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Tech Up Your Community: Building Strong Connections in your Coworking Space
33 Plays4 months ago
Are you tired of drowning in spreadsheets and dreaming of fostering a vibrant community that thrives on connection, but lack the time or resources?
Join us on July 25 for a FREE webinar hosted by Marta Rocamora, CEO of GroundInn in collaboration with Igor Dzhebyan, co-founder of SpaceBring. We’ll equip you with the tools and strategies to transform your coworking space into a thriving hub of collaboration! 🚀
Here's what you'll gain:
Unlock the Power of Community: Discover proven tactics for building connections and fostering a sense of belonging in your space. 🌐
Data-Driven Strategies: Learn how to leverage data insights to understand your members and create a community experience they truly value. 📊
The Future of Coworking: Explore the exciting trends shaping the industry and gain a glimpse into what lies ahead.🔮
💡Bonus: We'll share practical tips and tricks to automate tasks and free up your valuable time to focus on what matters most—building a thriving community!
Don't miss out on this opportunity to enhance your coworking space experience. Get ready to dive deep into these topics and more during our exclusive webinar!
Transcript
Introduction and Global Presence
00:00:03
marta_groundinn
Well, good morning, good afternoon, depending on what you're joining us today. This is Marta Rocamora. I'm the CEO and founder of Grounded Innovation. and I'll tell a little bit more about about ourselves, but today I'm going to be your host and actually part of the discussion with the wonderful Igor that is taking the time to join us. I believe today you're joining us from where are you based today, Igor?
00:00:29
Igor Dzhebyan
We are basing Gdansk in dansk and Poland.
00:00:31
marta_groundinn
Okay. Fantastic. So you're joining us from there, but everybody, well, not everybody knows yet, but you actually been traveling quite a bit in the past with your company now has over 50 countries where they represent. I think you have a businesses with almost 500 different coworkers and really you're, you're helping us and say us because in the community world, really, when there's people that are helping with the whole tech component, you're helping making the i think the magic reality by making it much more tangible.
Mission and Product Development
00:01:05
marta_groundinn
um So before before we dive into it, can you tell us us a bit about yourself and about end cards as the founder? And right now, I think you're you're also the the head product and business development for end cards.
00:01:19
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah, okay. well Well, thank you very much Marta for the introduction. It's amazing to be here. ah And it's my great pleasure to chat with you today. I'm eager for space bring formerly known as end cards. Our company is a beating heart of working space operations to save time, boost efficiency and enhance customer experience. And that's all in your pocket, right? So with our product, we've started over seven years ago, ah with my co-founder Ross and we've always had this vision of of enhancing sharing space economy, of making working spaces and flexible and shared spaces a bit more ah open, a bit more accessible and easy to use. And so with that sort of vision and mission, we've embarked on a journey to
00:02:05
Igor Dzhebyan
to you know um to bring our product over ah to to make it available to working spaces the world over. So with um out of our headquarters in Gdansk, we're starting expanding and we're now operating in over 50 countries as you correctly pointed it out. Thank you for doing the research.
00:02:23
marta_groundinn
Thank
00:02:23
Igor Dzhebyan
So we work with the co-working spaces, flexible spaces, shared spaces of all sorts and kinds like maker spaces, spaces with childcare, beauty co-working spaces, medical co-working spaces.
00:02:29
marta_groundinn
you.
00:02:37
Igor Dzhebyan
so much diversity There's so much diversity in this area. And with our product, we just make make it so much easier to operate the spaces to for people, for for folks like me and you to you know just go on the app and just book it but a desk, come in for a day of work, ah book a meeting room, join the community, connect with people there. And that's all from the palm of your hand.
Focus on Community
00:03:02
Igor Dzhebyan
right So this is the true power of mobility brought over to the co-working and shared space industry. So that's what space is all about.
00:03:09
marta_groundinn
I love it. and And that's what I'm talking about when I'm saying the magic, you know, in the palm of your hand, everything is well connected. And for those who don't don't know us at Grounding, we're all about the power of community. Like we have an agency that is focusing on building community in real life. And for us, it's all about shared spaces, whether it's co-working, co-living, third spaces, social clubs, and the many other types of third spaces that will be appearing as we continue ah evolving and being able to get the i see like the marriage between technology and and real estate.
00:03:43
marta_groundinn
I think we're going to see a lot of new new concepts coming up. So because we're so passionate about that, when you know when we found out about space breathing, it was like, that's fantastic to see you know a platform that is not only very well thought out and really has community as its core, it really is making it accessible and and figuring out a way how to make it approachable. And like myself, were where we started in the co-working space, which I think is probably one of the I guess most mature when it comes to the third space environment and how to do community in a way that we really need to engage and think about it, as opposed to maybe other spaces, like I'm gonna give the example of co-living, because we work a lot with co-living as well. Where building community might happen a bit more naturally because you're already engaging sharing the living space, whereas when there's the co-working component, you you have to be more intentional and think about why are people going into the office nowadays? Why should they, you know,
00:04:39
marta_groundinn
leave the the comfort of their homes, especially after COVID that people became a bit more hybrid and try to figure out what they should be sharing. um That being said, like I guess, Igor, I'm curious to know the i guess the the origin of of
Origins and Innovation
00:04:55
marta_groundinn
the idea. How did you come up with your co-founder? What was like maybe the frustration that you were leaving as well that you decided, hey, this this could be the place where you should be helping and developing your business concept?
00:05:09
Igor Dzhebyan
Well, ah first of all, I couldn't agree more with you that the co-working spaces and shared spaces, they they thrive on the power of community. And and this is sort of like amazing spirit of collaboration and networking and it is just the support that you get it's such kind of from from this diverse customer basis of co-working spaces, where you get to meet all kinds of people from all kinds of backgrounds. It's just more motivating. It just makes us more productive.
00:05:38
marta_groundinn
Uh
00:05:38
Igor Dzhebyan
And as a proof of that, we both know that last year's global co-working study, it actually showed that 84% of members, they said that they actually feel more motivated and productive in a co-working environment than anywhere else.
00:05:43
marta_groundinn
-huh.
