[13] Coworking Cities Prague
After exploring the coworking scene of Warsaw , our appetite for the Eastern coworking scene grew even more. Seeing how advanced and fast growing the scene in Warsaw is, we decided to pack our bags and jump on a four hours train ride from Berlin to Prague.
Why Prague you wonder?
Few reasons lie behind it.
- Prague being such a popular destination, we were wondering if tourism had any impact on coworking.
- Seeing how Warsaw coworking landscape has changed so quickly, we asked ourselves if Prague had followed the same path.
- Lastly, we were curious to see who uses coworking spaces and how coworking is done and understood by people living there.
Curious to discover what we found out? Stay with us and scroll down to discover Prague coworking scene through the people shaping it.
Prague coworking scene in facts and figures
With 1.2 Million inhabitants and around 7 Million of tourists per year, Prague is becoming a more and more popular destination worldwide. How does this impact the coworking scene?
/ Facts and figures.
The first coworking space in Prague opened in 2009. Called Coffice, it does not exists anymore. When Coffice opened, the concept of coworking was still fairly new (WeWork did not even exist yet) and people did not really understood the concept of open work environment and collaboration.
Over the course of the years and with the economical changes that has risen in the country (joining the European Union, increase of the number of tourists), the city has taken a shift that has also impacted its work scene (more openness, more collaboration, rise of freelancing). Today, there are about 15 coworking spaces around the city serving the needs of different crowds such as:
Time for some sneak peek of Prague’s coworking spaces! Scroll down to get inspired by coworking concept made in Prague.
From “under construction” to Krypto coworking.
Coworkies in Prague
Our time in Prague was short and busy! We had the opportunity to visit 12 coworking spaces located in very different neighborhoods of the city, from very touristic, to business or even more residential areas. Have a look below at the interactive map we created, allowing you to explore the coworking scene of Prague as if you were with us!
Don’t be shy, browse around and click on the different numbers to discover who we met! We have also added a few places we loved going to either for food or for a drink.
A conversation about coworking in Prague with the locals.
The following piece has been co-written with coworking spaces from Prague. Thank you Paralelni Polis, Animika Hub, Hub Hub, Node5 and SVET HUB for contributing.
Looking at the past…
To understand the coworking scene of Prague, we’ve to go back in time, to its early days.
Soon after the opening of Coffice back in 2009, Petr Vitek, Jakub Mares, Zdenek Rudolsky and Petr Base opened Impact Hub Praha. Why? Because when they met Jonathan Robinson (who launched the first Impact Hub in London), the four of them got really excited by the concept of open shared workspaces and decided to test it in Prague.
The response was very positive and by the end of 2011, they had already welcomed 2000 visitors, 150 events and most importantly gathered 200 members.
The same year (2010), brmlab, opened its doors as the very first makerspace in Prague. The purposeof brmlab was to gather the community of makers in the city, experiment and grow their learnings together. Started gradually by first doing events only, they quickly grew and expanded. When we visited them in Prague, they had just move to their new location — an old warehouse with a lot of room for making.
In 2012, Startup Yard, the biggest accelerator in Prague opened and welcomed its very first batch. Nestled in Node5, another coworking space, their main focus is on deep tech. When we asked Lloyd Waldo, Community Manager at Startup Yard what kind of company they were looking for he answered:
“ We look for globally scalable companies with a strong focus on unique IP that is hard to replicate, and that solves a serious business problem.” — Lloyd Waldo
In 2013, Pracovna (which means home office in czech), a coworking space combined with a coffee and an event venue opened its doors in a part of Prague that is considered more residential. Opened with the desire to let the community shape the space, Pracovna attracts today a rather creative crowd. The coffee in front serves delicious drinks and yummy food (we recommend the home made limonades) and the workspace at the back is Heaven on earth for people seeking a quiet and peaceful place to get work done.
2014 has been a very interesting year for the collaborative / coworking scene of Prague. It is the year Paralelni Polis came to life. Tomáš Hubik, one the board member of the company remember the early days of coworking in the city.
“When we were starting, the coworking culture was quite young in Prague.”
Paralelni Polis is not exactly a coworking space. It is a free and creative environment where ideas and tools to create a free, independent, decentralized and voluntary society are shared and created. The space has 4 floors who all have a different purpose:
- The Bitcoin Coffee, where anyone can come and sip a drink
- Paper Hub, there beautiful coworking space where most of the furniture are made out of carton
- CryptoLAB, a progressive place where makers can create and build products
- Institute of Cryptoanarchy— a cryptoanarchy think-tank.
