t be converted to flats or offices. This building can’t be used for much else.

2. What makes Blue Garage unique as a makerspace?

Michael: We have a factory in a box. At Blue Garage, our main uniqueness is having millions of pounds of production equipment and prototyping equipment. It’s the kind of thing you’d have in a factory up in Leicester (I used to drive up to a factory there to use a large printer), or for someone with a well-kitted garage out in the suburbs.

We’ve got lots of sophisticated tools – a sewing lab, textile equipment, screen print facility, a massive woodworking room, metalworking room (with welding for aluminium and steel), and a large general assembly area. All the things anybody could dream of prototyping, we’ve got in this building.

Our people are founders who’ve created a new product that will change the world and who could scale up to become a large manufacturing company.

Inventors and innovators struggle to scale their business, partly because it’s difficult to develop and produce a physical product. As soon as you have to physically make hardware or products, it introduces new challenges. But if you can break through and develop a new physical product, the opportunities are amazing.

Some of the best global companies are based on physical products. Often, the ones doing something technically difficult or that involves manufacturing can have a big impact, so it might be a med tech product, a new climate tech material, or a fashion brand – all sorts of things.

Blue Garage combines technical, manufacturing and commercial ambition. The people we’ve really designed our space for could change the world through physical products – freelancers, designers, engineers, and creative entrepreneurs. Think of the people who built the companies of today: James Dyson, Steve Jobs, and Yvon Chouinard.

The name Blue Garage takes after all the tech companies in Silicon Valley that started in a garage. We’re the London ‘garage’ for hardware companies, and we’ve got big blue garage doors. We support creative entrepreneurship and the ‘garage’ ambition of scaling a new company. The best ideas come out of the blue.

Many things prevent people from building ambitious, successful companies. A big part of our mindset at Blue Garage is to reduce the physical limitations of a scale-up manufacturing company.

Being surrounded by ambitious people rubs off on you, and it’s really exciting to be part of the wider ecosystem of independent coworking spaces in London. We offer a virtual membership so people can use the makerspace and have their own office. They’re probably not building a hardware startup, but perhaps they need somewhere to fix their bike, do some DIY, or work on a part-time side hustle.

We’ve got about 10 different clients manufacturing products who previously lived in London and made things much further away, often abroad. Blue Garage enables people to receive and ship a volume of product, and still be in Zone 2. Getting things made locally is much easier and faster.

3. Is there a crossover between traditional coworking and what you do here?

Michael: I didn’t start by building a coworking space, but by building a shared factory for manufacturers. The coworking element came from having all the infrastructure and thinking of ways to get as many people into the building to use it.

Normally, a coworking space that calls itself a makerspace will have coworking amenities, and then 3D printers in the corner, a woodwork room, and a messy room. We’ve equipped ours the other way round.

What haven’t just got all this incredible equipment, but a wonderful community that built itself in an independent, coworking environment. People stay at Blue Garage because they didn’t realise they would find connections, friends, support, contacts, and expertise from other people in the building.

We’ve got hot desks, so more people are joining Blue Garage just for that, or to rent an office, but they’re not using the makerspace, which is an extra bolt-on. Someone recently told me, “This community has more soul than any of the other coworking spaces I visited.”

If everyone’s working on their computers all day, every day, then you meet up at the coffee machine or the water cooler. But you’ll bump into each other more if people are welding, printing and sewing.

As you need to carry things and get things delivered here, you’ll help each other out more. It ends up being a much more interactive community because people’s work forces them to help each other, and that builds relationships.

4. What has been one of the biggest challenges in running and sustaining a makerspace like this?

Michael: It’s very expensive to establish and run a makerspace. We’re not just computers, desks, and utilities; we provide top-of-the-range equipment and health and safety technicians. Half the space is dedicated to these shared facilities.

Initially, getting enough people in to cover the costs was challenging. But, we’ve now reached one year of self-funding. We’re covering the rent, and we’re profitable, growing, expanding, building more offices, and looking for more locations.

What Blue Garage has created in Lewisham covers most of South London, with people travelling from central and Zone 1 down to the southeast. There’s potential and demand in other parts of London, so we might have another two Blue Garages in London, with others outside the capital.

Our model lends itself to a whole network of innovation commercialisation hubs, supporting all types of creative entrepreneurship and makers.

5. What kind of community do you see forming here, and how does it reflect the neighbourhood?

Michael: I’ve lived in London my whole life, but as I’m not from Lewisham, I welcomed everybody here, and that’s brought lots of new companies to the area.

Through opening Blue Garage, we’ve discovered all of Lewisham’s different communities. Loads of people said they’ve lived in Lewisham their whole life, but never imagined that something like this would be here. It’s exactly what they’ve always wanted.

Being one stop from London Bridge, Lewisham is easy to get to, but it’s one of London’s lowest job density boroughs, so many Lewisham residents commute for work. Now, the perception of Lewisham is changing, and we need to create more jobs for its residents.

There are some really deprived neighbourhoods in Lewisham, and within them, many talented, ambitious people who don’t have the opportunities to pursue their ambitions. This is the community we’re tapping into now.

For example, we’re bringing a music recording studio to the space, in the hope that it attracts young people through music. People participating in that programme will hopefully get involved in other parts of the building.

Blue Garage is an inclusive melting pot of talented, ambitious people. The only entry requirement is your attitude to being in a shared space and a shared community. The more differences, the better it is for everybody.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking space founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces.

Edition #24 of People Make Coworking interviews Michael Korn, founder of Blue Garage in Lewisham, UK.

But International Women’s Day isn’t something that should be celebrated once a year.

A single day of panels, LinkedIn posts, and branded campaigns can’t possibly capture the reality of women’s experiences at work and in the world. The conversations we have in March about bias, leadership, care, safety, and opportunity are the same conversations that shape women’s lives every other day of the year.

Progress doesn’t come from a moment of recognition, but from redesigning the systems that were never built with women in mind.

In her bestselling book, Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg recalls struggling to walk across the large office car park during the later stages of her pregnancy while working at Google. Eventually, she asked whether the company could introduce parking spaces for pregnant employees closer to the entrance – something they quickly agreed to.

But what struck her was that no one had thought about it, even though pregnant employees had certainly worked there before. The decision-makers simply hadn’t experienced that need themselves, so the problem never appeared on their radar.

She uses the story to illustrate a broader point: when the people designing systems all share similar experiences, entire groups of needs can remain invisible.

The distance between women and work

We experience one of these systems in our everyday lives – cities, office districts, and traditional workplaces are largely designed around a worker who can commute long distances every day, stay late, and organise their life around the office.

But for people with more fragmented time, such as caregivers of children or ageing parents, people with disabilities or those in ill health, the separation between work and home can completely ostracise a portion of our society.

It’s not always women bearing the invisible load, but in today’s world, women are typically the default caregivers.

At last night’s Women in Flex event hosted by technologywithin, one of the speakers shared how having a son with autism meant she wasn’t always able to stick to a routine, requiring an extra hour or so in the mornings, which can change the nature of her workdays.

Examples like these make it frustrating when companies enforce office mandates, reducing worker flexibility. Some people genuinely need a level of flexibility to carry everything in their lives – work, family, and additional responsibilities. If they can’t access hybrid work, then they are often forced to reduce hours or step away from careers entirely.

Flexible working supports people with fragmented time, and local coworking spaces support people who work flexibly, improving proximity to a professional workspace while giving access to a supportive community – or a village, if you will.

When I spoke to Sarah Greene and Phil Fisk, the founders of Buro Coworking in Brockley, one of London’s neighbourhoods, they explained how a coworking space on their community’s doorstep works in practice:

“Our neighbourhood coworker is typically someone in their mid-thirties with two young kids. They’ve got to drop off and pick up, so they need a place where they can work intensely for about 6.5 hours before running out the door to get to school in 5 minutes (without hopping on a hot bus). They might come back to the space after putting the kids to bed, or come in on Saturdays.”

As I expressed in last week’s newsletter, independent coworking spaces deserve greater support and recognition as lifelines for people across intersectionalities (in more ways than just proximity).

When care isn’t taken seriously

While many of the decision-makers at the top in coworking are still men: investors, landlords, and shareholders, we’re seeing more female-founded spaces, and women running operations or working as community managers.

But it’s worth asking, are some people placed in these roles because what they naturally bring to the role – empathy, attentiveness, emotional intelligence (also known as “soft traits”) are undervalued elsewhere, yet expected and relied upon in community-focused work?

Coworking expert, Maggie Terhune shared a fascinating observation with me recently: many community managers she meets are eldest daughters. Maggie is one, so am I, and the connection is clear. Eldest daughters often grow up shouldering family responsibilities, managing emotions, and carrying the invisible weight of care.

But as Maggie puts it, community leaders are people “where community is ingrained into their personal ethos.”

Caring about your community is a superpower. Last night, one of the speakers, a coworking director, shared a time when shareholders expressed their dislike at how close she had become to her team. But I saw this as evidence she cares deeply about them.

Likewise, another panellist reflected on her time working as a community manager in a flexible workspace. She was constantly undermined by her (male) managing director, who once called her “meek,” and when he praised her, used phrases like “good girl.” The whole room gasped when she said that.

Words might seem small, but they carry weight. Language shapes how authority is granted, so when women are described as too loud, too emotional, too assertive, or simply too much, yet those same traits in men are often framed as leadership — confident, decisive, ambitious — it can erode self-confidence.

Last night’s stories reminded me of a moment last year when a prospective client told me over the phone that I was “too cold.” In fact, the event sparked so many conversations, with people being open and honest about their experiences in a safe environment.

Moments like these are incredibly powerful for women at every stage of their careers because they remind us we’re not alone, our experiences are valid, and there is strength in shared understanding.

Questions to ask before, during, and after IWD

As we gear up for International Women’s Day on Sunday, it’s worth reflecting on what this day should really mean.

Workplaces should celebrate women, but recognition alone isn’t enough. True progress comes from asking difficult questions:

• Do I provide meaningful support for the women in my team and community, beyond a single photo or LinkedIn post?

• Do I truly value the skills and traits – empathy, attentiveness, emotional intelligence – that are often overlooked yet essential to leadership and community-building?

• Am I building community programmes and flexible systems that recognise and value women’s contributions every day, not just on International Women’s Day?

I’d love to know what you’ve got planned for International Women’s Day, but we must also remember that it shouldn’t be a moment. Women’s contributions matter every day.

From workspace design to community culture, our systems ought to reflect that. Because when we do, we don’t just support women – we build workplaces and communities that work better for everyone.

Until next time,

Lucy

The event kicked off with an introduction by Kofi Oppong (founder, Urban MBA) of a startling reality of the future of work: automation and AI could reshape around 400 million jobs globally.

You might think this is a challenge for the distant future, but according to Kofi, “the future is already here.” Layoffs are pretty constant, companies are facing economic pressures, and AI is streamlining entire roles. As a writer, I’ve been pretty shaken by how quickly businesses adopted AI tools, like ChatGPT, replacing human writers.

The central question is: how do coworking spaces play a role in the new world of work? This event recap dives deeper into some of the discussions that took place at Unreasonable Connection Live!