00:05:55
Igor Dzhebyan
And that's actually, I guess, as a testament of how important it is for our niche. Now, I guess me ah and my co-founder, we've both, ah we we come from there as well. We used to work in a corporation and we all know what that looks like, you know, ah like gray walls, cubicles, you know, just like your very ah traditional single office environment. And I guess back back in the days, um
00:06:27
Igor Dzhebyan
the the When the working movement was just getting started, ah me and my co-founder, we were always aspiring to ah to make a great contribution, to build something that matters, to create something that is genuinely helpful and generally useful to people and businesses alike.
Challenges and Solutions in Co-working Spaces
00:06:44
Igor Dzhebyan
And so we started working on um on something, on some interesting projects, exploring, and that brought us into co-working spaces. just Many years ago, just before co-working spaces were even... like we did Just like everyone else, we did go to a coffee shop, of course, like and but you know when you need to have that meeting with someone important, you just can't have someone say dog barking.
00:07:03
marta_groundinn
Bye.
00:07:05
Igor Dzhebyan
and You know, like a child screaming at mom, mom, I want that ice cream. So yeah, we did discover that there are spaces like working spaces and then but that we were like appalled to to see that they're not that full. Like, and it's kind of hard to find a little bit hard to book, you need to go in there, get some kind of stamp cards, you know, like, I don't know, just the way that it was all organized wasn't super efficient. So we thought, aha, that was our ha moment, you know, when we were like, okay,
00:07:35
marta_groundinn
We.
00:07:36
Igor Dzhebyan
This must be it. There's an opportunity here to to use technology ah to um you know to create to create to to facilitate this process of helping people find co-working use, co-working spaces, because I think you know that um um A lot of the working spaces they really they really do great at like at ah operation, at the hospitality, at the you you know the service, and then even in an interior design. I've seen some of the most amazing working interiors.
00:08:07
marta_groundinn
Yes.
00:08:09
Igor Dzhebyan
But when it comes to technology, it's sometimes not as efficient. um so So yeah, we saw this opportunity and we jumped on it. We found the first customers before we even built SpaceBring.
Complexity of Community Building
00:08:25
Igor Dzhebyan
And then they were ready to pay because they really also recognized how important it is to have and like a nice system to manage it all and like just have members access your services easily. And ah yeah, it just grew like... It's like skyrocketed afterwards, right? with We've now expanded to
00:08:41
Igor Dzhebyan
Lots of countries hundreds of working spaces using our product and we're really really really humbled by this growth but we're also very grateful and we're hopeful of what's to come when we get our hands on you know thousands and tens of thousands of working operations.
00:09:01
marta_groundinn
Good, I do wish for that. um You know when what people when they start thinking like co-working or community sometimes it seems like oh this must be quite simple to operate no like this is about sharing and um I think maybe that's that's the original what people you know, have a bit of a preconceived idea. And when you start to dive into it, you start to realize that, hey, building community is actually, I'm not gonna say difficult, but it is quite complex and requires a lot of different moving parts to connect properly together.
00:09:36
marta_groundinn
And so that's what I love about the simplicity and the the well user experience that you're providing with the space bring is about thinking as as as like as simple as like how we're going to building our members properly. How are we going to give them the experience where they can talk to one another and connect one ah with one another. How they're going to be booking. at the space, how they're going to find out depending on the level of access that they already have. Are the members already, are they coming only, you know, sometimes, what kind of membership they may have, are they only coming for certain events? So there is really a lot of thought process that is put into it. And I mean, for someone that is building strategy on multiple levels, I really recognize, you know, when something seems like smooth and simple, like an athlete, you know, there is a lot of work and intention that is being put behind.
00:10:23
marta_groundinn
and So you can flow this seamlessly.
00:10:25
Igor Dzhebyan
Well, I appreciate it. I appreciate Marta. And I just want to mention here that, that um of course, there are gated communities, right? The communities where, like, you need to pay a couple grand to enter, and then it's like, behind the walls, you need to qualify. But that's not the type of communities we're talking here about. We're talking about a shared space, the open communities, communities where Like-minded individuals come together and create something amazing and and building this type of community requires inclusion right inclusion and diversity and this is some of the working values on the values that our company cherishes as well but to build something inclusive.
00:11:01
Igor Dzhebyan
You must make it simple. Inclusive requires simplicity. And that's why our product is is from ground up. The foundation of our product is ease of use, simplicity, intuitive. Because of this, without this, you can't really build a community, in our opinion. What do you think?
00:11:20
marta_groundinn
its No, it's 100% true. like As you said, like there there are many spaces where you want to be, of course, even if you're inclusive, being selective, in especially in the co-working world, there is a lot about you know certain business acumen, and you want to curate who are the people that you're sharing with.
Balancing Needs: Operators vs Members
00:11:36
marta_groundinn
But that being said, you know but when it comes to the co-working values in general in the of the industry, it is about that diversity. We know that's the strength, and it's about being inclusive to give the chance and the opportunity for people to be part of. So definitely it's ah it's a must, and and I agree with you that it comes with like making it simple and easy for people to be able to understand it. And also from an operator perspective, I have to say, Igor, in general, like and and not only for co-working third spaces, like people that tend to be in the brick and mortar and real estate,
00:12:09
marta_groundinn
i It's not that tech is not their forte, but there is a general is not, ah you know, where they're most savvy. Like they understand that, you know, there's a benefit there. Like we've seen other prop tech industry growing tremendously and and it's going to continue growing because they're seeing the value it helps from the, from the construction, from the development. from operating and and doing the proper property management. So that's that's great. ah But you have to say, like the smaller, medium-sized owners of spaces, it might not be the um the thing that they're most comfortable with. So to be able not only to have a platform that is simple, but have a team that is there, responsive, helping you with the onboarding, understanding how to how to go about it, it really is a tremendous value.
00:12:53
Igor Dzhebyan
I totally agree with you. but you know what and and and Some of the smaller co-working spaces and smaller operators with our product honestly blow some of the big names out of water because our product is just generation a generation of light years ahead of whatever some of the big names already have. but you know that um So, but that that kind of like, it's not without its challenges, of course, right? Because as a company that builds software for many different kinds of stakeholders, right?
00:13:21
marta_groundinn
Thank
00:13:22
Igor Dzhebyan
And in our product, there is an operator who is our primary customer, right? Who is like contract contracting with us and like thinking about it.
