Hi guys, I posted in this group just before Christmas to let you know that we were thinking of opening a coworking place in Paris. On that project, I am working with my two brothers and one childhood friend.
Just a quick update on what happened since then: Well, after reading what some of you wrote we decided to go straight to the point: gathering like minded people from various background around a clear and authentic message about who we are. We also met people who had space to convince them that they should let us set up a coworking space within their place. It went on really well; we happened to find a cool place to start less than 4 months after launching the project and our blog (www.mutinerie.org) had a pretty nice start. After 3 weeks we already had 20 members and around 30 interested people. And suddenly boom... Because of a conflict between the owner of the building and the guy who rent it (we sub-rent it) we got kicked out the old fashion way by the bailiff, the locksmith and the police. It has been two weeks from now and we still got our stuff locked inside - all our precious plants might be dead now :((( So here we are, wandering from place to place again... It is clearly frustrating to be in that situation after we had some great people signed up. But this is not the end. Our members or could be members have been amazingly positive and nice with us. There is no bitterness whatsoever and everyone is very supportive. It gives us the energy to move forward fast and well. There is a chance that we can come back in our previous place (holding on justice decision) but we are already looking for some others and we saw some very exiting stuff. What have we learned so far? 1/ Community matters most!!! This is your most valuable asset. It had been written 1000 times in this group so this is one more. 2/ Authenticity is king. The magic of the web is that you have this unlimited audience easily reachable so you just have to be yourself and if 1% of the population like what you are this is enough. 3/ Find the good online/offline mix. Our quick "success" relies on people we actually met and who supported us, not on an efficient SEO strategy or some strong CRM processes. This might come to a certain point but the advice I would give to someone who wants to set up a coworking space is meet people even if you have to get home late and drunk everyday. 4/ Their is room for coworking spaces in France and timing is good to get started now. 5/ Setting up a coworking space is a full-time job. 6/ Their are so many great people willing to share and discover. We sure have a lot left to learn and we are exited about that. I will keep you posted. I hope I will soon be able to contribute to the global community. I'd be very exited to write for the blog... unfortunately most of what I write now is in French, but I will try to produce something decent in English when I can. Peace Antoine -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
