[Manager] Walid, COO of the 3rd best coworking space in the world: Cogite
No, you are not dreaming. This is not a hotel, nor a house, this is Cogite, a sunny, lively and beautiful coworking space located in Tunis, Tunisia. It’s the first coworking space ever opened in Tunisia! Cogite has had a positive impact since it started. Leading change and innovation, they support Entrepreneurs in building better tomorrows. Elected third best coworking space in the world by Forbes last year, Cogite has a big vision. We chatted with Walid Hached, COO of Cogite about their start, their growth and their future.
Hi Walid, can you please tell us a bit more about yourself?
I started working as Cogite’s Chief Operating Officer in February 2017. My professional background is in finance, which I developed both in Tunisia and abroad working at institutions such as the National Bank of Canada and Caisse de dépot et placement du Québec. I graduated with a Masters of Science in Administration from HEC Montreal and am a certified Chartered Financial Analyst from the CFA Institute and a Financial Risk Manager from the Global Association of Risk Professionals.
But like my colleagues at Cogite, I too am an entrepreneur. As General Manager of our family business, a hotel in the southern Tunisian city of Tamerza, I have spent much of my career learning how to build welcoming environments and cultivating strong community relationships. I am also the founder and CEO of an IT company, Linxae, and have first-hand experience of both the opportunities and challenges of founding and growing a startup in Tunisia.
How did you “land” into coworking?
I first joined Cogite as a member in 2013, when the Cogite community consisted of a handful of coworkers in an 86 square meter room. Since then, I’ve watched Cogite grow and thrive: a trajectory which I hope to continue in my new position.
How would you describe the coworking scene in Tunis?
Founded in 2013, Cogite was the first coworking space in Tunisia. Today, there are dozens of coworking spaces across the country, both in the capital city of Tunis and in smaller cities throughout Tunisia. Some cities such as Tunis now host several coworking spaces which are specializing to serve specific communities, or offering community-tailored activities. In other locations, coworking spaces are leading great efforts to introduce and popularize the concept of coworking, which is still a relatively unknown concept in Tunisia.
Moreover, as a pioneer for coworking in Tunisia and the region, Cogite is actively supporting coworking spaces financially and in a mentorship capacity, with a specific focus on spaces in Tunisia’s marginalized regions, which suffer from high levels of youth unemployment and a lack of opportunity.
How do you see it growing?
Three years down the road, we’re seeing the impact of Cogite and the Cogite community beginning to bear fruit. We’ve witnessed founders grow from individual entrepreneurs into fully-fledged teams and great ideas transformed from mere concepts into products on the market. We have also seen collaborations between community members and strong mentoring relationships that have allowed Cogite coworkers to achieve together what would be impossible to accomplish alone.
Now about Cogite, how would you describe it?
Cogite emerged in a context of rapid change and innovation. Since the 2011 Tunisian revolution, entrepreneurship has taken off as a solution to Tunisia’s continued economic challenges, and as a way for Tunisians to chart their own path and realize their dreams.
The first coworking space in Tunisia, Cogite’s mission is to fuel a movement of impact-driven entrepreneurship in Tunisia by building skills, fostering collaboration, and nurturing innovation. Founded in 2013, Cogite has grown from a handful of members in an 86 square meter room to a sustained community of over 100 regular coworkers in the a villa twelve times our original size! Cogite now hosts 80 plus events per year, and over 3000 people passed through Cogite in 2016 alone. We have also implemented several social impact programs, such as the Aventures d’Entrepreneurs advocacy program and Cogite Direction Sud, an initiative to spark coworking activities in governorate of Medenine in southern Tunisia.
As a result, both Cogite and our community are being increasingly recognized for our work. In July, Forbes named Cogite as the “third best coworking space on the planet,” while in January, The Economist cited Cogite as a regional innovation center.
Could you tell us a bit more about your Community?
Cogite’s regular members primarily include startups, entrepreneurs, social businesses, NGOs, artists, journalists, freelancers, and students, all of which are seeking an affordable workplace and see value in being part of a collaborative environment. Cogite also hosts public events targeting the broader community of current and aspiring entrepreneurs in Tunisia.
You describe them as a Community of Doers, what kind of impactful project are they working?
Every Cogite member has a specific project or initiative on which they are working. These range from Manuskri.tn, Tunisia’s first online bookstore, to Cofundy, a crowdfunding platform, to FOLIOMania, an online platform for the Tunisian creative community. Other members include Yunus Social Business Tunisia, a social business accelerator, and the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), an US-based NGO supporting Tunisian civil society organizations. Cogite also hosts numerous freelancers working on web development, graphic design, translation, and more.
There are no requirements or preconditions for a membership at Cogite, but we’ve found that every single member is passionately working on a project that is important to them and that is helping to make the world is a more creative, interesting place.
How do you think Cogite helps them to build a “better Tunisia”?
Before Cogite, there were many entrepreneurs working in isolation, but they lacked a central space and community to share ideas, find encouragement, and learn about resources to support their projects. At Cogite, it’s OK to be a little different, a little weird. It’s filled with like-minded people who know what it’s like to try to build a project or a business, despite the odds.
How would you describe a regular day for you at Cogite?
A typical day at Cogite involves everything from talking to top business leaders about supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs, to figuring out how to replace a broken chair. The best thing about operating a coworking space, a startup in and of itself, is that our team gets to do a little bit of everything. With a small core team, we are the problem solvers; when faced by a challenge, there’s no one else waiting in the wings to fix it, so we roll up our sleeves and get it done!
Last and least, where do you see Cogite growing?
Three years ago, we starting building Cogite to foster a culture of openness and collaboration in Tunisia. We wanted to create a space, and a community, that would provide alternatives and opportunities, especially for young people and those who are not afraid to dream big.
Today, what was once a dream has become a reality. But we’re not content to stop here.
Tunisia’s entrepreneurs are now at the point where more and more startups needs to be thinking beyond Tunisia. In fact, while many businesses are innovative in a Tunisian context, even the most successful startups lag behind international trends, and struggle to expand into larger markets.
Moving forward, Cogite is developing and testing new strategies to push the ecosystem to the next level and push Tunisian startups to an internationally competitive level.
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