From employee to entrepreneur

There is an assumption that if employees are laid off, they’ll simply start something of their own and become entrepreneurs. Call me cynical, but that assumption feels wildly optimistic.

We’ve started using ‘entrepreneurship’ as a kind of catch-all solution to economic instability, as if starting a business is a natural next step for anyone whose job disappears. But strip the word back and what we’re really talking about is this: generating your own income, from scratch, in a competitive market, without the structural safety net of employment.

Additionally, starting a business is so often inaccessible to the people who might need it most. This is where the conversation around neighbourhood coworking gets interesting.

When I recently spoke to Stacey Sheppard, founder of The Tribe, a women’s coworking space in rural Devon, she articulated a similar point:

“If you’ve been employed your entire life and aren’t born with an entrepreneurial spirit, or that feeling that you’ve always wanted to start your own business, you’re going to struggle to navigate that journey.”

Coworking spaces can provide real-time support for people transitioning to running their own businesses. Rather than waiting for formal programmes or council initiatives, the everyday interactions that happen within coworking spaces do more to build entrepreneurial confidence than a quarterly workshop ever could.

Coworking not only increases access to entrepreneurship but also to freelance and gig-based models. On Tuesday, we talked about the rise of content creators and side hustles — people who have created security for themselves and are well-positioned to adapt to new ways of working.

By embracing flexibility and independence, coworking spaces can support these evolving working lifestyles, empowering people to choose how, when and where they work, while providing vital networks for connection and community.

The profitability question

It’s all well thinking that coworking spaces are going to fix things for people affected by future workforce changes. However, coworking operators are experiencing their own challenges, with uncertainty around profitability and unease about the future of their workspaces.

Coworking businesses are facing crushing business rates, and relying on one income stream from the coworking desk model feels increasingly fragile. At Unreasonable Connection Live!, one of the exercises involved exploring how coworking spaces can become truly profitable.

Reaching profitability takes time, with new coworking businesses riding out over the first few months to years, before seeing a return on investment.

In my group, I met two people running a new coworking space in Old Town Tallinn, Estonia. Instead of securing the lease, fitting out the space, and then building community (while covering the overheads), they did the opposite: spending months hosting community events in local cafés before finding and opening their building.

It’s proof before risk, and testing the market before going all in. I love that they focussed on people first, recognising that coworking is about community. When the space opened, it already had a solid community.

Of course, many coworking operators are years into running their businesses. They survived the pandemic, but have since experienced financial difficulties — punishing taxes, the energy crisis, or the loss of members as remote workers return to their full-time place of employment.

How can you adapt your business model to increase profitability? One solution, as suggested by the Estonian guys, is hiring out event space. It’s their most profitable revenue stream.

On Tuesday, it also felt particularly apt that we were having this discussion at an event space within a workspace – Blue Garage, in Lewisham. The room itself proved the appetite for event hire, hosting 150 people during the day, while its community members milled around the workspace areas.

Why neighbourhood workspaces matter

Blue Garage isn’t coworking in the clean, laptop-and-flat-white sense. It’s a makerspace with industrial workshops, sewing rooms, fabrication equipment, and private offices housing sustainability-focused innovators. Founder, Michael Korn, runs his own manufacturing company from one of the floors, opening up the building for sharing – space, resources, ideas, knowledge, the list is endless.

We were introduced to Koder, founder of Undeniable Music Studios and Lewisham resident, who began his career by building relationships and credibility within the local creative scene. Following Koder’s momentum and the idea that providing pathways into niches, such as music production, has a huge impact on the local neighbourhood, Blue Garage is converting one of its meeting rooms into a music studio.

Coworking becomes most powerful when it’s deeply embedded in place. Not just serving people who already identify as entrepreneurs, but widening who gets to participate in something.

Despite this potential civic role of coworking, there is wider frustration about how little recognition or structural support coworking businesses receive from the UK government. We’re more than two decades into this movement, and yet, many people still don’t fully understand what coworking is, let alone what it can unlock.

If coworking spaces operate as small business incubators and community anchors (essentially the lifeblood of the future of work), why are they still treated as niche hospitality businesses rather than economic infrastructure?

Coworking operators are also constrained by high upfront risk and inflexible lease terms. On Tuesday, there was talk of forming more creative partnerships with landlords, structures that acknowledge that a thriving operator ultimately benefits the building owner too.

Ultimately, coworking and neighbourhood spaces are building critical long-term community value, directly addressing the future world of work.

“The engine room of the future”

At times, the topics that came up at Unreasonable Connection Live! were impossible to respond to. There are still lots of unanswered questions, with our group particularly struggling to answer how coworking spaces can find a permanent home in London. Given how expensive the city is, we couldn’t agree on the right approach, with our group questioning the nature of permanence.

Nonetheless, Unreasonable Connection Live! gave us so much food for thought around the future of coworking. I thank Bernie Mitchell, the London Coworking Assembly team and Urban MBA for all the hard work they put into organising such a thoughtful and impactful day. It’s always a pleasure connecting with this community.

Coworking spaces have incredible potential for people. They can act as places for people to test ideas, build businesses, improve confidence, find collaborators, and learn how to sell skills. That’s a huge responsibility beyond simply providing desks.

But when coworking businesses aren’t supported, or their potential isn’t recognised, it can be incredibly difficult for operators and communities to keep going. Unreasonable Connection Live! introduced some real conversations about the future of work and coworking. I wonder if you’ve had similar discussions with your communities.

There’s a lot of work to be done still, so I’ll leave you with Kofi’s prediction:

Coworking spaces will become “the home for the displaced, the creators and the future.”

Until next time,

Lucy

That kind of movement is made possible by day passes: flexible, no-strings access that lets you choose a workspace based on geography, mood, or who you’re meeting, rather than committing to a monthly contract.

Day passes also provide one of the best ways to test out spaces when you’re shopping around for a longer-term base.

When I first moved to the city four years ago, there seemed to be an abundance of coworking spaces offering affordable day passes. But in the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a shift: day pass prices have risen sharply, and in some cases, the traditional standalone day-pass option seems to be disappearing.

Are day passes gone for good, or are they evolving? Let’s take a closer look at what happened to coworking’s most flexible offer.

Repackaging the coworking day pass

Day passes were once a standard entry point into coworking. What would typically cost between £15 and £25 for day passes at some independent coworking spaces and bigger chains in London, a few years ago, has now increased quite significantly.

I reviewed current published pricing across several London coworking operators to see whether my impression matched reality.

Let’s take a day pass at Work.Life as an example, which costs a pricey £60 with VAT. Work.Life introduced day passes last year to replace its pay-by-the-hour offer. Although hourly coworking didn’t come cheap, I liked how it supported flexible access to coworking. It also required a one-off sign-up fee, which could be viewed as a light membership to the workspace.

Other London-based coworking chains offer slightly lower pricing:

• A day pass at Second Home costs £42 (including VAT).

• Day passes at Huckletree costs £35 (excluding VAT).

• Even The Hearth, an independent women’s space in Queens Park, offers a half-day pass for £20 (excluding VAT), but the hours are strictly within a morning slot or afternoon slot with specific times.

I like to pop into a coworking space if there’s one close to a client's office or to meet friends for a few hours of coworking. At these higher prices, it doesn’t make sense for me to buy one without planning a very productive and full work day.

But you could say that these workspaces aren’t for freelancers like me. After all, everyone has different requirements from a coworking space.

Why operators pulled back

Community is the real value of coworking, but day-pass users can’t access that value easily, and it feels risky to pay a high day rate without knowing if the day will be friendly or welcoming.

On the operator side, it’s uncertain how a visitor may interact with the community or contribute to it. As Georgi Aleksiev says, in a recent Cobot article on the topic:

The problem with day passes (or half-day or hourly passes) is that they eliminate the need for a membership. With membership comes a sense of shared identity and ownership; as the day passes, people never really belong to the community. From a business and a community point of view, this is not desirable.

Georgi’s point made me think back to when I was a member of a coworking space in Islington. The workspace frequently offered generous deals like first-time freebies and a Freelancer Friday initiative – opening the coworking space to anyone claiming to be a freelancer.

Once their quietest day, Fridays got so full that on occasions, it ran out of room for members. The thing was, everyone invited friends who had no intention of joining the workspace, but who benefitted from a free professional workspace every single week. After a couple of months, management paused the initiative indefinitely.

Freelancer Friday was replaced by a ‘Five Days for £5’ offer. In theory, it allowed coworkers to come into the space on five consecutive days, but the team were quite lenient about access, allowing people to spread their days out over a couple of weeks on a trust-based protocol.

The problem with all the above is that the coworking space devalued its product, opening its doors to people who took advantage of the generous access to space. It’s no wonder that fewer independent coworking spaces now offer free trial days, especially with all the additional cost challenges operators face.

A workable middle ground

Extreme generosity clearly isn’t sustainable, but removing accessible entry points altogether may not be the answer either. For independent coworking spaces, especially, the challenge is finding a middle ground between protecting your space’s value and lowering the entry threshold to first-time use.

Trial access still matters. Before joining the Islington workspace, I used a free trial pass and then an aggregator platform to test the coworking space before committing to a membership. Those trials helped me make a better decision and avoid repeating a previous mistake where I joined a different space too quickly and left after a couple of months.

Eliminating day passes creates a barrier for lead generation. Instead of getting rid of them, operators can consider restructuring day passes so they make sense financially, and for the benefit of the community.

Some operators are landing on more balanced models: day pass bundles, specific validity windows, and pricing that rewards repeat use without undercutting memberships. This can also help qualify leads.

One example is x+why’s bundle model — a reasonably priced day pass at £30 (including VAT) or multi-day bundles that lower the per-day cost to £14.8 (excluding VAT). The 10-day bundle offers a more membership-style commitment to the coworking space, giving occasional users a fairer rate while still creating predictable revenue for the space.

I’ve also seen this approach outside London. Last year, I spoke with Darren Epstein, founder of Roamwork in Cape Town. Darren explained that they don’t focus on single-day passes, only multi-day bundles, starting at five passes with a three-month validity window. That structure works particularly well for visiting digital nomads: enough flexibility to be useful, enough commitment to be meaningful.

Personally, I find this model compelling. If I like a space and if it’s productive, welcoming, and well-located, I’ll come back. A bundle with a reasonable expiry period gives room to build that relationship without forcing an immediate full decision about membership.

The day pass is different now

Ultimately, the most effective day pass today might not be a day pass at all but a thoughtfully designed way for people to try your space before committing.

The opportunity now isn’t to bring back the old £20 day pass everywhere but to design smarter, fairer ways for people to try a space without devaluing it. Bundles with realistic expiry windows, credited trial days, and limited but intentional access feel like the real middle ground.

I’d love to hear what your approach to day passes looks like.

Until next time,

Lucy

Meet me at Unreasonable Connection

On Tuesday, I’m attending Unreasonable Connection Live! – a one-day event bringing 150 people together, who care deeply about the coworking industry, for a day packed full of honest conversations and knowledge exchange.

We’ll also be checking out Blue Garage, the host venue and one of Lewisham’s newest neighbourhood makerspaces. The event is organised by the London Coworking Assembly in partnership with Urban MBA.