00:13:28
marta_groundinn
you.
00:13:29
Igor Dzhebyan
scott But there's also the user, ah the member, the non-members side to it. And we we believe it's if not equally, but if not more than equally important than the operator side. This is something that stands space bring apart from anyone else in the market because we believe that users and member happiness are actually a catalyst of working space success and growth. And so we prioritize member experience in our products. But we always need to balance between this sort of, you know, like ah what what administrators need and why they buy our product and also what members need and why they use the product.
00:14:03
Igor Dzhebyan
And i remember sponsoring last year's working member survey um in one of our um in one of the countries we we're active and um the result of the survey was quite striking the working space um ah tenants that actually paid for.
00:14:03
marta_groundinn
Thank
00:14:20
marta_groundinn
you.
00:14:20
Igor Dzhebyan
For services right like our company managers and company owners who contract it and also working space managers themselves actually will they respond to the top three reasons why the tennis just working spaces are like the cost,
00:14:36
marta_groundinn
you
00:14:37
Igor Dzhebyan
the, you know, like, ah something like extra services and amenities available, something like that, right. right But then space bring also sponsored a member survey, which was I think was unprecedented, because we, we, we surveyed like over 1000 users of like actual regular members in court. We asked them the same question is why did you why do you work at court in space? And they told us the top three reasons are You will never get it events community you know the social environment and it was striking just to to what degree the operators and men and i can dare tennis there like, somewhat have somewhat different perspective on on the reasons for for being there,
00:15:16
Igor Dzhebyan
and And as an operator by the way Mark, I just wanted to pick your brain on that as well. like ah From the co-working perspective, you also do need to balance these needs, right? Like the needs of people who actually pay pay rent or like let's say company manager decision makers, but also the needs of people tenants who are moving in. Like how do you balance these needs as an operator?
00:15:36
marta_groundinn
isn it's and and It depends on the size of the of the operations that you're running. like For instance, I'm going to give you examples on back when I used to operate you know really large buildings as I used to be the the head of a community for for we work in different countries. And we were saying all the time, like there is one person that is going to be the one that is actually paying the bill. You know, it's going to be the one that is probably thinking of the employees of trying to give them the best possible experience. So that's why they're joining. They want to make sure that even, let's say, even if they're really big corporation brands that have their own offices. They want to almost congratulate part of their teams to be able to have access to the co-working space, to be more innovative, to challenge a bit the ideas of how they're doing things, or they're expanding in different countries. And that's one way of thinking. And then there's the actual user on the day-to-day that is not paying the bill, but is the one that ah you were saying, like that is living the experience
00:16:30
marta_groundinn
and that is going to give you the feedback of what's working, what's not working. And at the end of the day, they're all in contact. So you need to think of these, I guess, two part of the customer experience ah in order to be able to get cater for both. Yes, of course, you there is one that is paying the bill. and And even if it is the founder or owner that is actually giving the experience as well, they might have different needs than the team on the day to day and how we how we go about it. And I think all the the more sophisticated owners, they're very conscious of that, and they cater to both of them. like They make sure that there is events, community that is helpful for the ambience and the vibe that is happening, but also that you're providing the services, even the data as well, that might be more key for the the one that is paying the bill that requires to know how are they using the
Trends and Innovations in Co-working
00:17:20
marta_groundinn
space? Is it helpful? like Am I maybe like contracting an office space that is too big?
00:17:25
marta_groundinn
For the amount of people that are coming, if they're coming on today, like do I need to have an option that is more flexible? So you you need to be able to have those conversations to provide the service that makes sense for for the users in accordance to what they're trying to achieve as business. And to be fair, like Igor is thanks to like doing a lot of this type of conversation that I realized that co-working is going to go beyond what you used to be. That's more about like, you know, the startup world, the smaller companies that they're doing this until they can't afford their own office space. And now we're seeing like, well, actually the larger corporations, they also want to have co-working spaces or think like a co-working even of their own
00:18:04
marta_groundinn
ah real estate. i'm not I'm curious to see if there's some that are starting to contact you about managing their own space for their own ah employees and and considering space being as an option almost of a digital work ah workplace or not. But I definitely am having conversations with companies where they're figuring out that, hey, we need to think more like a cohort than at least because I think that was a survey. It was Expedia who did that like last year that the word VIVE was up on Google search more than 1,100%.
00:18:35
marta_groundinn
To give you an example, when people are considering where to work, where to live, and even like choosing what company they want to be part of. So you know culture matters, and co-working, and how you're creating that good experience is really important in getting the right talent to work for you. So yeah.
00:18:52
Igor Dzhebyan
ah that's That's quite mesmerizing for me, honestly, because whenever time I think about it, because the listening to your customers, observing customers, understanding them is just as is is is a treasure trove, right? Just for for learning, for understanding them better, and for building better experiences, better products. And I think in many ways, because co-working operators are listening to people, listening to members more now, Because of that, we see a surge in this sort of a specialized co-working spaces that that specialize in childcare, in co-ware housing, or some kind of provide like a beauty co-working services. Because the the operator started to listen more to what people actually need and started to ah to offer what people need, but also use that as a one of the divers diversification, differentiation points.
00:19:47
Igor Dzhebyan
to stand themselves apart from you know another space around the corner. So yeah, just to kind of the search of this specialized spaces and the hybrid models that they offer is is quite interesting. and and and um And we see that as a lot, of course, and on the space brain.
00:20:00
marta_groundinn
Thank
00:20:05
Igor Dzhebyan
We do get a lot of requests from single office environments, like you mentioned, which are starting to think like co-working.
00:20:06
marta_groundinn
you.
00:20:13
Igor Dzhebyan
Although I think the definition of co-working from their perspective is somewhat different. right I think what they're thinking more is more of a sort of like ah an open space.
00:20:19
marta_groundinn
Bye.
00:20:24
Igor Dzhebyan
right of Some of the properties of the co-working spaces are generalized as co-working. But I think what co-working truly is, is the diversity that has brought, but this multitude of tenants, multitude of backgrounds, And this is something that is hard to replicate at single office environments and we on space bring to not believe that it's the future. um I at at no point I have ever thought that oh it's it's time for us to move to like a traditional office and start spending our.
