BizSpark ✨ x Hong Kong Startup Community Leaders 👑 Series
Episode 1: James Bernardo of Garage Society
“Don’t be afraid of change, embrace it”
In our first episode, we met James Bernardo of Garage Society. Originally from London, James went all the way from studying law at Warwick, to exploring the public sector, and coming to Hong Kong to become the ✨Programming Director of Garage Society.
A bit about Garage Society.
Garage Society is a community 👪 for the new generation workforce. Founded in 2014, their platform offers events, an internship programme, recruitment and investment support, and more. With contemporary co-work spaces located throughout Asia, Garage is home to international startups, creatives, and freelancers anddigital nomads. Their mission is to facilitate collaboration 👐 and growth within the community and beyond. Garage Society host weekly events through their knowledge-sharing platform Garage Academy, and together with their friends and partners in the startup community.
Tell us a bit about how you ended up in the startup community in Hong Kong. What did you study in college?
James Bernardo: I studied law at the University of Warwick in the UK. Didn’t become a lawyer, ended up in public sector over there. I worked on a project on the London 2012 Olympics in Surrey. And then I joined European Union projects, to help community currencies back when bitcoin was in its infancy. Sadly, I didn’t get any bitcoin. We were doing currency payments by text in Brixton, in South London. I also worked a little bit with Impact Hub, who set up a space in Brixton, so I was familiar with co-working. And when I moved to Hong Kong, co-working was a little bit more in its infancy, so our founder Elaine had just found this place 6–7 months previously in Central. She was looking for a community manager, someone who can activate and engage the people in the space and my profile kind of fit quite nicely. I’ve since grown with the company for the last 3 years or so.
What’s exciting and not so exciting part about incubating the startup scene in Hong Kong?
JB: Exciting ✨ — there’s always change, there’s always new things happening, and there’s always interesting people to meet. Year on year everything gets bigger, there’s more and more people joining the community locally and internationally. If you move to Hong Kong, it’s great, because you get to meet so many people from so many different backgrounds. Just within the co-working space as well, you get to interact with very junior people and senior people.
Not so exciting 💀— there’s a separation between very local startups that are more based in Kowloon, Science Park, Cyberport, and the workspaces in core Central or Hong Kong Island. Real estate is obviously a huge cost here. What you usually find is a lot of the companies in core Central workspaces are perhaps international companies that have been proven in 1–2 markets, looking for a base in Hong Kong (e.g. Uber, Deliveroo, Student.com).
The most ridiculous myth about startups according to James.
JB: That it’s all party 🎊 all the time? That everyone’s super trendy, everyone’s super cool and there’s always free beer 🍻 (there’s free beer in Garage Society).
Advice to aspiring founders and struggling entrepreneurs.
JB: Connect with as many people as you can. Utilize the great ecosystem that Hong Kong is building. Through our spaces, government programs, initiatives like your own, it’s all about taking and growing your company as organically as you can. There’s so much resources available out there that doesn’t really cost you any money. Connect and find the people who inspire you and who will be there when you are challenged.
Best piece of advice you’ve gotten from someone?
JB: Don’t be afraid of change, embrace it. I always grew up and lived in London, and I had the opportunity to move here. You’ll be surprised with what you get if you just accept the change.
Recommended books 📚
JB: James has given Mindset (by Carol Dweck) to two of his staff. The book explores growth vs. the fixed mindset. James shared to us that when challenged, don’t get fixed and go “I can’t fix this problem”, that it’s important to take a step back and a see what you can learn from it.
Stance on Marmite?
JB: All in. As much as possible.
Tea 🍵 or coffee ☕️?
JB: Coffee with an aeropress every morning.
Weapon of choice in an apocalypse.
JB: Love ❤️
This series is to showcase Microsoft’s great support to the startup community in Hong Kong. If you are a technology focused startup that is aiming to explore the Hong Kong market in anything related to fintech, AI, or MR, go to 📍www.bizspark.microsoft.com to get the support you deserve. If you have questions on BizSpark, don’t hesitate to drop a message to and then put BS at the end, and say interested to partner with us? Please contact 📍hkbizs@microsoft.com.
Garage Society was founded in 2014, and is the first co-workspace located in Central, Hong Kong. Since 2014, Garage has grown and evolved alongside their members to become a leading co-working operator in Asia. Much of the growth of Garage has been guided by their bespoke, member-centric business model, as they’re constantly looking for ways to take our value-adding services to the next level. Garage Society is ever-changing with the startup community, but one thing that’s remained constant is their mission of empowering entrepreneurs in Hong Kong and throughout Asia.
On behalf of Microsoft, we would like to send a special gratitude to James, Min Chen, Hei-Yue Pang and everybody at Garage Society for making this partnership possible. Thanks guys!
Microsoft ❤️ Startups | BizSpark Hong Kong