Come and join us next week – grab your ticket now!

In the absence of offices and social routines, local cafés became part of Sara’s everyday life and, unexpectedly, places where connection took shape. But as gentrification reshaped the town, Sara’s favourite local coffee shop was slated for demolition, leading her to question where the community could meet. That moment gave Sara a clear opportunity to create a space where local business owners in Elora could connect and flourish.

While renovating a late-nineteenth-century house and working full-time, Sara opened CW Co-Work last February – a cosy, cabin-inspired coworking space designed to bring people together, support local businesses and embrace flexibility.

This month, CW Co-Work celebrates its first anniversary. With a year of operations and community-building behind her, Sara reflects on the realities of the first year, her plans for 2026, and why CW Co-Work has become an important resource for local businesses and professionals.

1. What inspired you to start CW Co-Work?

Sara: CW Co-Work was born out of place, timing, and a deep need for connection.

We’re based in Centre Wellington, Ontario, a rural Canadian farming community experiencing rapid change. The area is growing quickly, with tourism booming and people moving out of cities in search of a different pace of life. With that growth comes opportunity, but also a gap in shared spaces where people can work, create, and build community.

I moved to Elora in 2019 after six years in northern British Columbia, and almost immediately, it felt like home. The historic downtown, limestone cliffs, and access to nature made it feel different from anywhere I’d lived before.

Less than a year later, the pandemic hit. I went from having a highly social, collaborative career in rural economic development and grant consulting to working alone from my bedroom window for the next few years. Aside from my rescue dog, Gizmo, it was isolating. I made it work, but I missed people and the everyday interactions that make work feel human.

In 2022, while renovating a century-old home downtown and living without a kitchen for six months, I found refuge at a small local café just down the street. It became my daily rhythm. Coffee, emails, familiar faces. Over time, it turned into a natural meeting place where I built much of my local network. The Elora Café’s closure in 2024 to make way for luxury condos marked the loss of a beloved community gathering place.

Not long after, a new friend and fellow patron asked me, “Where are we going to meet now? How are we going to stay connected?” It crystallised what I had been feeling for years: Centre Wellington needed a collaborative workspace. Not just desks, but a place for connection.

I’ve always been drawn to entrepreneurship and filling notebooks with business ideas, but I’d never taken the leap. This time felt different. I wrote a business plan, asked for feedback, and followed the momentum.

In October 2024, I signed a lease on an old auto parts shop and began turning the barn-like space into CW Co-Work, often after long workdays, covered in paint and completely exhausted.

At its core CW Co-Work is a response to isolation and a love letter to this community. It exists to bring people back together and to give them a welcoming place to step away from the chaos of life, reconnect with peers, and do their best work, side by side.

2. You’re gearing up to celebrate CW Co-Work’s first anniversary. How has your first year of operations been?

Sara: It didn’t take long to attract people who were craving something like this, often pulling them out of their basements and spare bedrooms. Hearing their stories about improved focus, productivity, and connection has been incredibly validating.

I initially expected faster uptake, but we’re a small space (about 1,500 square feet), with one flex office and two studios rented full-time by a local music school. Early hesitation seemed to stem from a mix of return-to-office policies, unfamiliarity with the coworking model, and simply not knowing we existed.

As awareness has grown, that curiosity has started converting into real traction. We signed three new coworkers in January, and we’re seeing strong word-of-mouth referrals and consistently positive feedback.

Overall, I’m really happy with how the first year has gone. Between renovating the space, launching, and building a consulting practice at the same time, it was a heavy mental load.

Once we opened, the space started to take shape quickly, and for a while, I was making weekly tweaks and upgrades. Eventually, I realised it was more important to listen than to keep guessing. Taking a step back and responding to what the community was actually asking for has made a big difference.

I’m currently deep into delivering two programmes in my day-to-day work, so I’ve brought on part-time support to help with light operations, capture content, and build a more consistent brand and marketing presence.

Getting the word out is key, especially since coworking is still a relatively new concept locally. We focus less on prescribing how people should use the space and more on helping them imagine what’s possible, given our flexibility and welcoming approach.

Our goal is to create a space that adapts to different types of work and evolving needs. Sometimes people aren’t sure if it’s the right fit at first, which is why I always encourage them to come in, grab a coffee, sit by the fire, and have a conversation.

CW Co-Work operates as a social enterprise. We’re building something the community can feel good about supporting and using in a variety of ways. Our mission to Connect Work and Create Impact is starting to resonate.

Coworking isn’t for everyone, and every space is different. But for those who’ve joined, they’ve found value here and made the space their own. That’s exactly what we hoped for.

3. Building a community is such an achievement - how have you approached growing it?

Sara: Because our space is intentionally small, we build community with thoughtful partnerships rather than large-scale events. Our official Grand Opening in April was a great example. We partnered with Adrian Jones Music School (one of our studio tenants) and featured performances by four of their up-and-coming musicians, which immediately brought energy and life into the space.

We also collaborated with local artist Vera Kisseleva. A few years ago, I took one of her painting classes at the Elora Centre for the Arts as a complete beginner and was instantly drawn to her work.

When we opened CW Co-Work and were faced with big, empty white walls, I reached out and asked if she’d like to display her art here. Her large canvas pieces completely transformed the space, and having them on display gave her another place to share and sell her work. She even joined us to live-paint during the Grand Opening, which felt like a really special moment.

We rounded out the weekend with baked goods from Elora Bread Trading Company and coffee from Elora Coffee Roasters, one of our beloved business partners and former owners of Elora Café.

On the Saturday alone, about 50 to 60 people came through the space in just a few hours. Sunday was quieter but still included live performances and a photo booth from Timeless Photobooths, another local business.

From the start, I felt it was important to work closely with the Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce. They already offer office space, boardrooms, and strong member services, so my focus has been on complementing rather than duplicating what they do.

They’ve been a valuable referral partner and sounding board, often connecting us with people who are looking for space like ours, sometimes before they even realise coworking is what they need.

I’ve also stayed connected through the Community Foundation and my time serving on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Centre Wellington. We regularly lend the space for workshops and planning sessions, including youth programming like ukulele sessions delivered by our in-house music school. We also offer a Canopy Membership, a sliding-scale option that gives community groups, charities, and non-profits affordable access to workspace and meeting rooms.

Looking ahead, one of our goals is to promote from within our own community. We’re surrounded by talented professionals, from bookkeepers and photographers to marketers and administrators, and we’re actively building a referral model to support one another.

Creating a self-sustaining network where opportunities circulate locally is core to what we’re building.

Day-to-day, we use our social channels to amplify local businesses and organisations, share community events, and show that we’re here to support what’s happening around us. We also host workshops led by subject matter experts, many of which are open to the broader community, and we’re not afraid to try new things, like hosting puppy yoga with a local breeder this month. The desks get pushed aside, and suddenly the space feels completely different.

At the end of the day, the strongest driver of our growth has been our core group of coworkers. They’ve become natural ambassadors, sharing our story, inviting others in, and genuinely believing in what we’re building together.

4. How have your events involved local businesses, and what impact has that had on the community?

Sara: Because Elora is a tourist town, we do see drop-ins from people visiting from Toronto or further afield who need a place to work. That’s a nice bonus, but it doesn’t keep the lights on. We’re evolving that interest into something more intentional.

We’re actively building Team Off-Site and Field Trip packages in partnership with local accommodation and activity providers, creating “Work, Stay, and Play” experiences that encourage teams to spend more time in the community and engage more deeply with what Centre Wellington has to offer.

One of CW Co-Work’s strongest value-adds is offering flexible, cost-effective workplace solutions for local small businesses. Commercial space in Elora is limited and expensive, and many businesses don’t need or can’t justify a full-time office. Our coworkers get the benefits of a fully equipped workspace without the high overhead or long-term commitments. The idea is that by staying lean and flexible, local businesses can be more resilient as markets shift.

We recently launched a new membership tier called The Cabin Club, an unlimited lounge drop-in option designed for freelancers, creatives, and independent consultants. It includes light marketing support and a monthly Co-Work Social to encourage networking and promotion.

The uptake in the first month has been encouraging, and we’re planning to continue growing this offering through 2026.

We’re also exploring a model specifically for local trade and field service businesses. Many of these teams work out of trucks or on job sites and don’t have a central place to meet, train staff, welcome clients, or sit down with their bookkeeper. We see an opportunity to offer fractional, scalable office access that supports their operations without adding unnecessary overhead.

Beyond memberships, the space is designed to be flexible for local business activation. One example is Enchanta Experiences, who host immersive fantasy and fairy-tale events across Ontario, using the space to bring together local vendors, artists, contributors, and partners for community-focused gatherings.

Through CW Co-Work, Enchanta connected with Elora Writing Workshops, leading to a spoken word performance collaboration at one of Enchanta’s events last year. One of the most rewarding parts of this work is seeing those connections form organically and grow into real partnerships.

That’s the impact we’re aiming for. CW Co-Work isn’t just a place to work. It’s a place where local businesses meet, collaborate, and create opportunities together.

5. As CW Co-Work enters its second year, what are you most excited about, and what’s your main focus over the next 12 months?

Sara: As we head into year two, my main focus is growing our memberships and continuing to test what flexibility can really look like in practice.

One of the three new coworkers we’ve welcomed in the past couple of weeks is from a visual merchandising business, LA Gift Solutions & Designs. They create stunning custom gift baskets for local brokerages and businesses, and we’ll be hosting their pop-up shops on select weekends, welcoming the community to purchase their products. It gives them a new level of visibility in town and helps us demonstrate how the space can support different types of businesses.

We’re intentionally thinking outside the box. Ideally, we’ll welcome a few more pop-up retail vendors and create a small, rotating weekend marketplace where people can discover local businesses in one place.

Having on-site parking makes that possible, and it’s something we don’t take for granted.

Membership packages are an area I’m constantly revisiting. I’m always asking myself whether I’m overcomplicating things or simply responding to the need for flexibility. That’s an area likely to get a refresh this year. Our ideal audience is small business owners, freelancers, independent operators, marketers, and content creators who want community and support, not just a desk.

I’m also excited about leaning more into community-building in 2026. We’re going to host a monthly member social and build partnerships with local accommodations and restaurants to support team off-sites and executive retreats, which we plan to roll out in the spring.

Another focus is increasing visibility for our business partners. We have six large front-facing windows on a busy road, and I’d love to see more of them filled with vinyl logos, representing businesses within the CW Co-Work ecosystem.

In the longer term, I’m hopeful we’ll expand into an additional 1,500 square feet, allowing us to respond to what the community is asking for, including food service and private offices, while still staying true to our collaborative ethos. Coworking will always be central to what we do, but I also recognise that different businesses need different types of space at different stages.

Overall, I’m excited. The focus now is on helping businesses clearly see the value of being part of this community and making sure we’re building something sustainable that can continue to grow alongside them.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces.

Edition #23 of People Make Coworking interviews Sara Hipson, founder of CW Co-Work in Elora, Canada.

That’s exactly what Unreasonable Connection Live! promises to deliver on Tuesday 24th February.