00:20:58
Igor Dzhebyan
uh hard earned cash on buying printers chairs and refrigerators you know for our for our office uh let alone like you know speaking thinking of uh some kind of community management and event programming i'm i'm sure that smart companies uh know that what non um non-profile expenses and and assets are right and they try to minimize that And going forward will will only see i'm sure it more of a like a small and meet smes kind of moving into co working flexible offices with various degrees of community services. And then perhaps on the larger corporations like.
00:21:38
Igor Dzhebyan
I don't know google and microsoft will be able to afford having like a campus i should build ah realizing the ah the ambitions and dreams of their founders to build like a circle or triangle or square whatever space is the one. But yeah, we envision a future where co-working spaces are a part of this like urban infrastructure, almost to the point of becoming like a service center, you know, like a service center where you come and you get, if you need and and a space, then and you get a space.
00:22:00
marta_groundinn
Thank you.
00:22:09
Igor Dzhebyan
If you need like accounting services, you get that support, you know, and professional services, wellness, a lot of spaces offer now like, you know, yoga and gym classes. so i see and I think a bit more in that direction. What do you say what do you what do you what do you see,
Expansion into New Areas
00:22:28
Igor Dzhebyan
Marta? What do you observe where you are at?
00:22:31
marta_groundinn
I mean, in the in the last so like decade, what I've observed is that if co-working used to be something thought out more in the urban area, let's put it this way, now it's popping out everywhere in the smaller, medium-sized cities. In the rural, like I was just in Canada last week, ah visiting some potential clients up north from ah from the Montreal. And we were seeing in the Tania cities, even a co-working there operating without any people, like being automated that you come with a code, but having fantastic facilities, which means always a bit of ah of a shock because I always think, okay, coworking needs to have people because I'm more of a believer that you need to have that intention of the community professional that is supported with tech, of course, but it's taking all that information to be able to um inform the behavior and propose because it's easy to say like, let's do events.
00:23:16
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:23:22
Igor Dzhebyan
Curate, of course, yeah.
00:23:24
marta_groundinn
What type of event or what type of community how often like what is the format like there's so many intentional decisions to be taking the art of gathering that I think you know there needs to be some some humans in the back at least if not on the day to day in there, but definitely I'm saying that
00:23:43
Igor Dzhebyan
You're right, yeah.
00:23:45
marta_groundinn
yeah but But at the same time, like like you're saying, like the fact that suddenly it appears in in places that we wouldn't expect them and we're providing that space to see how the community might engage with it directly. And sometimes you know having like ah the co-working that is completely automated that you can access, but you give the proper resources and you've been able to listen to what's happening. It's extremely interesting to see how it actually operates and evolves.
00:24:09
Igor Dzhebyan
I agree with you, yes. I honestly i think that the fully automated co-working like operations, right like a human-less, person-less operations, is is totally possible and it is a valid business model.
00:24:24
Igor Dzhebyan
But I wouldn't call it a co-working space. I would call it shared space, flexible office or flexible open space, but not a co-working. Because to me, co-working is about community collaboration and um and community like And I think that talking about human-less co-working, it's like you know there's a lot of conversation about AI recently and and people are saying that AI is going to like replace jobs and like replace us.
00:24:24
marta_groundinn
It hasn't.
00:24:47
marta_groundinn
No.
00:24:50
Igor Dzhebyan
and So like some people say, oh, let's use AI for like electronic governance and like replace it. So for me, for me like ah co-working space without a leader in the community is almost like having a country with AI at the top from like from the comics, right like where like there's no president, and there's no prime minister, there's only AI operating the country. right So it's it's awkward and I don't think it's ah it's ah it's something that we'll see anytime soon because I think people need ah people like people.
00:25:21
Igor Dzhebyan
People ah like human touch and only people are have the creativity and they have this like empathy that is required to create a feeling of sense of environment where I can feel like I belong and that where I can feel like i ah really I'm enabled. Right as a professional and i can flourish myself so i agree with you that we are no matter how much you can automate the space um working space requires.
00:25:41
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:25:52
Igor Dzhebyan
Community manager i would i believe that this is one of the first higher score in space i need to do really to focus on that part what do you think.
00:26:00
marta_groundinn
I mean, um I'm sold 100%. I think the community manager should be one of the first hire and they should be able to help with the programming and the developing of you know the tech space. And you were saying, like you you just gave the the example of the of the survey that you did ah with people saying, hey, they're coming and joining because they want to have that sense of belonging.
00:26:20
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:26:22
marta_groundinn
They're just saying that through like, I want to be part of events, I want to be part of a community. You know, if to be like, by myself, I could do it at home. um And it's already, I mean, we we all know it, like, it was already difficult, but After the pandemic, like the to pandemic of loneliness that we're experiencing, we're humans.
00:26:42
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:26:43
marta_groundinn
We're supposed to be social beings. And people are are hungry and starving for going back to like real life interactions. like It's great that we're doing this. And I'm and i'm glad right we're able to connect. and Right now, me I'm sitting in Dominican Republic here in Poland. We're having this conversation. It's wonderful. But I'm sure the day that we meet in person, It's going to be a whole different experience and the way that we're going to approach, um, you know, how we work together, how we interact, it takes it to the, to the next level. So, um, I do believe that in the future, we're going to more and more be craving and wanting these spaces to meet in real life. We're going to need someone to help us design for them being there to facilitate. So the community manager, and to be quite frank, if we want to be able to build that world.
Measuring Community Engagement
00:27:27
marta_groundinn
tech needs to be handin hand in hand, being like the support system that can help us out. Because otherwise, I don't know about you, Igor, but maybe I've been in in this space for a while when you talk about community and you talk about, you know, getting real investment being behind it. It's a bit like, ooh, intangibles. like We're talking almost about something that is creative. How do you bring it down and make sure that they see the return on the investment? And I think that's where Thanks to tech and thanks to putting the proper metrics and and really being data focused and being able to show like, hey, we're doing the proof of concept. we're We're creating different points of information that shows the impact that it's having. There's going to be a a certain level of comfort of making you know the money also follow and want to invest in these experiences because they they're understanding.