“We accept cryptocurrency donations and payments only which is really unique — I think that we are still the only coworking in the world not accepting fiat currencies.” — Tomáš Hubik
When talking about the perception of people about the space, Tomáš adds:
“The main goal of the whole Paralelni Polis is to educate people. Our mission is to provide the technologies and education that people need to engage in an independent society and protect individual liberty. That is why the whole building is crypto only — we do not accept fiat currencies. Some people are of course surprised, but we are here for them to explain everything to them and break this initial barrier and fear of unknown.
Having to buy crypto is more difficult in Bitcoin Coffee as a lot of people go there just once and buying crypto just to buy coffee seems like a big hassle.
Paper Hub on the other hand is different. People go there and stay there for a longer time so they are more willing to learn how to deal with cryptocurrencies at the beginning. The truth is that Paper Hub is not for everyone. And this is also something that is appealing to those who like technology, decentralization, privacy etc.” — Tomáš Hubik
2015 is probably the year when coworking started to grow exponentially in the city. Prague welcomed SVĚT HUB, an interesting space bringing together a book store, a cafe and a coworking space.
When we asked Krystina Holubová, one of the initiator of the project, why she decided to jump on the coworking journey:
“I was myself in need of a cozy space to work from and there was no shared space around that would talk to me. When I saw this place getting empty I started to talk about shared working space ideas and ended up being involved in the space.”
Today, SVĚT HUB grew to a very diverse and international community that we had the pleasure to experience during our time in Prague.
They are individuals who need a space to work and share coffees and lunch otherwise they got their clients and projects already. There are architects, a photographer, a comic painter, a translator, few startupers, some NGO too. — Krystina Holubová
2016 has seen two interesting coworking spaces opening their doors in Prague. Alongside the rise of the tech scene in Prague, K10 has opened as the space for the tech community. Operating out of a century old villa, their community is a mix of freelancers and startups who use either the coworking area or the dedicated office spaces available.
Early on, the partnered up with Remote Year, bringing them even more members from abroad, willing to settle down in Prague for a few months to experience the digital nomad life.
2016 is also the year of Opero. A premium coworking space nestled in the prestigious and long closed historical Štenc House (Štencův dům) in close proximity to Old Town Square. The building has a rich History and was, when it opened the most modern printing building of its time in Central Europe.
Today, Opero transformed it into a beautiful work environment that mixes Art and nicely done interior design. The space has several type of areas from a cafe to coworking but also a beautiful and modular event space as well as a few closed offices. When we met Bara, who looks after the community there, she told us that the members of Opero where a bit “older” than in other coworking spaces around the city. Most of them are Entrepreneurs in various different fields. The space is also really quiet and we loved the fact that everyone pays attention to keep it this way.
The present…
Today, Prague coworking scene is blossoming. Chatting with different coworking operators, they described it perfectly well.
The coworking scene seems to be fairly typical for a central European city. Over the last 5+ years, a lot of options have appeared, and it seems to be an increasingly popular model, even for later stage (15+ employee) companies. — Lloyd, Startup Yard
We would say it’s blooming — more and more coworking spaces are opening or planning to open and the demand for coworking spaces is rising. We are happy that HubHub can be a part of this dynamic era — Vik, HubHub
Coworking in Prague is growing rapidly. We can see new places opening on daily basis almost. What we like about it is that others are trying to have place for specific kind of interests like designers, software developers…
Our feeling is that Prague is becoming one of very interesting European city for all kind of freelancers, travelers with need for place to work. — Alex & Katarina, Animika Hub
More recently, Prague has welcome different coworking concept worth talking about:
Animika Hub, a beautiful family ran event / coworking space that, according to Alex and Katarina (the founders):
“started with an idea of giving people cosy place to work where they would feel almost like home. Without any obligation and strict rules. Even though at the beginning we had some freelancers, different companies showed interest in our place for organizing seminars, workshops, meetings.”
Being Interior designer and photographer, they have created a unique space where everything is instragram-ready. We loved the vibe and friendliness the space offers.Companies and freelancers love it!
Animika Hub is mainly used by companies. We had the pleasure of hosting Ebay, Adidas, BASF, Booking.com, Vodafone, Microsoft, just to name a few.
We also organize other type of events, oriented more on the artistic side where we have painters, photographers having their exhibitions and workshops. — Alex & Katarina
What about more touristic neighborhoods you wonder? Well, we met Snemovni 7, a coworking space located not far away from the castle of Prague and the parliament. To find it, you will have to enter a beautiful and old Czech house and make your way on top of the stairs. You will find a quiet, open and well-designed workspace. Everything has been very carefully selected to create a pleasant and friendly work environment. Snemovni 7 also has 2 event spaces on the ground floor, both very modular and nicely done.