This event – a partnership between London Coworking Assembly, Blue Garage, and Urban MBA – brings together 150 people who care deeply about the coworking industry.

In true Bernie Mitchell-style, this event doesn’t involve polished panels or surface-level networking, but opens an honest conversation about the shared challenges in coworking.

I can’t wait to experience the magic when a large group of coworking enthusiasts gather in the same room. Here are five things to look forward to when this event comes to London in three weeks.

1. Real conversations about the challenges of coworking

Running a coworking space comes with challenges that are hard to fully explain unless you’re living them. Unreasonable Connection Live! exists to make room for those conversations.

If you’re familiar with Bernie Mitchell’s Unreasonable Connection calls, you’ll know the format already: a monthly check-in where operators come together to share what’s really going on behind the scenes in their workspaces.

Unreasonable Connection Live! builds on that spirit, holding space for honest discussion rather than glossy success stories. We all know that true connection happens when everyone is in the room IRL, rather than over a Teams call.

Expect thoughtful reflection, shared experience, and story-swapping conversations that leave you feeling inspired and less alone in the work.

2. The power of neighbourhood spaces

For many people, most of life already happens locally. Schools, gyms, cafés, and friends are all within walking distance. But for years, work has pulled people away from their local communities and into long commutes that increasingly make little sense.

Over the last five years, that has shifted dramatically. Hybrid work has become the norm, teams are distributed, and the daily commute is no longer a given. What people need now is a place to do meaningful work close to home – somewhere you can walk to, settle in, and get into a rhythm.

This is where neighbourhood spaces truly shine. They support people with fragmented schedules, caring responsibilities, or flexible working needs, reducing isolation, increasing accessibility, and creating genuine connections between people who live and work in the same area.

Unreasonable Connection Live! encourages the group to share stories about how neighbourhood coworking spaces are filling that missing piece — offering focus, community, and belonging right where people already live.

In Bernie’s words: “This is a local neighbourhood conversation.”

3. Visiting Blue Garage: Lewisham’s newest coworking makerspace

It feels fitting that an event centred around neighbourhood spaces is hosted by one.

Blue Garage is an industrial-grade fabrication lab and makerspace in Lewisham, founded by Michael Korn. Sitting above a micro-factory, it provides the tools, resources, and equipment, improving affordability and accessibility for local makers.

While I haven’t visited Blue Garage yet, I spoke with Michael last year for a Nexudus piece ahead of European Coworking Day. His passion for community-led spaces and breaking down barriers for makers is unmistakable.

This feels like the perfect venue for conversations around neighbourhood spaces to take place.

4. Honest discussions about the realities of running a coworking space

Running a coworking business can be brutal at times. When a large member leaves with a month’s notice and overheads continue to rise, even the most committed operators can find themselves questioning why they decided to open a coworking space in the first place.

This event isn’t a sugar-coated view of coworking. Unreasonable Connection Live! offers a rare opportunity to share those experiences openly.

Operators who’ve been through the good, the bad, and the ugly will be exchanging knowledge, including timely discussions around challenges such as the recent VOA business tax rates.

I recently spoke with Suzanne Murdock about the hidden pressures of running a coworking space, and one thing was clear: sharing these challenges can be incredibly powerful.

5. Connecting with people who get it

Many coworking spaces are founded from a personal motivation to overcome loneliness, build a community, or a desire to work differently.

But as your workspace grows, finding time to connect with people in similar positions becomes harder, even though that might have been your primary goal at the beginning.

Unreasonable Connection Live! brings that connection back to the forefront.

If you’re looking for a reminder of why you started your coworking space in the first place, then that’s absolutely what will be covered at the event. Prepare to feel inspired by other workspace operators, and return from the day with tonnes of ideas and motivation to bring to your coworking business.

Let’s connect at Unreasonable Connection Live!

I can’t wait to head along to Unreasonable Connection Live! later this month.

The room will be full of coworking operators and enthusiasts who care deeply about their spaces, and who are open, curious, and willing to share what they’re learning along the way.

If you’re already on the list, let me know — I’d love to connect with you there.

If you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, consider this your nudge. Get yours here.

And if you’ve been missing the joy of in-person coworking conversations – the kind that remind you why you started in the first place – this might just be the room you’ve been waiting for.

Until next week,

Lucy

As Spark Coworking scaled from one location to five sites across four states, Maggie helped build the systems and train community managers nationwide, enabling teams to spend more time with people and less time behind a screen.

After eight years at Spark, Maggie relocated to Augusta last summer to build a creative consultancy that helps coworking operators, collaborative spaces, and third-place developers design the systems, programmes, and brands that turn spaces into thriving communities. Building her own community from scratch in a new city has deepened Maggie’s perspective on the importance of showing up locally.

Maggie continues to support Spark Coworking through fractional work. She also remains deeply involved in local and national ecosystem initiatives, including the co-founding of Baltimore Coworking Week in 2024 – an annual August celebration (in line with International Coworking Day) uniting the city’s coworking ecosystem.

In this interview, Maggie reflects on scaling coworking with intention, the often-overlooked traits that make great community managers (including why so many seem to be eldest daughters), and how a serendipitous coworking tour in Augusta led her to play a key role in planning a global ecosystem-building summit.

1. What’s your journey into coworking been like?

Maggie: I entered the industry as a community manager for Spark Coworking in Baltimore, where the job description felt like an explanation of my dream work, ticking all the boxes and putting a name to work that fit me so well that I didn’t even know existed.

From the beginning, it was clear to me that Spark Coworking was the perfect place to start that journey. I knew very little about the industry when I began; it was a happy accident. I found myself scouring podcasts, learning and following people in the industry.

I rode the wave with the community through COVID. Here in the US, all that did was enforce my love for the coworking industry.

Beyond community engagement, I learned how to launch a space from zero by paying attention to the hyperlocal and putting systems in. Later, I transitioned to a senior manager, overseeing community managers across the business, and focussing our attention on hospitality and entrepreneurship.

I helped scale Spark Coworking from one location in Baltimore to five locations across four states.

Since leaving my full-time role at Spark Coworking in the summer, I’ve moved from Baltimore to Augusta. I’ve built a creative consultancy helping coworking operators and third-place developers design the systems, programmes, and brands that turn spaces into thriving communities, focusing on community strategy, CM training, and brand development for third places.

As it was a huge transition, and we weren’t quite ready to part ways, I’m still doing fractional work with Spark Coworking.

2. What were some of the learning curves you faced when scaling Spark Coworking from one to five sites?

Maggie: We started scaling in 2020 (an interesting situation, timing-wise). When we opened Kansas City after Baltimore, it was more of a virtual launch.

The opening of Spark Arlington in Texas moulded my understanding of scalability. Leading up to its launch, I was on the ground with our national director, Shervonne Cherry, who has been with Spark since the beginning.

Shervonne is an incredible mentor and leader in the coworking world. We became hands-on in creating connections with the local community and implementing onboarding processes. We ensured that the physical space felt like Spark and was ready on day one, which involved a few shopping trips to Home Goods to make it perfect!

Scaling a business isn’t a perfect science, but we were conscious of hospitality and entrepreneurship. Those values were reflected in the first impressions of the community: a prospect will walk in and, within the first 30 seconds to a minute, decide whether the space is for them.

Not only do they make a first impression of the space, but of the team. Part of my work involved training and onboarding our teams. We hired a local team in the area, with knowledge about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Arlington (that I didn’t have, coming from Baltimore).

Meanwhile, my understanding of Spark tapped into that knowledge bank and married it with their understanding of the local ecosystem. We were building systems, so our team spent less time in front of their laptop and more time with their community.

A successful community manager and operations team should spend more time working within the community than away from it. To do that, you need great systems and workflows in place on the back end, to fill the team with the confidence and time to do the real work – the human-first work.

3. What qualities do you think coworking operators should look for when hiring community managers?

Maggie: Recently, I attended the GWA immersive Summit, and I had this exact conversation with a couple of folks there. My joke is that the majority of community managers I’ve talked to in Baltimore (and beyond) have been eldest daughters. It’s telling because of the many traits that eldest daughters have.

I answer this question by saying: find someone where community is ingrained into their personal ethos.

You can teach anyone how to run an onboarding session and a booking platform, but you can’t teach them how to read a room or understand emotional intelligence, like knowing when a member is having a hard time, feeling off, or craving connection, and then understanding who is the best person to connect them to.

Those soft skills have always been important in the coworking industry. As we move towards more AI and tech-focused systems, I’ve seen them become more relevant in the general hiring process, too. All of a sudden, the rest of the business world is paying attention to community, instead of calling it an audience, client or follower.

As an industry, we have a unique opportunity to raise our hands and say that we understand how to build community authentically, and we don’t want to commodify community. We’ve been doing this work for the past two plus decades.

We’re well-positioned to lead and teach people doing this work, whether it’s in a coworking space or in a different industry. It’s an interesting trajectory I’m seeing right now.

4. What did moving to Augusta teach you about community building?

Maggie: This recent move to Augusta has taught me to walk the walk. Community building and being a villager are so important in today’s digital age, and I’m viewing that from a different perspective. Now, I’m not only teaching it and talking about its importance, but I’m experiencing it firsthand.

I grew up in Baltimore — it’s a community I’m extremely comfortable being part of. I knew all of the players, and I really understood the ecosystem infrastructure: the upcoming projects, the direction the city was heading in, and how it could support startups and entrepreneurs.

Moving to Augusta, I knew how to build community, but I didn’t know anything about the community itself. The move forced me to practice what I preach. I began by connecting with local entrepreneurs and ecosystem builders (folks working in local government and tourism), and understanding the direction Augusta is heading in, from an entrepreneurial and developmental perspective.

Since moving here, I’ve found myself exploring some of Augusta’s third places, like local coffee shops and small businesses.

Putting yourself out there is scary, but if you have the confidence and clarity of who you are, you can go into a new community and authentically present yourself as an asset and an advocate for it.

5. Have you joined any coworking spaces in Augusta?

Maggie: Naturally, researching all of Augusta’s coworking spaces was one of the first things I did when prepping for the move. There are only two – one being the Clubhou.se – a nonprofit coworking space right in the heart of downtown.

I reached out to their team for a tour and met with their ecosystem builder, Lexi. She showed me around the space, and we spent an hour sitting in a conference room talking shop. There’s just a certain language and understanding of people in this industry that we might not get to chat in person very often, especially in a city with only two coworking spaces.

Lexi mentioned they’d just finished a planning meeting for the Startup Champions Network (SCN) – a national organisation for ecosystem builders, that hosts two summits a year. The upcoming summit just happened to be in Augusta.

I asked how I could help, and was invited to join the planning committee. So, only a couple of weeks after I’d moved, I was suddenly in a room with the Augusta Chamber of Commerce, the coworking space founders, and team members planning the event.

I helped execute the event in November, where we brought 85 ecosystem builders from around the world together for four days of programming, community-building events, panel discussions, and TED-style talks.

It was an incredible thing to be part of, and a serendipitous experience that led to many connections since then.