00:28:18
marta_groundinn
how key it is to build these spaces and build this profession. You're saying community manager right now, you can't study that in in university. So the community the great community managers that I've had the chance to to work with, they're self-made, they come from different backgrounds, they have that passion for people. And then now that we're helping them train and and develop, but it's still something probably like software development was like 20 years ago where You know, the great coders were learning on their own, and now you can do a hackathon and learn how to code. and you know
00:28:50
marta_groundinn
um i don't know what what
00:28:50
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah, you're right. Honestly, Martin, I think you mentioned that you can't study community management in the university. I think universities are seriously looking at that. Because like this sounds like a much better job, a job, than whatever bullshit they're teaching in the universities right now. But like um you might yeah you actually mentioned one very interesting point that I totally agree with. and It's the ah the metrics. and like how can we make and How can we measure success of um co-working space communities?
00:29:23
Igor Dzhebyan
And that kind of brings me back i just recalled like every year we do a survey on space bring and we ask our customers what they think about our product when they you know ah sometimes we ask them some questions that we are truly wondering about just asking them to share their experience their insights and a few years ago i remember we ask our customer this question was like. how do you measure community engagement? And like I would say that a vast majority like if everyone but a few spaces said no. And this was quite quite striking to us because we realized that there's so much room for improvement here when it comes to data driven data driven business development and like just understanding their metrics and their efforts. um We view business as a an endless
00:30:12
Igor Dzhebyan
optimization of business processes, basically endless A-B testing, right?
00:30:18
marta_groundinn
Next.
00:30:18
Igor Dzhebyan
Endless A-B testing. For us, this is what the business is all about. We make a test, we measure, we make changes, we wait, we measure, we make exchange and we we we just continuously optimize for the outcome that we wish to receive. And so in co-working spaces when you start working in community, I do observe that um sort of like somewhat um so a big challenge to to actually understand and wrap their hand or head around
00:30:52
Igor Dzhebyan
The the way the best way to to measure the outcome to define it even sometimes kind of hard to even define what community really is anything and in many ways we we this is where spring comes in because we is our product. We give them
00:31:11
marta_groundinn
Now
Introducing SpaceBrain
00:31:12
Igor Dzhebyan
not only the tools for ah to amplify the community manager's efforts when it comes to programming event programming work like communication or like bring people together through like a community channels and feeds.
00:31:13
marta_groundinn
I'm going to show you how to do it. Yes.
00:31:27
Igor Dzhebyan
But we'll also give them the tools to measure the social interaction and engagement behind that. like For example, what was the attendance at events? Which types of events members most likely to attend? you know what are ah What social media, what social posts they made on the app gathered the most likes and comments, right? So things like that help them understand. This is how software like Spacebrain platform can and help them understand how the measure community and how them continuously evolve their practices and can optimize them for success um and um generally this is this very much aligns with with what our product is is designed to do.
00:32:03
marta_groundinn
you
00:32:14
Igor Dzhebyan
and we're We're designed to to create a unified platform where they not only automate operations which is something that is. I think is a given, right? Everyone needs to stop spending time on manual invoicing and payment collection. It should just should be automated.
00:32:32
marta_groundinn
but do it
00:32:33
Igor Dzhebyan
Okay.
00:32:35
marta_groundinn
that's And how much of a headache that is in the majority of the spaces that we work with.
00:32:39
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:32:41
marta_groundinn
I mean, even that we were were a huge organization and every summer we had to be spending time talking about the building and we had our own platform.
00:32:41
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:32:50
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:32:51
marta_groundinn
one like It is a big headache.
00:32:54
Igor Dzhebyan
Absolutely, yeah. And then like I honestly believe there's no excuse anymore to to have to to have it fully automated. We have and we have old infrastructure. that we need to do that. But then they need to take a step forward and and invest into a community management aspect as well and um don't not forget to measure it like you like you said. And then there is this dimension of our product where we help them offer amazing customer experiences like when it comes to visit management or shop that allows people to like buy buy coffee in the app.
00:33:21
marta_groundinn
Okay. Okay.
00:33:29
Igor Dzhebyan
It's just a simple thing like that is actually
00:33:30
marta_groundinn
Okay.
00:33:32
Igor Dzhebyan
um It's actually making a difference sometimes you know and then um and then this is how our product kind of brings together all the old pieces of a puzzle that they need to ah to build this like amazing infrastructure to em empower professionals to become that service center that I ah mentioned earlier that we believe where the industry is headed to. right whencowork it becomes that' sort of like ah provider of services space services professional services all kinds of services and we already see that among our customer base we already see that demand we see that vector of development alongside the vector towards a more specialized spaces like you know space with child care and go warehousing beauty and so on.
00:34:14
marta_groundinn
No. I mean, us naturally, like, you know, we operate operate a space in in Barcelona, k Club Caramel, showed up to the team there. um And we specialize it and in making it much more about a co-working that it is actually, you can be messy in it, as opposed to maybe other spaces where you go to work on the computer, you know, you can do more crafty things. It's thought out to be able to move furniture around, do events, have that multi-disciplinary approach to it. And naturally, because you attract that type of people,
00:34:47
marta_groundinn
they're asking for more services to to be added. It's not only about, like oh, I'm coming, and yes, it's great for the networking. I'm coming to grow my business, meet the other people. But also, can you help me and then fill the blank? And so when when we started to see with your with your platform that it was easy to be able to add on layering of different services that you can provide, whether it's simply like you're saying, like hey, just a coffee, just some swag, you know some some basics covered. But you can get much more creative in terms of I'm actually going to offer a content management strategy that helps them with their businesses because that's our forte, let's say, that we can bring as well. We're going to help with the production of their own events, like other things that you can be adding on. And I agree with you that I'm seeing more and more co-working and third-spaces not only wanting to do that, but to be fair, having to do that.
00:35:37
marta_groundinn
ah to be able to grow
Leveraging Data for Growth
00:35:38
marta_groundinn
without always having to grow their square meter footage, right? like They need to be able to provide more services so they can grow their business too. And once they've covered how to do the operations, it's only natural that you want to serve, you know, your community by providing more things if you've been able to listen, and like what do they need? Let me get them for... for
00:35:56
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah, you're right you're right. I always emphasize that co-working space is a multi-dimensional business. It's a very multi-faceted environment. and like Sometimes people think, okay, i'm just I just have like a couple of empty rooms, a couple of chairs, I'm just going to throw it in there and then throw in a booking system that's going to be my co-working space. all that That's not that how it works.
