Cape Town coworking scene
a trip into three of the most interesting coworking spaces in the Mother City
At StartMiUp we love to discover coworking scenes around the world. In 2015 we visited Canada. This year we travelled to the city sourrounded from one of the 7 nature wonders: Cape Town with its precious Table Mountain.
Cape Town is the most vibrant city in South Africa, and is where the startup and creative community is more developed. It’s a special city, where Mother Nature rules: two oceans, beautiful mountains, one of the most wonderful botanic gardens in the world, wind and a lot of sun.
All this keep capetowners busy surfing and sunbathing, and there is not much time left for work. But if they do find some time, they can join one of the many coworking spaces available in town.
I visited three of them, all with a special character and extremely different one from the other.
I think diversity is what makes the Cape Town coworking scene a mature one: you can really find what you are looking for in a coworking space.
Spin Street House
The community centred coworking
Right in the center of the city, Spin Street House is a community focused coworking. You feel it as soon as you climb up the stairs into the “house”: wood floor and large windows make the working space very welcoming and friendly. Almost everyone says “hi” as you step in.
I meet the co-founders Nathan Heller and Gareth Pearson. They are among the founders of the whole coworking movement in Cape Town, starting in 2011 opening the first Impact Hub Cape Town. You can read more here.
Spin Street House’s community is extremely vital. There are weekly workshops, meetups, exhibitions, and other community-driven initiatives.
In the about 25 minutes I’ve spent sitting in the kitchen having coffee, I managed to organize a trip to Cape of Good Hope, thanks to the Timbuktu team (a travel startup), meet two dogs and learn about the vision on coworking of Nathan and Gareth. You can read it through here:
Work&Co
high standard services
Bree street is the place to be in Cape Town if you feel hungry and social. All the best restaurants and cafès are there, and there are great ones. I stopped at FLOK Coffee, and I realized that I was sitting right under one of the most cool coworking spaces in town: Work&Co.
I entered. No one was sitting at the reception, but an ipad open on the Envoy app was ready for me to sign it. It was love at the first sight.
Automation, high standard services, cool design and top infrastructures is what comes with renting a desk or a private office at Work&Co.
I met Jolize, who guided me through the two floors space. Work&co is brand new: opened doors in April 2016 and already reached a high occupancy.
The community at Work&co is made of entrepreneurs, startups, professionals focusing mainly on innovative and creative business. They all chat on Slack, and meet in the social areas of the space. Especially on friday afternoon, when Jolize organize South African wine tasting. A perfect idea to make the community interact ;)
Cape Town Garage — the startup one
I’ve heard a lot about Woodstock before arriving in Cape Town, as it is one of the oldest district of the city and today the emerging one. Here is where all the creative community is based.
Inside Woodstock there is a special place: The Woodstock Exchange, a space hosting shops, cafes, offices: “a space for work and play, and it’s about empowering communities to add yet another layer of creative flare to a re-energised Woodstock”.
Inside Woodstock Exchange is Cape Town Garage coworking. And the first thing you think when entering the space is “wow”. The all space is enlightened by the big window looking directly Table Mountain.
The space is quiet and desks are occupied almost 100% by startup team, busy working or in meetings. The Cape Town Garage is one of 3 coworking tech hubs in Africa — There are also Garages in Nairobi and Lagos. Is a main hub for startups. The space doesn’t host events. The community prefer to keep the space quiet, and to join events and activities going on around Woodstock Exchange.
Now, if you take the ability to engage the community of Spint Street House, the top quality and tech services of Work&co, and the international network of Startup Garage, I think it’s possible to create the “perfect” coworking.
What do you think ?
Cape Town Coworking Lists:
- www.coworkingsa.co.za
- http://10and5.com/2016/04/14/co-working-in-cape-town-an-updated-list-of-the-best-spots-to-set-up-shop/
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Riccardo Petrantoni for all the precious insights he gave me before leaving for South Africa, don’t miss his brand new guide: MyCapeTown