6. How is Baltimore Coworking Week shaping the local coworking ecosystem?

Maggie: This is a newer initiative that we started in the summer of 2024. There are about 30 coworking spaces across Baltimore, including makerspaces and niche spaces. Although we all celebrate International Coworking Day (one of my favourite days of the year), there was no formal alliance between the independently owned coworking spaces.

We decided to create this incredible piece of programming around International Coworking Day. Throughout the week, every space offered either free or discounted day passes, encouraging folks to check out all the different coworking spaces part of Baltimore Coworking Week.

We organised daily programming across all the spaces, with four spaces participating in the inaugural year. One evening, for example, we hosted a member panel with members from all the different coworking spaces, about how coworking and being a part of their home coworking space supported their businesses.

We also had a TED-style talk around placemaking in coworking and its impact on the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Throughout the week, we supported each other across the different events. Baltimore Coworking Week propelled a local understanding of the ecosystem – many people who’d never coworked before visited all four coworking spaces in one week.

They gathered information about what type of space would be best for them and made new connections, which helped them make a good decision about the type of coworking space that they wanted to join.

For the coworking teams participating, Baltimore Coworking Week was a great reinforcement of one of our industry values: collaboration over competition. Despite some people working in the industry in the same city for years, they hadn’t even met each other. The event was a fantastic opportunity for those teams to talk about their shared experiences in coworking.

We’re all building community, and it can be easy for people who support communities or ecosystems to forget that they need support as well. Having conversations with someone who knows the situations that we deal with on a day-to-day basis helps.

Not only did Baltimore Coworking Week give our teams a chance to collaborate, but the greater community experienced coworking and understood the coworking spaces they could access across Baltimore.

We had our second year in 2025, and we’re continuing to build the initiative.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces

Edition #22 interviews Maggie Terhune, who has set up her own creative consultancy. Follow Maggie on Instagram (@mag.terhune) or shoot her an email.

Read more coworking stories

If you’d like to share your story in ‘co’, please get in touch. I’d love to speak with you for a future feature.

In 2016, coworking was becoming an established movement, but for some of us (myself included), it was something we were participating in before we had the language for it.

A decade ago, I was a second-year Art History student. My first experiences of coworking involved meeting friends in the student union, pulling all-nighters in the library, and working to deadlines in our department’s workspace — fondly known to us as ‘The Pit.’

The department building is the Sainsbury Centre in Norwich: a vast, aircraft-hangar-style building designed by Norman Foster, with a contemporary art gallery on one side and the university department on the other.

We were incredibly fortunate to have a dedicated workspace exclusively for Art History students. ‘The Pit’ earned its name partly as a nod to our studies (archaeology was part of the curriculum), but also because the space sat a level below the ground floor. It felt quietly separate from the rest of the building — a little removed, and calmer.

What made the space special wasn’t just its openness, but how well it was zoned. The ceilings were enormous, and the workspace was set against huge windows overlooking the university grounds.

I didn’t explicitly know I was coworking — I hadn’t heard the term yet. But the experience taught me something essential: coworking is about togetherness.

Working alongside my peers strengthened our relationships, and our work improved because we were constantly sharing ideas and supporting each other.

My love for coworking started there, but it grew over the years through exposure to different spaces and communities. The first coworking brands I heard of were Impact Hub and WeWork, around 2017.

More importantly, the coworking values of connection, collaboration, and belonging continue to shape how I work and live today.

Coworking spaces in 2016

Of course, if you’ve been a longstanding player in the coworking industry, you’ll know that coworking was in full swing back in 2016.

Deskmag data shows that in October 2016, 11,300 coworking spaces existed worldwide, and 2,600 opened during that year.

So, let’s have a look at some of the workspaces in operation back in 2016:

The Melting Pot, Edinburgh

One of Europe’s first coworking hubs, which opened in 2005, The Melting Pot in Edinburgh was launched by Claire Carpenter, who was inspired by spaces for changemakers. The coworking space is still in operation and recently celebrated its big birthday.

The Hub Newry, Northern Ireland

Suzanne Murdock co-founded The Hub Newry in 2009 – a network of award-winning, flexible workspaces in Newry – shortly after moving to Northern Ireland with her family. Back then, coworking was almost non-existent in Ireland, but Suzanne has grown her spaces and community over the years.

The Village Hive, Markham, Canada

2016 was the year that Charlotte Kirby opened The Village Hive in Markham, Canada. Charlotte’s coworking journey came about after she visited the Center for Social Innovation coworking space to watch a broadcast of the TED X Toronto event in 2015, and it sparked the idea of launching a coworking space to bring people together.

Third Door, London

Shazia Mustafa had been running her award-winning family-friendly coworking space, Third Door, for six years by the time 2016 came around. She launched the coworking space in Wandsworth following her maternity leave and need to keep working close to her children without compromise.

Hub Australia

Launching with humble beginnings in 2011, Hub served a new wave of freelancers in a modest Melbourne building known as Donkey Wheel House. WeWork entered the Australian market in 2016, allowing investors to see the opportunities of coworking, and for Hub to raise capital to start its growth trajectory across the country (it now operates 16 locations).

Mantle Space, Cambridgeshire

In 2016, Mantle Space was growing and growing, after launching in 2005, when its CEO, Guy Baker, bought a dilapidated Franciscan priory near Stansted Airport, renovating it into 25,000 square feet of serviced offices. Now, Mantle is an interconnected network of eight offices operating across the Southeast.

BLANKSPACES, Los Angeles

One of the oldest coworking spaces in the US is BLANKSPACES, launched by architect Jerome Chang, as a workspace where he could share space and resources with others.

By the end of 2024, coworking expanded to around 42,000 spaces worldwide, underscoring just how dramatic the growth has been.

What’s in store for coworking in 2026?

Looking at who was operating in 2016 got me thinking about what the next decade might bring.

Coworking has come a long way from being ‘just a space with four walls.’ I heard this at yesterday’s NORNORM event at Sustainable Ventures on the Southbank, which focused on the new workplace norms for the year ahead.

The panel emphasised how listening to community members matters. Operators want to give their members the right spaces, the right amenities, and the right support. But the question is which ones actually matter.

One prediction I heard was that amenities are possibly a fad that won’t last. What will endure, they argued, is experience: how a space feels, how it functions, and how it makes people feel supported.

The keyword that kept coming up at the event was community (it always does in this industry!).

It’s what makes coworking more than just desks and Wi-Fi, and as the panel reflected, community and retention were what separated successful workspaces from unsuccessful ones.

It’s the connection, the collaboration, and the sense of belonging that turns a workspace into a place people want to return to.

I realise it’s difficult to chase trends right now. Financially, running a coworking business is tough, and it’s hard to predict what your members will do next, how long they’ll stay, or how your overheads might change.

So while amenities and trends may come and go, the future of coworking will be shaped by the people inside the space — and by the operators who listen, adapt, and prioritise community even when the market is tough.

See you next week,

Lucy

This is the reality that Suzanne Murdock often talks about. Co-founder of The Hub Newry, Suzanne has spent the last decade building a network of award-winning flexible workspaces in Newry, Northern Ireland. Suzanne is also a coach and mentor for independent coworking space operators and micro business owners.

In a recent conversation I had with Suzanne, she revealed a reality that isn’t often spoken about in coworking: the hidden pressures of running a coworking space. We spoke about energy, expectations, burnout, and the personal costs of holding space for others every day.

This post dives into the takeaways from our recorded conversation on this topic and shares some practical insights for support.

Managing the ‘invisible load’

Coworking is a people-first business. Operators are at once hosts, troubleshooters, marketers, cleaners, strategists, therapists, accountants, community catalysts, and sometimes emergency responders.

Many are doing it without a team while running another business on the side. Suzanne coins this pressure as the ‘invisible load.’

For operators, the challenge isn’t just the tasks themselves; it’s the unpredictability of what comes up each day. Suzanne explains:

‘There’s that human aspect of the unexpected…We don’t know what’s going to happen from one day to the next. You feel that you’re the community manager – you’re the one holding space. You’re there for them, so you have to drop things when your members need you.’

Many operators also face the challenge of juggling multiple businesses or responsibilities simultaneously, which amplifies the mental load. Costs rise, regulations change, and the community’s needs evolve, all while operators try to maintain the personal connections that make a coworking space thrive.

While the pressures of running a coworking space are real, Suzanne emphasises how reflecting on the original purpose behind your space can help ease things. Ask yourself:

• Are you serving the right members?

• Does your space align with your values?

This clarity can help distinguish between feeling overwhelmed by tasks and feeling out of alignment with your community.

Creating the magic of community

Community is often the buzzword in coworking, but building one can be one of the hardest parts of running a coworking space.

For Suzanne, community management is deeply human. With over 13 years of running The Hub Newry, she has witnessed her members grow not just in their businesses but also in their personal lives. Some of her members’ children have literally grown up alongside the space, creating multi-generational connections that make the community feel like an extended family.

Coworking communities can bring immense joy, connection, and a sense of shared purpose, but as many of you may know, there can be a downside, with some individuals draining your time and completely shifting the cultural dynamic within a space. Building community requires a balancing act between having emotional awareness and clear boundaries.

To keep a balance when managing your community, Suzanne recommends:

• Checking in with your members once a week.

• Keeping your door open so members can pop in for a chat.

• But also put soft rules in place on how much time you’re prepared to spend with community members to protect yourself.

• Consider undertaking mental health first aid training to help others.

Community is also about connecting to your local area. Suzanne says:

“The community isn’t just the people within the four walls, it’s the businesses outside as well that we’ve got to know over the years and are very much a part of it.”

Coping with finances

Cash flow pressures hit neighbourhood coworking operators particularly hard. Empty offices, unpaid invoices, and unexpected costs can pile up quickly, not to mention rising taxes that continue to hit coworking businesses.

Suzanne reflects on the reality for small, independent spaces:

“Cash flow is always a worry for a lot of us local operators. The margins can be quite tight, and we don’t have the deep pockets that the bigger branded spaces have got…So you feel the pressure there.”

Smaller operators often face a balancing act between meeting members’ expectations and staying financially sustainable.

Investing your money wisely is key. But knowing your numbers is really important to maintain a cash flow buffer for unexpected costs, and diversifying revenue streams within your space can add protection.

Some additional revenue streams to consider include:

• Having a mix of private offices alongside coworking memberships.

• Offering a registered office address service.

• Launching another business, such as providing coaching and mentoring services.

• Seeking referral schemes in partnership with local businesses.

Navigating the financial side of coworking requires foresight, adaptability, and trusted advisors. For Suzanne, having trusted mentors, peers, and accountants helps manage the financial side of running an independent workspace.

Working smarter on your marketing

Without additional resources, marketing is one of the most time-consuming hats a coworking operator wears. For Suzanne, marketing takes up 30-40% of her time running the business.

Content creation never stops, but sometimes, business owners are creating content for content’s sake. Creating a strategy can help you spread yourself too thin.

Pick the platforms that align with your personality and goals, map out content themes in advance, and prioritise quality and authenticity over chasing every trend. For Suzanne, podcasting works best, while writing is definitely my outlet. Suzanne expands on this:

“Find your platform, your outlet, and then repurpose that. So if you’re doing video or podcasting, pull out the MP3 sounds, videos, transcripts, and turn them into anything – just with that one piece of content.”