00:36:14
marta_groundinn
yeah
00:36:16
Igor Dzhebyan
It could start like that certainly and then like when you start like that are you discovered that order is that all there is this order is something else and then you end up we have several customers who but started with like a really small like a room with just twelve chairs and then they expanded to like four locations in the downtown right so and there is always exciting to see how ideas growing develop.
00:36:39
marta_groundinn
And I'm curious, because you were mentioning how, you know, the data is helping a bit to, to change behavior. Do you have some some examples that maybe you you never would have thought that could have happened thanks to the information that you provide without naming, you know?
00:36:56
Igor Dzhebyan
That's an interesting question. I think, first of all, I would say that we use data in two ways. First of all, we empower our clients to have the data that they need to grow their business and to understand our customers. But also we use sort of like aggregate, depersonalized data internally to understand how people use our app. And yeah, there's just so many ah so many things you can share, but honestly, we'll have not ah well we'll leave all the rest of the day to talk about it.
00:37:25
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:37:26
Igor Dzhebyan
But yeah, the the the way people use our product informs our development in many ways. um And um a lot of times I'm the one who is sharing this with our ah clients. these insights, and there they're quite shocked. For example, we we're always keeping a track of like how we build bookrooms. right And then we we know that our data shows that, for example, something like 84% to 87% of all bookings are created for the next 12 hours.
00:37:49
marta_groundinn
yeah
00:38:02
marta_groundinn
they before yeah
00:38:03
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah, for the next 12 hours, right? 12 to 12.
00:38:07
marta_groundinn
things
00:38:09
Igor Dzhebyan
Right. So you might think and then we we do regularly get a lot of requests from the working space like, Oh, how can I, how can I limit that people can't book like more than two weeks in advance? Or like, how can I make sure that people can't use their credits for like the next week?
00:38:23
marta_groundinn
the
00:38:25
Igor Dzhebyan
and then ah And then I always reply to them.
00:38:26
marta_groundinn
day
00:38:28
Igor Dzhebyan
like I always share this figure with them like of of how, like did you know that like almost 90% of all people, they actually book for the next 12 hours?
00:38:30
marta_groundinn
before.
00:38:33
marta_groundinn
paper
00:38:37
Igor Dzhebyan
And then um this changes a lot and in in their perspective. It's just a good example of how data data can inform your policies, your business models, and your even like a software product as well. But yeah, I mean, we we work with a lot of our clients to to build those cases. ah We publish them all publicly on our marketing website.
00:38:54
marta_groundinn
Thank
00:38:57
Igor Dzhebyan
It's on the spacebring dot.com slash um case studies.
00:38:58
marta_groundinn
you very
00:39:00
Igor Dzhebyan
I think it's just somewhere there on our website.
00:39:01
marta_groundinn
much.
00:39:02
Igor Dzhebyan
yeah And then we yeah we do have lots of case studies there where we publish like very interesting cases where our product helped increase customer engagement, um occupancy, in so many cases, um when they couldn't really engage customers because something wasn't working in the legacy app that they used before. And then they upgraded to space bringing, things became just much easier, less steps, less friction, easier to use, resulted in almost like 100% adoption.
00:39:34
marta_groundinn
small.
00:39:38
Igor Dzhebyan
um So yeah, all of those cases on our website and why you should check them out later. But um and it's interesting stuff.
00:39:44
marta_groundinn
yeah And and i love um another example you were giving, because I think we're all prone to that. You know, sometimes we look at the outlier, like that one thing that you you think is like, oh, that must be telling me that there's so much more of this behavior that is happening, no? The black swan effect. like this This actually, if I notice it that all this happened, and then sometimes we just need somebody to be like, no, no, actually, it's just the outlier.
00:40:06
Igor Dzhebyan
Right.
00:40:10
marta_groundinn
And that's fine. you don't need to be focusing all your time and maybe it's okay to let go of that one person that is booking two weeks before when all the rest is going pretty smoothly, right?
00:40:16
Igor Dzhebyan
Exactly. um
00:40:22
Igor Dzhebyan
yeah we always start When we talk about ah about this with our clients, we always ask them a few simple questions. And I recommend everyone listening, if you have any challenge in your business, just ask the simple questions. How often does
Understanding Human Behavior
00:40:38
Igor Dzhebyan
this occur? Once a day, once a month, once every six months? What impact does this have on your business like quantitative cool quantitatively? right like what's like what's the What's the impact?
00:40:56
Igor Dzhebyan
um And once you look at these two numbers, you will understand that a majority of things that worry you aren't actual problems. They're more of a consequence of something else that is a problem.
00:41:11
marta_groundinn
No.
00:41:13
Igor Dzhebyan
and so So we need to always ask these questions and keep looking for the true problem. And sometimes the problem is not in software or like even a your business process. Sometimes it's the human behavior. Sometimes it's the culture. You know you can't change easily. You can, of course, but you can't easily change people's culture.
00:41:32
marta_groundinn
can
00:41:34
Igor Dzhebyan
Yes, yes. So in many ways, like sometimes you get this question like ah co-working space somewhere in the country where Like there's a relatively less trust between you know ah people that don't know each other and they're like oh we want to build an unmanned working space. in the country acts. And then they're like, how can it make sure that people can get in, but they can't like break anything, they can steal anything, they have to stay in the meeting room only within the booking time, and never not overstay. And I'm always telling him no matter what technical um solutions we implement,
00:42:13
Igor Dzhebyan
to prevent people from staying longer in the meeting room or like ah prevent them from like by using access control with our amazing partners or ah cutting off their Wi-Fi access. ah We have one customer who's cutting off electricity in the meeting room.
00:42:26
marta_groundinn
Show
00:42:27
Igor Dzhebyan
The the booking is over. Electricity is done.
00:42:30
marta_groundinn
that.
00:42:30
Igor Dzhebyan
Imagine like sitting with the customer. There's a dark room. Boom. and so And so no matter what you do, if people want to overstay, if they have this intention, they'll always find a way to do it.
