Digital 52 1️⃣3️⃣ - Education and Coworking, Positive Impact on a second-tier city, Understanding your members, The importance of a great team: meet O4 Coworking.

Today’s story will take you to northern Poland, more precisely to Gdańsk, a city on the seaside, that is also home to a unique coworking space supporting many communities, from pupils to women to Entrepreneurs.

Read the full story of O4 Coworking on page 325 of “Around The World in 250 Coworking Spaces”.

People often ask us “where And while sometimes Google is our best secret helper, some of the coworking spaces featured in the book came directly to us. Like the one you are about to discover, which is called O4. The very first time we met O4 was actually in Berlin. At the time, the O4 team was exploring coworking in the city and ended up visiting the space where we were based. We connected with Marta, the managing director of the space, and loved hearing what she was building in her own city. During the conversation, we shared with her what we were up to with our own research and we started discussing all things coworking… and left it there.

A few months down the road, Marta’s team reached out to us to ask if we would consider coming to Gdańsk, to take part in the very first coworking conference that they were organizing: Now Coworking. We immediately said yes. Two trains and many adventures later, there we were, sharing our story, learning from O4 and other operators how coworking was changing the Polish work scene. Since then, and for various reasons (one being that the Now Conference is also where we met Kinnarps, one of our partners for the book), we’ve followed the growth and impact of O4 with great pleasure. And the best part is, you are about to discover it all, right here, right now :)

➡️ A little refresher

Who’s behind the featured space?

The initiative came from three investors: Maciej Grabski, Tomasz Woźniak, and Marta Moksa.

“We've known each other for 20 years, done a few startups together, so it was a natural, organic path of cooperation - Maciej and Tomek were always those crazy and out-of-the-box thinking people, I was the one trying to make all these strange ideas happen.”

➡️ Key Figures

• Opening year: 2015
• Size when they started: 5,000 sqm

➡️ A little tour around O4

➡️ Behind-the-scenes

Things you didn't read in aw250cs

➡️ O4 Today

As 2022 is coming to an end, I reached out to Marta to check on O4 and see how their year went. Unsurprisingly, so much happened since the last time we spoke (which was during an Instagram LIVE you can watch again here): growth, onboarding of a new type of members, and lots of learning, some brought by COVID-19, others by operating O4 as a brand since 2015.

Beyond everything, chatting with Marta just reminded me how much O4 is focused on education. While you might think about education as sitting in a classroom to learn something, in the case of O4, it has a different meaning. Marta and her team educate people and companies, daily, on what it means to be a part of a community at work. Is this keenness for education coming from Marta’s background as she comes from the education sector? That might be partly true, but seeing the rest of the team developing incredible programming for various target audiences (which you are about to discover) shows us all once again that coworking can do many amazing things, including helping people of all ages find a place where they can be themselves and develop projects they really care about.

💫 2 Major Changes

💬 I’d like to start by asking you: what’s new at O4 Coworking since the last time we spoke?

Lots of new things happened during those two years. We opened O4 Flow which is actually the very first women-oriented coworking space in this part of Europe. It was a very difficult moment and probably a very wrong timing because a few months later Covid hit and as we know female entrepreneurship got hit very hard.

So for a year, O4 Coworking was “just” a coworking space, designed by women and for women but generally filled with lots of different people. During Covid, we started our side project which was to help O4 Flow. We called it Flow Club.

It's now a year old and we have dozens of female members. They meet every month; they do lots of stuff together and it is very popular here becoming a very important part of our activities. Those women have just finished their first design thinking project for an external company. This company approached us saying that they would like to create a design thinking process and a project with those women and we just completed it.

Hopefully, it was the first of many projects like this, because it was really effective. The women involved were very creative, and the company was really delighted by the results. This is the next step for our club. It's not only about meetings and learning and education and networking but also about solving business problems.

We did another acceleration program. We are part of an acceleration program for startups. We hosted 20+ international startups in O4, both online and offline.

Beyond all that, we've started a very interesting project called recruitment speed dating. We are cooperating with universities and big and small companies. They organize speed dating events with students and it is a huge success. Actually, there were four additions to it right now and almost every student got a job after this.

Of course, this is because we do not accept all students and we educate them before they can meet the companies. So they are not just any random student, they are educated, they are ready to be hired, and it is really working. We love this project very much.