Featuring community members in your content is a brilliant way to build trust, but it requires sensitivity to their privacy and personal boundaries. Evergreen content should also be managed carefully so past members aren’t featured in your content without their consent.

Embracing AI is a smart move to avoid getting left behind, and many tools can help speed up processes. But make an extra effort to produce content that feels more authentic.

Marketing in coworking isn’t just about promotion; it’s about connection, storytelling, and building trust with your community.

Overcoming loneliness when running a workspace

Running a coworking business can be deeply rewarding, but it can also be isolating. For operators outside major cities, the loneliness of leadership often comes from carrying the weight of responsibility alone.

Suzanne explains:

“Small business owners say it can be a lonely place because they feel they have to carry a lot of the worries, and they’re holding so much space for their members that they don’t really want to divulge all their own concerns.”

In smaller neighbourhoods, competition can feel more acute. Operators may hesitate to open up to peers, fearing it could impact their business. Suzanne recalls early experiences where trust between operators was hard to come by, compared with the more collaborative nature of networks often found in larger cities.

Other factors that amplify isolation include:

• Navigating complex jurisdictions and red tape.

• Limited access to in-person networking events due to cost or location.

• Seasonal quiet periods, especially in summer, when members and team routines shift.

Even in quieter times, the demands of running a space continue, and the lack of immediate peer support can affect confidence and energy levels. Suzanne manages this by keeping a structure and boundaries, grasping online networking opportunities where she can, and checking in with mentors.

Leadership loneliness is a tough reality for coworking operators, but with boundaries, peer support, and self-awareness, you can navigate isolation while continuing to lead a thriving, people-first space.

Coworking operators – you’re not alone

Coworking leaders carry many hidden pressures which impact how you build community and manage finances, while juggling multiple roles and coping with loneliness. The good news is that practical strategies exist to navigate each of these challenges.

As Suzanne reminds us, you’re not alone: reach out to peers, mentors, or trusted advisors, and take small, manageable steps rather than attempting huge leaps that risk overwhelm. Check in with your own well-being, set boundaries, and don’t wait until burnout hits to ask for support.

For those looking for more tailored guidance, Suzanne’s coaching and resources focus on the hidden pressures of neighbourhood coworking leadership. Additional insights and discussions can also be found on The Inclusive Coworker.

Remember – share, connect, and take it one step at a time.

Until next time,

Lucy & Suzanne

After moving abroad for work and launching Angola’s first coworking space in 2015, Michael found himself back in Jeffrey’s Bay during the lockdown. It was then that, quite serendipitously, he stumbled across a huge building facing the ocean that can only be described as a surfer’s utopia.

Michael founded Green Room JBay — a coworking space for digital nomads, tech entrepreneurs, ocean conservationists, and creatives who all share a passion for surfing, sustainability, and the ocean. This influences everything the space does, from being surfer-friendly with all the amenities you could ask for, to supporting initiatives that protect the ocean and coastal ecosystems.

In this interview, Michael shares his remarkable story of starting Green Room JBay, what an “ocean-minded” culture looks like in practice, and how the workspace gives back to the local community, injecting new revenue into the local economy.

1. What inspired the founding of Green Room JBay, and how did you get started?

Michael: I grew up surfing in a city near Jeffreys Bay (JBay). I recall on weekends, it was always such a treat to head to JBay to go surfing. In JBay, the waves are long, tapered and beautiful. It’s the best surfing set-up in South Africa for sure, perhaps one of the best on the African continent.

After school, I left home to study, work and travel. I started my first coworking space in Luanda, the capital of Angola, in 2015. When COVID hit in 2020, I decided to return home near JBay to spend some time with my elderly parents. Of course, I went surfing in JBay.

Whilst I was there, I connected with someone who owned a large, recently vacated building in town, who had heard about my coworking space in Angola. I had no intention of staying in JBay, but decided to visit the building out of curiosity.

Turns out the building in question was the South African Head Office for the global surf brand, ‘Billabong’. They had done what any well-capitalised global surf brand might do: build a big, beautiful, warehouse-style office at the beach overlooking a surf spot. They then filled it with incredible surf nostalgia, surfboards and imagery, much like a surfing museum. It was pretty much the ultimate office for a surfer.

I used to love reading an American magazine called Surfer Magazine, which had a section right at the back called ‘People Who Surf’ – about incredible working professionals who also happened to surf. That was my favourite section in the magazine because I’m not a very good surfer, but I could relate to that.

I’m also influenced by Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard’s book: “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman.” It’s mostly about finding more balance and sustainable ways of running a business, where profit doesn’t cost the surrounding environment and communities.

Standing there, looking at this big, empty office, it was easy to imagine a sustainable coworking space full of super-interesting professionals who also happen to love surfing.

It could be, in a way, the physical manifestation of ‘People who Surf’ and ‘Let my people go surfing’. It had the potential to be the ultimate coworking space for the working surfer. That’s what really inspired me to do this!

Billabong had been JBay’s biggest employer, but its head office and manufacturing operations had recently been moved out of the area. The rest of the town mostly revolved around the tourism industry.

In 2020 (mid-COVID), things were looking pretty grim. There were no other businesses in JBay big enough to take the whole space. Even if there had been, at that stage, it wasn’t entirely impossible that no one would ever want to return to the office. The landlord was understandably nervous.

I made a very opportunistic offer to take over the lease because I had nothing to lose. The landlord and Billabong agreed, on the basis that we’d start recruiting from the people who’d been laid off from Billabong, which we did.

It was very much an opportunity to bring a positive impact to the area I’d grown up enjoying. Who doesn’t want to do that?

2. What sort of things make your coworking space uniquely “ocean-minded”?

Michael: The magical thing about Jeffrey’s Bay is the ocean. The town is built on a hill overlooking the bay. You can see the sea from almost anywhere, and you’re never more than a few minutes from the beach. There’s no industry or port nearby, making the water beautifully clean and full of sea life; it’s quite extraordinary.

Almost like clockwork, in the morning and evening, the water is usually teeming with pods of dolphins. Then there’s the long, tapered waves.

People come to JBay because of the ocean, and we really wanted to embrace that. We decided that everything we do, even though we’re in the office, has to somehow relate to the ocean. I think the more people use, see and think about the ocean, the better they understand it, and ideally, the more they feel inspired to conserve it.

An “ocean-minded” space was made easier in practice because we inherited the office from Billabong. It’s right next to the beach with these floor-to-ceiling doors and windows overlooking the ocean; it’s impossible to ignore! It’s not unusual to be distracted during an online meeting by a breaching whale or a perfect wave.

We’re exceptionally surfer-friendly – we have ‘surfboard-parking’, showers, wetsuit drying racks and warm showers. We make it totally acceptable to arrive at the office in a dripping wetsuit; actually, it’s encouraged! It’s quite common for members to quickly go for a surf at some point during their workday.

When you’re surfing, you appreciate the quality of the ocean first-hand. We really want to support ocean and wilderness conservation. So, if you’re doing anything related to conserving the ocean or our coastal areas, you’re welcome to work here and pay what you can (or nothing at all).

We have several local conservation organisations based at the Green Room, and various initiatives come from the space. For raising awareness, it’s really helpful that there is a ready audience and a wide range of skills in-house, often willing to lend their assistance.

For any event, exhibition or residency we host, we try to connect it to or be inspired by the ocean. All of our internal communication in the space with members has a little hint of the ocean. For example, you’ll always see a little seagull peeking out of the corner of all of our internal messaging. The kitchen has a big poster showing all the marine bird species found in the area. We have a 16 metre mural of a school of fish. At our reception store, you can buy merchandise from a local craftsman who makes handmade surfboard fins in his garage.

That’s what we mean by being “ocean-minded” — everything we do is, in some small way, connected back to the ocean.

The most unusual way I’ve heard of people finding us was a group of friends from Berlin who were looking to escape the German winter. They opened Google Maps and followed their Central European time zone southwards, looking for a place where they could work somewhere warm, in the same time zone, but specifically in an office with an ocean view. Our space floated to the top of maps. They saw some pictures and booked for a month!

3. Your philosophy of measuring success is a little different. Can you share more about it?

Michael: From the first time I saw the space, it was hard to imagine that this was ever going to be a super-profitable business, especially in Jeffrey’s Bay. So that was never the goal. It’s definitely much more of an experiment to prove whether a big coworking space can make a difference to a small town.

Based on this, we defined success across three things. Firstly, we wanted to bring money into the local economy that wasn’t there before, especially because so many people had just become unemployed, and tourism was struggling after COVID.

We saw the project as a way to attract a new type of traveller to town, somebody who stays for longer, with a decent disposable income.

Secondly, we want the space to bring experience and expertise to JBay that weren’t there before. We do this by attracting skilled working people to JBay, and then providing a platform to share their experience with others. Instead of coming just for a week of surfing, we encourage them to stay for a month or three months, make local connections and exchange their skills.

Recently, one of our local JBay automation labs started producing training content for a German company after the founder spent some time at the Green Room.

Finally, we see it as a way of setting an example in the town of what a sustainable business might look like. We knew the space would attract attention, and hoped that other local businesses might copy some of our practices.

Those were the main differences we thought we could make with the space. Financial sustainability is obviously ideal, but profit maximisation has never been the main goal. When you position your metrics like that, instead of maximising profit, staff make decisions in a different way. It’s subtle, but customers really notice something different.

4. What are some of the challenges you’ve had in building Green Room JBay?

Michael: The most daunting challenge was that Green Room JBay is a big office for a small town. At around 1,300 square metres in a town of around 40,000 people, and many people who only visit during the holidays, it was hard to imagine filling the space.

Thankfully, one of the old Billabong staff, who was busy closing things down, mentioned in passing that he’d been approached by quite a few people who were curious about using the space in some way. He kindly gave me a list of their names and numbers, and that became our first customer list.

Evidence of so much interest gave me confidence that our initial footfall was sufficient to start the momentum. Five years down the line, some folk from that list are still members!

Setting up the workspace on a tiny budget was the next challenge. Even though the office was left in a state that was almost ready-to-use, converting it to coworking required some intervention, which we needed to do on a tiny budget. We connected with some super-talented local artists and carpenters who, like much of the town, weren’t really motivated by money.

When they heard about our idea and the change we intended to make to the town, they wanted to help make it happen. Many local creatives volunteered their time to bring the Green Room to the state of ‘minimum viable product’ as a coworking space, and they did an amazing job. Curiously, almost all of them have subsequently received a bunch of work from people impressed with what they did in the space.

Finally, JBay is quite an affordable place (which also means that locals generally aren’t willing to pay much for stuff!). We had to find a way to attract local people and make enough revenue to sustain the big space.

To do this, we targeted people from outside of JBay who are used to paying more for a coworking space, and then played around quite a lot with the discount on the pricing of the longer-term packages to accommodate the locals. If you’re living in JBay, the long-term packages are much more affordable; that’s our ‘baseload’ of members, which has very low turnover.