00:42:43
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:42:44
Igor Dzhebyan
Always. They'll put their shoe in the door to so that the door doesn't lock. They'll bring like use the light on their phone to light something up. They'll go and ask a favor to a community manager and community manager. You can never say no, right? It's your customer. So people will always find a way. So honestly, I think that a lot of solutions that a lot of challenges that co-workers face try to tackle, they're actually underlying human psychology. And this is something also we probably need to understand and think about. It's exciting.
00:43:13
marta_groundinn
To me it's fascinating, I always say with the community managers that we bring on board and and work with, you know, you're you're going to get a master in people once you start to operate and work in co-working environments.
00:43:16
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:43:27
Igor Dzhebyan
Oh, yeah.
00:43:27
marta_groundinn
good You see how people are, you're saying, getting very creative on getting what they need.
00:43:29
Igor Dzhebyan
100%.
00:43:32
marta_groundinn
you You also see how they interact with one another, you know, how they try to seduce people because, A, in co-working is not only business that it's happening, right? There is human interaction. So ah people fall in love, people fight, people, there is conflict.
00:43:43
Igor Dzhebyan
Yes.
00:43:46
marta_groundinn
and deb well
00:43:47
Igor Dzhebyan
People just being people, right?
00:43:49
marta_groundinn
people just being people. But to be honest, people just being people heighten because it is spaces that are built to help them interact with one another, you know, connect and having a bit more of a collusion.
00:43:51
Igor Dzhebyan
yeah
00:44:00
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:44:03
marta_groundinn
So you do see it a bit more, more in accelerated mode.
00:44:05
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:44:07
marta_groundinn
That's why businesses also go through to these spaces.
00:44:08
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:44:11
Igor Dzhebyan
It's like a kindergarten,
00:44:11
marta_groundinn
But it's
Future Vision for Co-working Spaces
00:44:12
Igor Dzhebyan
but but for adults.
00:44:14
Igor Dzhebyan
You know, in the kindergarten years, you send your kids and your kids are like, they have a time for playing, they have a time for studying, time for eating, just a time for everything there. And then kindergarten for adults is a good word, right? That's where you get all everything you need.
00:44:14
marta_groundinn
like,
00:44:25
marta_groundinn
Exactly. And now it's time for deep work, because sometimes I forget to.
00:44:27
Igor Dzhebyan
Right.
00:44:29
marta_groundinn
But it's good.
00:44:30
Igor Dzhebyan
Right, right.
00:44:32
marta_groundinn
um But i love I love that framework.
00:44:33
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah.
00:44:34
marta_groundinn
like you know To try to bring things down, to like quantify sometimes. like you know how How often does this happen? What's the real impact? And you know taking a step back to to see if it makes sense to delete it.
00:44:44
Igor Dzhebyan
Is this a challenge? Yeah.
00:44:46
marta_groundinn
This is a challenge.
00:44:46
Igor Dzhebyan
Is this is this a problem or is this is so is this a consequence of a problem?
00:44:51
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:44:52
Igor Dzhebyan
Because I think a lot of times it's hard to distinguish. Where is the problem? Where is the consequence?
00:44:58
Igor Dzhebyan
you know
00:44:58
marta_groundinn
Definitely.
00:45:00
marta_groundinn
And Igor, like you're saying, i mean you said it throughou throughout throughout this conversation, but I would love to hear a bit more on where do you see maybe space being evolving, like you're saying going now into more niche types of co-working slash their spaces, but also maybe I guess your your dreams or how you see the team, your team growing and and what are the new challenges that you would like to tackle.
00:45:23
Igor Dzhebyan
Well, first of all, our vision is to to help expand the sharing space economy. It's the future in where people have easy access to this amazing multifaceed it multidimensional shared spaces where they get all the services that they need. They can order the services through the app. And this is ah our mission here, right? So with our product, we'll make it easy, ah make it more accessible, make it more easy user-friendly. to access, to order, to to participate in these spaces, in these multifaceted service centers. And generally, I'm sure the space bring will continue to evolve by integrating advanced technologies like the AI-driven space optimization. Everyone is talking about this right now.
00:46:07
Igor Dzhebyan
ah maybe enhanced access control, enhanced member experiences. This is something we really care about. we We strive to build something that's more personalized to each individual user, and this is something where I see the future develop. um
00:46:24
marta_groundinn
gracious
00:46:24
Igor Dzhebyan
i think that
00:46:26
marta_groundinn
i I want you to like also help the the community manager profession to develop and to try to figure out a way where we can help them make sure that they're asking themselves the the questions of like what's the identity of my community, how are we going to structure it, like you know have a little bit of a journey there that can help them.
00:46:26
Igor Dzhebyan
yeah i mean ah
00:46:43
Igor Dzhebyan
Yes. Honestly, I think every user, every person is probably... like We live this in this age of of like this multitude of information around us, and we always need to make choices of whether we need to pay attention to this information. right So um so the the attention that we pay to this is... for the who's Who said it like a few decades ago? right Attention is the most valuable resource.
00:47:05
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:47:06
Igor Dzhebyan
And so in this attention that ah we ask for, when it's very valuable and we need to treat treated it as such. And when people open space bring up made application, our products are white label. That's why i problem most of you have never heard about it because they know it's most likely to be like your local co working space app. Right made it by space bring that when they open it, they always ask this, there's always this question on the table, like, what's in it for me? What's in it for me? What's what what can I do here? And then like, I think there should be, whether you are an administrator who is managed with your community manager,
00:47:41
Igor Dzhebyan
Whether you are a user who is just going in the app to to quickly book a room for the next four hours, ah you need to quickly understand what's in it for you and have that personalized experience to scatter towards your needs and what you need right now. And there is a lot to do here, of course, for all of us for technology companies, for working spaces to offer those services for us to help surface the services, making them easier to find easier and more accessible. And of course, the community side, operation side, every user needs to get be successful, right? And so I see our role in this and they're just facilitating that process, kind of building something that's more enhanced, more seamless and more personalized, this personalized experiences on the go and
00:48:26
Igor Dzhebyan
um On the web. um This is where we're headed to them so yeah i'm by integrating all this technologies by supporting it with whatever new advances we make on all fronts in terms of infrastructure ai and so much more. you know It's interesting that the we've all heard about this Microsoft bug ah cloud cloud strike bug, which kind of a lot of people suffered in the airports being stuck there, and i like in the trains.