When a former coworker create a coworking space, it gives Coworking Port! When we visited Jana, the founder, she just opened the space and was still in the process of launching it and getting members in. The moto of the space is to offer a quiet workspace, where anyone can get her/his work done. Coworking Port welcomes all type of members, offering them various type of desks from fixed ones to flexible ones.
Last, but not least, Prague will very soon welcome a coworking brand wr had the pleasure to visit in Warsaw: HubHub. Located in the most central area of the city, it will offer various type of workspaces from open coworking area to closed offices for companies from 2 to 10+ people.
Many of our members are tech-related with a huge potential to become bigger/stronger on the market in the future. They are both freelancers and small teams (startups). All of them are sharing one goal — to keep on growing. We are trying to have one of the most innovative communities and we are on a good path to reach this goal. — Vit Řezníček, HubHub
“Our space is well-designed, made by local Czech architects and designers (as we want to support local business) and its perfect location in the heart of Prague is also one of the reasons why our members chose HubHub. — Vit Řezníček, HubHub”
“But the main reason might be the community itself. We are listening to them, trying to collaborate together as one big talented family and support the members as much as possible to keep them growing. — Vit Řezníček, HubHub”
Another key point is our structured educational program, which will help not only our members, but also the public — to learn something new and take people and businesses to the next level. — Vit Řezníček, HubHub
and the future of coworking in Prague.
As you understood throughout the History of coworking in Prague, the scene has grown and developed into a diverse market, offering professionals in the city various ranges of options. Seeing how coworking is perceived today and how much it has grown since its early days in Prague, we were curious to know how everyone we met were envisioning the future of coworking in their spaces but also in the city.
More and more…
“I think that the boom is still ongoing. More and more coworking spaces are being opened every year. The time will show which ones will survive. But I think that freelancing is definitely still gaining on popularity so the demand for more coworking spaces is there.” — Tomáš Hubik, Paralelni Polis
When talking about the different operators in Prague looking into coworking…
The landscape of operators is changing…
“Its quickly getting this corporate look via big investments in new places which are growing. We like to keep it small and local, sustainable. There is space for both worlds — this corporate startupers from this world of ongoing networking but for me more stable and interesting target is small businesses and individuals that create unique and effective environment for work. I like the mix of different worlds that inspires you and helps you stand on the edge of the bubble :)” — Krystina, SVET-HUB
It all comes down to building good new work environments to attract more people…
“We think that is good that coworking became global phenomenon and that Prague is on that trails with the rest of the world. Times are changing and people are realizing that they can make decent living even when traveling and living as the citizens of the world. Giving people possibility to have place to work on they travel is the least we can do.” — Alex and Katarina, Animika Hub
“The coworking scene in Prague is growing and it’s definitely a good sign for the future. We are happy that HubHub can be a part of this dynamic era.
We need more spaces, where talented people could grow and boost their potentialWe need more spaces, where talented people could grow and boost their potential” —
Vit, HubHub
As well as building a relevant community for the space.
“I have no idea how coworking will evolve in Prague, or anywhere. Having visited dozens of coworking spaces all over Europe, I am convinced that there is no single formula that works. How a community is designed is probably less important than who forms the community to begin with, and for what purpose.”
“Coworking facilities that recognize and can attract the right mix of members will find it easier to attract more of the same kinds in the future. A culture can be amplified, but I don’t believe it can be created from nothing or transformed according to one’s wishes. Those spaces which take the time to build a community of shared values will see that effort pay off in the long term. “
“As we have observed in Prague and other cities, the true motivations behind building such spaces often dictate their future success at fulfilling a specific mission. If you want to fill a space, you can fill it. If you want a space to be for a particular culture with a particular attitude, you can do that too. But focus and patience are important either way.” — Lloyd, Startup Yard
Key take aways from our exploration of Prague
If we should leave you with some key take aways about Prague coworking scene, it would probably be the followings:
- Coworking started back in 2009 as a new alternative to work.
- Since its start, it has grown steadily and has first welcome independant players, who have shaped the scene for Freelancers, Creatives as well as small companies.
- Over the year, coworking has also attracted new brands who target more digital nomads, international people coming to the city for a few months.
- Coworking has developed all over the city, from the ultra-centre to more residential neighborhood.
- Lastly, coworking in Prague is also diversifying, including actors from the real-estate sectors as well as Corporate companies as members.
Ending with a big news!
And that’s not it! You might have heard the news but if not we also learned that K10 and Impact Hub Praha are merging! Very soon, both brands will be one, growing their community and having 2 spaces around town!
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