5. In what ways have you seen Green Room JBay affect your local community?

Michael: I would say the space is definitely having an impact on the type of community that the town attracts – it’s definitely a bit more cosmopolitan. That said, JBay is still largely undiscovered and not a “digital nomad town” by any stretch of the imagination.

At any point in time, we might have a handful or two of nomads around. There have always been several international surfers visiting, but now you start to see more international surfers who have remote jobs. They stay for longer, spend more at local businesses and tend to integrate better with the local community.

We try to create a platform in the space for everyone, both local and international, to share their skills, stories and expertise. For example, every Thursday lunchtime, we facilitate a TED-style talk for people to share something they’re working on or are super passionate about. We call it “Off the Lips” — a play on words for a well-known surfing manoeuvre.

In line with our objectives, you don’t need to be a coworking member to attend the talks or any of our events. It’s completely open for people in town to walk into.

We’re really proud of how this has worked out – you’re in this little town near the southern tip of Africa, and you can walk into this space, and learn how an expert marketed Denmark as a niche destination, or how someone from France is replanting coral reefs in French Polynesia. It’s an opportunity to learn about the rest of the world, and conversely, for the rest of the world to meet and interact with our local community.

In the space, we have a large “common room”, which is probably one of the biggest indoor venues in town, so we get approached by people wanting to use the space, often for surf movie premieres or events. We’re always very open to that - we’re happy that the whole town can benefit from this space.

6. Has anything else evolved from the coworking space since opening?

Michael: We started noticing a trend where we had a few international travellers come through the space who could afford a nicer Airbnb, but instead of staying alone, they wanted to stay in a low-stress environment and community.

I first heard about “coliving” from visiting members, who mentioned how they’ll always search for a coworking space before accommodation. Around the same time, an old villa with sweeping views across the bay came up for sale. That’s where we had the idea of ‘JBay Coliving’ - the first coliving space in South Africa outside of Cape Town. Based on our insight, the coworking space would be a lead-generator for the coliving space.

Curiously, whilst setting up the Green Room, I’d also been adopted by a cat. The available villa was next door to where I lived, and I noticed the cat really loved playing in the villa garden. Knowing I still needed to travel to Angola, buying the villa next door and starting a business there was going to be really helpful to ensure there would always be someone to look after the cat when I travelled. I think the cat was actually more the reason I started JBay Coliving, rather than the business case!

It worked out well - the coliving space has been a great success and a very cool project. The cat adapted well to his new home and was loved by everyone. Sadly, he has since passed away, but his spirit still lives on in the villa. JBay Coliving has definitely been the biggest “side effect” that’s evolved from the Green Room.

More recently, we’ve also taken on some space next to the coworking space to create a maker space. There are many creative people in this town, including the people who helped us set up the space, who use it.

At the Green Room, it’s very complementary to have people who work with their hands work alongside people using laptops. Our coworking members provide an instant audience for the maker space, and the makers benefit from the coworking members’ skills. That’s our latest project.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces.

Edition #21 of People Make Coworking interviews Michael Sternberg, founder of Green Room JBay in South Africa.

Read more coworking stories

If you’d like to share your story in ‘co’, please get in touch. I’d love to speak with you for a future feature.

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December has a habit of arriving with a long list of expectations, social events to attend, projects to wrap up, and plans to get ahead. But it’s also winter. The days are short, it’s cold outside, and energy doesn’t always run at full capacity this time of year.

This month, I’m reminding myself that sustainable work isn’t about pushing harder but being a little kinder to ourselves when things slow down.

As my last post of this year, it feels like the perfect moment to revisit my first post of 2025: my ins and outs for the year ahead, and reflect on some genuinely positive shifts we’ve seen across the coworking industry in 2025.

Circularity in workspaces

The conversation has moved beyond greenwashing. Circular furniture brands, furniture rental, and fit-outs made with reclaimed materials are becoming standard practice across many workspaces. More landlords are now measuring embodied carbon, not just operational emissions. It’s a huge step forward when we know how much office furniture still ends up in landfills daily. Progress? Yes. Enough? Not yet.

Normalising work-from-anywhere

Loud RTO headlines have led many corporate workers back to the office full-time. The good news? More of those offices are managed by flex operators. With flexibility being the baseline, not a perk, coworking spaces, cafes, and third spaces are all benefitting, and accommodating hybrid workers, freelancers and business owners.

Supporting neighbourhood workspaces

Hyper-local coworking is on the rise. Smaller, community-driven spaces are thriving because people want less commute, more life. Productivity and well-being consistently score higher when people work closer to home. When I spoke to Melissa Richards, founder of Buick Mackane in Newbury, she explained what makes local coworking so special.

Rising demand for regional coworking

Regional coworking had a BIG year. From UK market towns to university cities, satellite offices and flex spaces are helping retain local talent, support SMEs, and reduce pressure on major cities. Events like GCUC Manchester really highlighted that the future of work isn’t just London-centric.

“Community is the key” (always)

Still true. Still essential. Operators investing in programming, hosts, and genuine human connection continue to outperform “desk-only” models.

Belonging to multiple work communities

More people are mixing spaces – home, coworking, third places – depending on focus, energy, and social needs. This fluid membership model is becoming normal, and it reflects how dynamic modern working lives really are. This year, I’ve enjoyed trying out different coworking spaces across London, without fully committing to one yet. It’s given me the flexibility to connect with lots of different people and test various coworking spaces.

IDEA in coworking

There’s growing accountability around inclusion, equity, and accessibility. More operators are embedding IDEA principles into design, hiring, pricing, and programming, not just statements on websites. But progress is uneven, and there’s still a lot of work to do. Here, Shazia highlights what the coworking industry can do to be more inclusive.

Neurodiversity awareness

With up to one in four people estimated to be neurodivergent, 2025 saw more open conversations around sensory-friendly design, quiet zones, and flexible layouts. I really enjoyed attending a Clerkenwell Design Week panel on this topic, which opened my eyes to the real challenges and opportunities around workspace design.

Women in coworking

Women-led spaces, networks, and leadership voices are becoming more visible and more influential. Recently, I spoke to Stacey Sheppard about her journey of launching The Tribe – a rural coworking in Devon for women.

Hotelification of the office

Love this term or loathe it – it’s here. Hospitality-led design, softer lighting, lounge-style layouts, and service-driven experiences are shaping expectations of what workspaces should feel like. In 2026, let’s have more ‘unreasonable hospitality’ in service operations, please.

Coworking in 2026

All of these trends point toward a brighter, more exciting coworking industry in 2026. But I can’t write about the positives without acknowledging the challenges operators are facing — and one alarming issue in particular here in the UK: How the VOA is reinterpreting tax law for coworking spaces.

As operators, you provide services like WiFi, cleaning, and access control. But the VOA is treating individual members not as tenants but as extensions of the space itself. Small businesses that would normally qualify for relief are grouped together, and you end up liable for a single, often backdated bill.

This situation highlights a broader tension: coworking is about supporting real humans and communities, but current policies sometimes treat them like numbers on a spreadsheet.

If you’re worried about this or would like some support, Jane Sartin, Karen Tait, and Bernie Mitchell are taking action, with Jane recommending that you reach out to your local MP if affected by this change.

In 2026, I hope our wonderful industry can have a more successful, profitable, and sustainable year. Next year, my ambition is to continue spotlighting the incredible work you do for your inclusive communities and local ecosystems.

To my cherished readers, thank you for being part of this community, for reading and supporting my work. Every read, like, and message means the world to me, and I’m so privileged that I can write content about an industry I love so much.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out next year, and I hope to see you at an upcoming event online or IRL soon.

Have a peaceful Christmas and wish you all the best for 2026.

Until next year,

Lucy

The Tribe was intentionally designed as a small, sensory, home-like workspace that naturally encourages community interaction. But there’s a deeper purpose to it: addressing systemic barriers women face, especially for those starting and running a business.

Coworking can lead to business growth, connection, and personal development, not just for women, but also for people facing unemployment in an increasingly AI-driven world. Alongside running The Tribe, Stacey is also co-founder and editor of Athena Magazine, supporting women in business across Devon.

In this interview, Stacey reflects on launching a successful rural space for women, why coworking can create pathways for entrepreneurs in the age of AI, and how the coworking industry should evolve to empower more people in the future.

1. How did your previous coworking experiences influence you when you founded The Tribe?

Stacey: I discovered coworking by complete accident around 2008, when I read an article about it, and straight away knew this was going to be the future of work. I had no idea what coworking was before that. I just had a strong, bodily feeling that this was going to be huge, and everybody should know about it.

At the time, I was hatching a plan to exit my job in publishing and focus on my freelance interior design writing and my interiors blog. I decided that in the absence of a team, a coworking space was just what I needed, so I started googling and found one to try.

I had such high expectations for what the space could be, but as I sat at a desk, looked around, and saw people dotted around the room, I just thought, “How am I going to interact with those people?” There were so many invisible barriers; it felt like I’d be interrupting them if I went to talk to them.

The space once hosted a coffee morning where we were all ushered into a glass office for forced conversation. I enjoyed it, but we just went back to our desks afterwards. The coworking space just wasn’t living up to my expectations, and I got really disillusioned with it and eventually left. Shortly after, the place shut down. I wasn’t that surprised, because it just didn’t offer anything other than desks and Wi-Fi. I was so disappointed that coworking didn’t meet my expectations.

I looked for another coworking space and found a creative space. It was better, with more of a buzz and sense of community than in the first place, but again, I sat by myself and struggled to integrate. It felt like a waste of money because I was alone most of the time, and no one welcomed me. So, I left that one and almost gave up on coworking altogether. It was obviously not working for me in any of these spaces.

I didn’t really think about it much more until a couple of years later, when the first WeWork spaces opened, as it reignited my interest in coworking from a design point of view. It felt like an advancement because the WeWork spaces looked great, and I really believe that workspaces shouldn’t have to look like a boring corporate office. It got me quite excited, although I didn’t want to go to a WeWork.

Then I started seeing the female-led spaces popping up in New York and London. I really wanted one here in Devon, but I felt that no one’s going to try that in Devon. It just doesn’t make any sense on paper. But I quite like a challenge, and thought maybe I could make it work.

At the time, I was speaking to a business coach to figure out my next move in my writing career. I’d reached all my goals, written for the publications that I wanted to, and won lots of awards.

He said to me, “Go home and think about what you really want to do.” It quickly became apparent that what I really wanted to do was open an all-female coworking space.

2. What was The Tribe like when you first opened?

Stacey: Our first space was a converted house above a bookshop, which was completely inappropriate for a coworking space. The main office was probably the living room, and the smaller office was a tiny bedroom. There was a precarious staircase up to a toilet, and a kitchen downstairs.

If I were looking for a coworking space, it’s totally not what I would imagine, but it was all I could afford at the time.

I’d worked online as a writer for so long before that, I really doubted whether I could even run a bricks-and-mortar business, and I was petrified at the thought of paying all these bills every month. I needed something small to test the waters and see if I could even do it.

The Tribe opened in January 2020 and, obviously, shut down in March 2020 when the pandemic hit. We struggled to access government help because I was still in the handover period of my lease with my landlord (who was still down as the business rates payer and received all the relief). It took ages to undo all of that, but we survived the pandemic.