We also did a “buddy project''. This is very much connected to the horrible war behind our borders. We have had a lot of Ukrainian entrepreneurs since the beginning of the war. The “Buddy Project” is connecting every single Ukrainian entrepreneur with a Polish member of O4, to create friendships and learn from each other. To some, it means learning Polish. But we also have members who are learning Ukrainian, and they are doing stuff together, not just on a business level but more so on a human level.

After a few months of running this project, we can say it has made miracles, which is heartwarming.

Last but not least, we are also working on our new location, which will still be in Olivia (the business neighborhood where O4 is located) but in another building and on another floor. It takes ages to design, but we are on it.

💬 In our initial conversation, you pointed out a very interesting figure. You said “Only 12% of people know what coworking is in Poland. It is quite a low number. We have to promote not only us as a brand but the whole coworking spirit as a business and as an opportunity.” How is it today, in a post-COVID era?

That’s a very good question. We haven't run this survey recently, so I don't know the exact number right now. But what I’m sure is that the general knowledge about coworking is much better in Poland than before, just not yet perfect. From my perspective, the best proof that the understanding of coworking is improving is that we now have eight coworking competitors around our space. Which is both challenging and an opportunity.

Because they are new they are great looking and have quite a lot of funding. We have to compete with our spirit. We, of course, grew, we developed, but it's still a challenge. I also see it as an opportunity because we now have some people on our side to promote the idea behind coworking to a larger audience.

But from my perspective, those new players are not so much about coworking, but rather about flex spaces. They are mainly offering private offices. We are still the only big player offering hot desks, flex desks, and light memberships. Most of our competitors focus on small companies or even corporates. New approaches to offices, basically. And because this is where the money is right now, all of them have to focus on this to build a sustainable business.

But coming back to your question, I would say that the number has grown.

It's not only that so few people knew about coworking. I would even say that real estate agents and corporates didn't know about coworking either. And now it's much better. They understand the idea. They promote the idea.

💬 What have you guys done to educate more people about coworking locally?

Interestingly enough, in the beginning, I believe we didn't even understand what was coworking exactly. We were like the blind person guiding the deaf person. We were just trying new stuff from workshops to conferences. On a very general level, we said little about our offers or about we didn't sell anything. We were just trying to convince people it is a good place to network, cooperate, and co-work.

At that point, I would say we focused on generic awareness growth. Now we cooperate with very young people, with schools, with universities. We are doing many things for students, even high school pupils and younger ones. To give you an example, just last month we had a wonderful workshop organized by 12-year-old girls. They were doing some design thinking for their school, but actually doing it here with us.

And we now plan to hold a big conference, organized by the girls and targeted at grown-ups. They were supposed to find a subject and build a team. They found a wonderful subject which is “how to be yourself in this diverse and difficult world?”

As you will notice, we are very active, and as I’ve gotten older I discovered a wonderful quote that inspires me: “Being successful or happy is not about filling the canvas of your life, but chipping pieces of marble to create a sculpture”. And I must say this is exactly what we are trying to do. Not making more and more, but making less and wiser, in a more sophisticated way. We do not have time to do everything we want.

We have hundreds of ideas. But in the end, we have to choose two or three, focus on them, and do them right. This works best for us. We are educating young people and I believe this is the best approach we know to raise awareness.

💬 It's also connected to your background because you come from the educational world. And we always say “Coworking Spaces are the reflection of their founders.” So when I see what’s happening at O4 right now, I see a lot of you in it too.

Exactly. Thank you for saying this. I am not a marketing person. I am an educational person, so this is very me, and I know how to do it.

💬 To expand on my previous question, how would you say O4 changed Gdansk, the city you are based in since you guys started?

It's very interesting and very difficult to say. Gdansk is changing and has changed a lot already. The city has entered the path of being the most friendly, high-quality-of-life type of city in Poland. And this is something that Gdansk has been focusing on for some time now and it's working.

From my perspective, we are changing Gdansk on a business level because thanks to us, thanks to attracting those international startups like Andcards you mentioned earlier, we brought 150 new companies from all over the world here and many of them have registered their business here.

We attract people who wouldn't come if we were not here because they wouldn't have a place for themselves.

💬 That’s true. If it wasn't for you O4 and the conference you organized, it would have taken us ages to go there.

