[Founders] Julie and Estelle, co-founders of the first coffice in Madrid and Spain: La Piscine
Hi Julie, can you tell us a bit about your personal background and what brough to Madrid and to coworking?
I first moved to Madrid 6 years ago, after starting my career in Paris and some happy years in London.
After living in loud cities like London and Paris I felt Madrid was ideal to me: a capital on a human scale and a nice climate. When arriving I was thinking to join a big company in marketing department as I have had done so far, but soon I realized it was the climax of the economic crises here in Spain so I had to reinvent myself as there was no job opportunity. This is when I throw myself into the crazy adventure that is the entrepreneurship. First I launched my ethical fashion brand L’Envers and soon after 1I realized how painful it was to work alone from home so I started to think where to work out of my home. I met my friend and business partner Estelle and very quickly we both agreed on opening the 1st coffice of Spain in Madrid city center, to answer the freelance need of sharing a common space where to meet, work efficiently and all together to create opportunity !
How would you describe Madrid’s coworking scene?
Spain is the 3rd country with the most coworking spaces in the world, so it is a very busy and competitive environment for us. But we are the first unique COFFICE in Madrid and we are very keen on differentiating ourselves in order to bring added value to our clients.
It is essential as 38% of coworking places are closing every year, as they don’t find their USP not their public to survive. This is why we are very keen on developing a strong sense of community and not just being a working space. This is how we think we can differentiate ourselves and bring value to our members.
Now let’s talk about La Piscine, what is is exactly?
La Piscine is the first COFFICE in Spain, a new concept here halfway through a coworking and café. It is a flexible space where freelance, digital nomads, students can work and meet for one hour, two, the whole day, one week or the entire month. This is the ideal space for all the people tired of working or studying from home or from crowded cafés, for everybody who want to be productive and get to network and socialize with other entrepreneurs and potentially find new business partners or clients.
How did you come up with the name and the concept?
We wanted a French name to be better recalled here in Spain and mark the difference. It took us a long timeto come up with the name ! We thought it was catchy and illustrate well this idea of emerging oneself, to throw oneself into the water, to take the plunge !
Back in January 2 years ago while having a coffee with Estelle in a café in the centre we realized there were many freelances working on their computer in a very noisy environment so no in ideal conditions that we thought there was something else to propose to them. We read the day after in Le Monde about this very trendy concept in Paris called “Coffice” that did´´ exist here. So we were keen on being the pioneer here and make freelance life easier, more productive and happier !
How do you “educate” people to the concept of Coffice?
Hard one as we are the first Coffice in Madrid so there is a big challenge to give to know about what we are, what we do and what are the advantages vs working alone from home or from a noisy café !
What do you love the most about having a space such as La Piscine?
Meeting new people everyday !
We made some may friends and met so many inspiring people, this is amazing. Americans, French, and many Spanish people !
And making them work together and generate work opportunities is very rewarding !
Your favorite story at La Piscine so far?
When an old lady called us because she was looking for a swimming pool to exercise !
What is the one thing you wish you knew before starting a coworking a space?
How long it will take before gaining momentum
What’s next for La Piscine?
Develop new business lines and keep on adding new tools for our workers and bring it to a more corporate level joining forces between companies and our freelances