In 2023, we’d built the momentum again, and I felt like we could take off. But my landlord then announced they were selling the building. Luckily, they were buying a new building and said we could move in there, but there were legal complications throughout the process, and the move kept getting delayed.

I somehow managed to keep the community together; we worked in coffee shops together once a week, which was awful because it wasn’t what we were used to.

Six months after we moved out of the first space, I was ready to give up, and I was quite angry about it, because I really felt like this is what I’m meant to do with my life.

But instead of giving up, I looked on Rightmove and found the place we are in now. It’s an incredible converted barn in the middle of a beautiful rural village. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is.

I’d realised that I’d actually looked at this place after the pandemic, when I realised everybody needed a Zoom room, and we had no space for one in the old place. At the time, I wasn’t thinking of moving, but just had a look around. This place was way too expensive, but they’d just reduced the rent, which made it slightly more affordable. All of a sudden, it became a possibility.

3. How do you design a coworking space that naturally brings people together?

Stacey: It was really intentional for me to find a tiny space, because I didn’t want to get into a situation where you’ve got a vast open space and no one talking to each other.

We only had eight desks in total – five in one room and three in a slightly smaller room. People had their own individual desks, but they were sitting right opposite or right next to someone. There was a small gangway between the desks, and you had to walk past everybody else in the room to get to your desk. I wanted to make it so that you would be more uncomfortable not talking to the people in the room.

As it was small and could only hold a certain number of people, they got to know each other quite quickly. You can scale a community once you’ve got a community, but it’s much harder to build a community from an array of strangers in a giant space.

From a design perspective, I was obsessed with biophilic design and bringing the outdoors in. I just hated working in sterile corporate offices (it’s just so inconducive to creativity). It seems ludicrous to me that everyone designs workspaces like that.

I wanted my coworking space to feel like someone’s home office, with really earthy, grounded, natural colours. But the light in the room meant that it didn’t work out. So, I used pink instead; I didn’t want it to be a pink coworking space for women, but it just turned out that way. I also brought in lots of natural materials and plants to give the space a sensory feel.

4. What key business challenges do women face that The Tribe is specifically designed to help with?

Stacey: When I was researching whether or not it was a crazy idea to open a space for women, I came across Natwest’s Rose Review, which details the main barriers and challenges that women face when starting and growing a business. My first thought was that I can’t solve this. It’s systemic.

There are major barriers, such as caring responsibilities. Obviously, it’s better to have a coworking space with childcare, but I couldn’t afford that, nor did I have the space. But, when I stopped to think about it properly, I realised that there were plenty of things a female coworking space could do to support women overcome these barriers.

Challenges like risk aversion or risk awareness, for example. It’s not that women don’t take risks, but we take more calculated risks. Sometimes, this can stop us because we worry we might fail, so we might decide not to do something. When you’re in a room with other women who believe in you, they can peer coach you through that and help you see that you can do that thing or absorb that risk.

There’s also the perceived lack of experience or skills, and imposter syndrome. We can peer coach each other through that, too. Another one was a lack of relatable mentors, role models and networks. I can become that version of me who thrives at a networking event, but I don’t enjoy it, and I feel drained long afterwards.

Coworking is networking, but it’s more intense, more in-depth. You’re not just turning up to give your elevator pitch on the third Thursday of every month, and then you can’t remember all the people you’ve spoken to. With coworking, you’re sitting with those people for eight hours a day, which drastically speeds up relationship building.

You get to know your coworkers on a much deeper level: what do they want from their business? Who is their ideal client? What are they working on next? What kind of support do they need? You get to know that intimately, and then you can advocate for those people in the rooms that they’re not in, because you know them well.

When a new person comes into our space, and someone asks — “What do you do?” — they don’t realise, but they’re actually practising their elevator pitch. In the beginning, they can’t articulate it, and downplay their achievements or what they’re trying to do. But over time, I see them getting much more poignant and tight with their pitch. It’s really nice to watch these women grow in confidence.

I knew I didn’t have an abundance of resources or the financial backing to help women in the way they really needed. But I knew that even starting with the very basics would be enough to make a tangible difference to local women. I decided I’d rather do that than not try at all.

5. With AI changing the way we work, what role do you think coworking spaces can play in creating pathways for entrepreneurship?

Stacey: Honestly, it’s integral. If the mass unemployment prediction transpires to be true, I don’t think people will just sit around and accept it. A lot of people will start their own business out of necessity.

If you’ve been employed your entire life and aren’t born with an entrepreneurial spirit, or that feeling that you’ve always wanted to start your own business, you’re going to struggle to navigate that journey.

Government research has identified that there’s no defined pathway to entrepreneurship in the UK, so where do people go for support? There is support out there, but it’s from disparate organisations, offering a variety of business support programmes, a six-week bootcamp here, a one-to-one there, or a free meeting with this expert here. You’re getting the knowledge or training, but there isn’t really any ongoing wrap-around support.

The way I see it is that support is found in your local coworking spaces. It’s in your community, your town, your city; it’s local to you.

It’s permanent, so you’re not waiting for that monthly networking meeting to find like-minded people, or someone who can give you a bit of perspective, or celebrate those wins with you.

Coworking spaces are open all the time, and they’re in all different niches. My coworking space is for women, but in Devon, we’ve got a network of over 20 spaces overseen by the economic development department of our local council. One workspace down the road from us is for social enterprises. There’s another one which is big on outdoor pursuits and wellbeing, and another that offers a tech community.

There are all these different niche coworking spaces, so you can choose the one that meets your needs, and work alongside people who have already done what you’re hoping to do. Coworking spaces can offer that wraparound support, which is so badly needed.

Coworking spaces are the pathway to entrepreneurship. The coworking industry knows that, but I’m not sure people beyond the industry realise that yet. I just wish that the educational institutions and various business support organisations would signpost more to coworking spaces, as workspaces already have an entrepreneurial community and offer ongoing support.

We definitely need to be making more noise about the benefits of coworking and the role that these spaces can play in bridging the gap for entrepreneurs. We have a huge opportunity to show that coworking is the pathway to entrepreneurship, but to make this happen, we need to work together as a cohesive ecosystem.

6. What would you like the coworking industry to do better in the future?

Stacey: The coworking industry needs to come together more as one singular voice to position ourselves a bit better. At the moment, we’re all treading water and trying to survive in this challenging economic situation.

I don’t think coworking is the most profitable business model; it’s tough. But we definitely have an important role to play, and the industry needs to make this much clearer.

With AI, there’s going to be a whole piece around upskilling people for digital inclusion; people will need to get on board and learn these new skills so they don’t get left behind.

But AI is quite intimidating, and while online courses are available, there are a lot of people who may need a more hands-on, in-person training, which could be delivered to people in their local coworking spaces.

There is so much potential to embed the network of coworking spaces more deeply into the entrepreneurial ecosystem in a way that benefits the wider economy and our local communities.

I hope that we can come together to capitalise on this in the near future.

About People Make Coworking

Celebrating the people who make up the fabric of the global coworking movement, People Make Coworking interviews coworking founders who share their journeys of building communities and workspaces.

Edition #20 of People Make Coworking interviews Stacey Sheppard at The Tribe, a coworking space for women, in Totnes, Devon.

Read more coworking stories

If you’d like to share your story in ‘co’, please get in touch. I’d love to speak with you for a future feature.

Held at the Pan Pacific hotel in London, the event was a beautiful celebration of the flexible workspace industry. I bumped into some lovely clients, familiar faces, and people I’ve gotten to know across this friendly community.

My fellow judges have decades of experience in the flexible workspace world, which made me feel a little unqualified at times. But that feeling also prompted me to reflect on how I stumbled into this industry only a few years ago, and how much it has shaped me since.

So, I thought I’d share that story.

Journeying into co

My entry into the coworking industry was completely serendipitous. I began my freelance career in October 2020, just after finishing my Master’s in Interior Design at the Glasgow School of Art, where I studied how people gather and connect in spaces. Although I’m not an interior designer, that research has shaped everything I write about, especially how design, community, and inclusivity come together in coworking spaces.

One of my first clients was a coliving organisation running hybrid events. Their team was extremely nomadic – one week they’d be living in Mexico, the next in Southeast Asia – while I was cooped up in a very locked-down Edinburgh.

I had no desire to become a digital nomad myself, but I was drawn to the coworking spaces they Zoomed in from: bright, accessible, welcoming places that felt full of possibility. I wondered whether coworking could work for me, too.

Around that time, I started passing a Clockwise workspace while out for lockdown walks. It was a 15-minute stroll from my flat in the heart of the Shore, a bustling area of Leith filled with cafés, restaurants, and wee independent shops. I imagined myself working in the coworking space on weekdays and bumping into fellow members at local brunch spots on the weekend.

As soon as restrictions eased, I joined. I was a member at Clockwise Leith for a year before moving to London in mid-2022.

During that year, I experienced what it really means to work near home: the active commute to the office, the freedom to adapt my day to what I needed, and the way community shows up in small but meaningful moments through everyday interactions in the space and its local surroundings.

And then there was the most unexpected connection of all: the building itself. The space used to be a whisky distillery run by Glenmorangie, the very building my Grandpa McInally once worked in. I only discovered that after joining, and it made the space feel even more special to me.

Finding community in a new city

Not long after leaving Clockwise Leith and moving to London, one of my clients was co-hosting a London Coworking Assembly event at the XCHG in Bishopsgate. It was a glorious June day, hot and sunny; if you’ve ever been to the XCHG, you’ll know it’s the perfect space to be on a clear day – the view stretches for miles.

Not only was the coworking space incredibly inspiring and made me feel like I was right in the centre of London, but the event itself was a beautiful coming together of coworking operators and enthusiasts.

My friend, Shazia Mustafa, was on the panel, talking about her journey of launching a family-friendly coworking space with a nursery.

I met other regulars within the London Coworking Assembly, who I’ve since worked with and who have recommended my work to others.

Of course, my most formative coworking experience was joining a London workspace for two years. It’s been my longest coworking experience to date, and a space that I played an active part in — connecting with my fellow coworkers, and where I experienced a deep sense of community, and belonging.

Around the same time, I joined a freelancer community which held monthly meetups for coworking and knowledge exchange. In my first couple of sessions, I met three people with whom I regularly cowork in various spots across town to this day, and who have become close friends of mine.

See, this is what the power of coworking is all about – connection, collaboration, and community. I’ve grown professionally through coworking, the connections I’ve made, and the opportunities that have come out of it. I was reminded of that at the FlexSA awards last week, and at GCUC UK London in October too.

The magic of ‘co’

Truthfully, I don’t think I’d be qualified to talk about the industry without having those real-life coworking experiences, because I wouldn’t be able to understand the magic of coworking or write about it.

Coworking spaces are where you can share stories, knowledge, experiences, offer guidance, learn together, and where people grow. For me, coworking is about inclusion, togetherness, and connecting with people from all walks of life.

Last week’s FlexSA Awards reminded me of that, and of the deeper meaning of ‘co’: feeling included, valued, and welcomed by an industry that genuinely cares about its people.

Until next week,

Lucy