Yeah, this is a beautiful story and probably one of many, and people like us are trendsetters. They come, and then they talk about us. Without people like you guys, we would still be somewhere in Northern Poland. Those small connections with very interesting people make this place known.

I think O4 is our “small” input to Gdansk. We are, of course, part of Olivia's center, which is huge now in the city. We are a very important part of this hub, and we probably make business more modern, and more international.

💬 Another thing you talked about in your initial interview was the interior design of the space and how much you guys saw it as something that changes with time. Is this still the case today after growing so much?

I would say yes and no.

No, because some things don't change. They are immutable rules. Some of our members love to work in silence and they will always prefer for that type of work to be in a smaller enclosed place. This is something that doesn't change.

At the same time, they need and want connections with others. The space design has to help connect and give quiet work options. These are the things where we can make some small adjustments. But generally, this is how it is, and this doesn't change. But of course the biggest pivot, the biggest change since‌ Covid is hybrid work, much more online meetings, much more online conferences. So one of the biggest design changes was that we had to adjust to this new need.

First people were working in small offices. Now they need better conference rooms, and better places to hold online meetings. We had to change our conference center, so it's now much more hybrid-friendly. We had to provide lots more phone booths.

The other shift is that new kinds of people are using coworking. First, we had mainly startups and small creative companies. Right now, for example, we have Cisco as a member. New needs like special doors, and special internet connection. Those are things we had to learn because it wasn't like this at the start. With big companies entering coworking spaces, operators have to understand their needs.

Those new members who come from big companies see things a little differently. First of all, they are much more demanding. They want much more attention and they expect much more real estate quality than community feelings. They expect a high-quality office. What they want is a good chair, a good desk, clean air, and good coffee. They have to learn how the space works by themselves. But it takes time. I can see that people who just entered our community as a freelancer want to be part of O4 for totally different reasons than corporate members.

I don't want to sound like I'm disappointed. What I am saying is, that they're different and our job is to understand their needs while helping them become active members, which is a doable challenge.

➡️ Reflections on building O4

💬 What has been your biggest learning out of bringing to life AND growing O4 Coworking?

My biggest learning is that the team is everything. It's all about people. Lots of things can fail. And lots of things can go wrong, but when you have a good team,a good, optimistic, brave, professional team on board, people who want to work, people who want to make this place better, nothing can really go wrong. It's just small f*** ups on a huge path to success. So the team is extremely important. My job is to keep this team motivated and to keep this team knowing what they are doing. Helping them as much as I can. Not interrupting them with their job.

During COVID and its aftereffects, the other very important lesson for me was cash flow. We were always thinking that everything was fine, one month was just better than the other.

Covid showed all our flaws and our mistakes. It was a tough lesson and now I am much more finance disciplined and much more focused. It is a tough thing, but you won't be able to do anything fun or interesting without cash and money. So this is a very important lesson too.

💬 What would be your best advice to someone thinking about opening a coworking space?

First of all, do not believe all those pessimists because there will be lots of people who will say it won't work. Lots of people are like this and it's very important not to follow their‌ pessimism. But at the same time, do not believe in your optimism. It is going to be much harder than you think. There are things that you will have to learn and it will be painful. Keep going, keep believing that it makes sense, but do not fall in love with all your ideas. Be prepared. Many things will not go as planned, and that’s okay.

One last thing, hire wise people for interior design from the very beginning. This hardware is a huge cost. Every single mistake made with interior design is so expensive to correct. Do not believe that you know something about design because you like furniture or you read lots of interior design magazines. Hire professionals. Let them do their job. They understand how it is supposed to be designed. Talk to them about what you want with the space.

💬 If you could chat with coworking operators now, what would you like to ask them?

💬 And if you could chat with coworking members?

The most interesting for me would be to ask them, what would they do if they were managing the coworking space they're in. What would they do knowing everything that comes with being a part of this community? How would they change it? What would they remove? What would they add?

💬 Last but not least, what’s your biggest dream for O4 Coworking?

I struggle with this because I would say that my biggest dream is my biggest question. We are so big and so strong, but are we strong enough that we can focus on the fun part of being a coworking team doing important social-oriented activities? I would love us to be much more, to do much more. Creative education, for example, making the conferences that we previously organized, being able to do things that not only focus on the coworking daily tasks, which is overwhelming, difficult, and at the same time, sometimes it's not inspiring enough. So for my team, for myself, and also for my members, I would love to have the time and resources to be much more.

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