Opening Bellavista: 48 hours of hell
It was Saturday morning and we had 48 hours to open the cowork for 50+ eager clients who expected to begin working on Monday.
It didn’t matter that Monday was a public holiday in Chile. Our clients were remote workers coming from abroad and they needed their work space ready by the 1st of May. Our deadline was definitive. No wiggle room, no exceptions.
We were already seriously behind schedule. April was merciless to people managing tight deadlines — Easter and the Census were excellent killers of productivity. And to make matters worse, the list of unplanned infrastructure problems kept growing.
Here is the cowork a few days before our “official” opening.
Saturday was utter and total madness. It was the last day we had with our “maestros” — our team of builders. Come Sunday morning, we would be on our own.
There was so much work to be done that our entire team picked up hammers and paint brushes and went to work. We had no other option.
That Saturday evening, as we sat around eating Choripanes — our way of saying thank you to the maestros for their tremendous commitment — the place was so dirty and buried under so much scrap materials and filth, that it was almost impossible to imagine that a cowork lay underneath.
We all went home that night feeling a little despondent.
Crazy Sunday
We kicked off the day nice and early. No more maestros. Just us.
We called upon every resource we could.
Everyone got involved — wives, boyfriends, interns, employees.
One of our mother’s made muffins and brownies for the team, which turned out to be the only thing we ate throughout that long gruelling day.
Thank you to the amazing people that provided encouragement and support during that crazy Sunday.
As the day came to an end the cowork began to slowly take form.
We finally got rid of all the junk inside and began a deep clean. Who knows how many times we had to sweep that floor!
The tables arrived at around midnight.
We installed the first table during the early hours of Monday morning.
We were getting close to finishing.
But the list of things that we had to do during that hard, never-ending night is too long to tell— scrubbing toilet floors, cleaning cups and windows, putting together chairs and tables, carrying out infinite bags of rubbish.
We finally left the cowork on Monday at around 6am, exhausted and spent, hoping that we had done enough, but knowing full well that there were many pending flaws.
D-day
A few hours later we were in business. 50+ coworkers walked through the doors and began to work.
And…
Everything was OK.
We made it.
We survived the night and we successfully opened our second cowork.
Was everything perfect?
No, far from it, but people were happy and congratulated us for the incredible space we had built.
Highlight of the night
Those 48 hours drained us like no other event had since we began this company. Launching Bellavista stretched us physically and emotionally. We literally were pushed to the “edge” of our comfort zones. But it also drew us closer together as a team and taught us a valuable lesson — it doesn’t matter what your role is, when the time comes, we all roll up our sleeves, fix toilet seats and do what needs to be done to meet our goal.
We also had some fun along the way.
One of the highlights was chasing the rubbish truck.
We accumulated so much junk on the street that we urgently needed a way to get rid of it.
Suddenly a rubbish truck drove past. We quickly loaded up our small truck and followed in pursuit, begging the rubbish men to take our heaping burden.
Not only did they take our junk, but we also got to ride on the truck.
There is great power in asking. Asking leads to fulfilled dreams (such as this happy chap on the back of the rubbish truck).
Presenting Edge Bellavista
Without further ado, and with no small amount of sweat and dirt, we present to you Edge Bellavista.
Does this seem like a cool place to work?
You bet it does.
Visit our website and book a tour today.
Remember, our hearts and souls went into this space.
#builtbyentrepreneursforentrepreneurs