00:48:59
marta_groundinn
Oh.
00:49:00
Igor Dzhebyan
and But no no company, of course, is immune from from ah such cases.
00:49:08
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:49:08
Igor Dzhebyan
So I can only empathize with the people who suffer kind of who suffered from this outage and the companies that probably lost trillions of dollars in euros in damages because of this bug. But like what's interesting is that on SpaceBring, for example, ah our our uptime is 100%. And this is because we use a different type of infrastructure which is not centralized. right our in the ah bit A bit more modern, serverless, ah microservice type of infrastructure that allows us to operate with 100% uptime
00:49:46
Igor Dzhebyan
Each individual model of our product is is like independently operated. It's very efficient. It's very fast. So it's just an example of how using modern technology could help us provide a very seamless and stable product, a platform to co-working spaces. And there is a lot more to and uncover and use and offer because I think we are only getting started here.
00:50:11
marta_groundinn
I
Cultural Sensitivity and Company Values
00:50:12
marta_groundinn
absolutely love that you are pointing out to that naturally about the, I mean, because I think it's a way of thinking, right? Like ah you're building that decentralized form. And that makes you more resilient. But also, it's a it's a way of, I think, valuing like the smaller, more flexible agile system versus that one in a large,
00:50:34
Igor Dzhebyan
Chunk.
00:50:34
marta_groundinn
Monopoly, you know, that's that one that wants to dominate it all versus like, hey, I want to live in the world.
00:50:35
Igor Dzhebyan
Yeah. Yeah, monolith. Yeah.
00:50:43
marta_groundinn
Well, I don't see like one Starbucks and one window. I want to see like multiple smaller coffees that are different depending on where you're at that they're, you know, different types of ah businesses owners and that they're all thriving and successful and and and see that diversity in that reality that is coming out. And I think for you, that's core of how you're building, how you're thinking. and And also, you're building your team, I think, no as well. Like, yes, you're based out of Poland, but you're comfortable partnering with and being operational in multiple different countries. and Culturally, not ah it's not a challenge for you to translate or making it available for for different types of...
00:51:21
Igor Dzhebyan
It's not a challenge, Marta. It's not a challenge because our company has values. And this is something that not everyone company does. um you know Our company values responsibility, transparency, but we also really care about working values like inclusivity and diversity.
00:51:38
Igor Dzhebyan
And it it is because because we cherish these values, we are able to build a company that can cater towards multicultural backgrounds. And I'm not talking about the multiculturalism policies of some countries, which I think led to a huge disaster. I'm talking about the localization, the ability to to reach out and talk to local communities over in you know in and the most remote places of our planet even. Like, I don't know, customers in Curaçao or our customer in in
00:51:38
marta_groundinn
Now.
00:52:16
Igor Dzhebyan
in the Bali or in Riyadh or in you know London or ah Tel Aviv, all of these co-working spaces, they they all have their own local cultures and their own local um community standards, business practices. And yes, because our company is cherishing diversity and inclusivity, That's why we are able to reach out and connect with all of them and i think this this is what it takes if your company has values and what's values over business then you'll be able to be truly successful actually i strongly believe in this.
00:52:51
marta_groundinn
And I couldn't resonate more. And and I think like for for us at Grounding, that's not only what we strive for, but also when we're selecting the type of businesses that we want to help grow and work with, we're also mindful of that. Because a bit like yourself, we're not a white label, but we are that you know agency in the background that is rooting for your growth, that is helping you build your businesses, your operations, and so on. And so it's very important that we're che the and like to be boyfriend that we're the ones that are sharing similar values um because you want to build a world where that's, you know, what's winning the team that that is winning versus, you know,
00:53:25
Igor Dzhebyan
Yes, exactly. Promote those values because there's these are good values, right?
00:53:28
marta_groundinn
the yeah.
00:53:31
Igor Dzhebyan
Co-working values, in my opinion, are the values that can actually make our world a better place as a whole. And I'm a strong proponent of co-working associations, which can help co-working spaces thrive in local countries. Space brings sponsors ah financially and and with every resource we have. these local co-working associations in all around the world, in Australia, in Canada, in Switzerland, in Ukraine, in many other countries. We work with the London Co-working Assembly to kind of help help them organize their events. We always sponsor conferences like co-working Spain.
00:54:05
Igor Dzhebyan
amazing conference there or co workinging europe so we I think this is this is one of the things we can do together, right?
00:54:11
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:54:13
Igor Dzhebyan
Even even if we compete, even if we but we still have a lot of shared values in this co-working history, and I think we need to promote them.
00:54:13
marta_groundinn
Yeah.
00:54:21
Igor Dzhebyan
We can't just sit and wait for someone else to do it for us. The value of working is the value of the future, a society in which we all live in prosperity and peace, ah diversity, inclusivity, right all openness. You mentioned about that. the space of the carmel that you operate in Barcelona and you say it's a bit coding inside. It's not. It's actually the principle of openness. right People can come and they can enjoy this open environment where I can sit where I want, I can move my chair where I want, and I can just be there.
00:54:21
marta_groundinn
yeah
00:54:53
marta_groundinn
and
00:54:54
Igor Dzhebyan
right so I think this is a a testament of how of how openness can be ah helping to build a successful community. and I think in the future, ah this is something that will help us ah build a more successful society.
00:55:08
marta_groundinn
Well, I think on that high note, this was an excellent conversation. Igor, it was a real pleasure for me And to take this time for minutes in the morning or for years in the afternoon to get to know you a bit more for all of our audience that is watching right now. I hope it was as ah insightful and valuable as it was for us. um If they want to continue following you, read about you, join even maybe you're looking for new new potential team members to join the the team. How can they do so?
00:55:40
Igor Dzhebyan
well i'm I'm sure we'll throw some links in the description of this right episode. so ah yeah Feel free to go to spacebring dot.com or find me ah on LinkedIn. I'm always happy to connect. Marta, I really appreciate the opportunity to be here, to talk to you, ah to share my thoughts, to learn from you also as an amazing professional. um and um
Conclusion and Audience Engagement
00:56:01
Igor Dzhebyan
I can't wait to you know, to see, to visit someday the Kolovka Rommel and visit you in the Dominican Republic as well. And I can't wait to see the future that we're both together.
00:56:13
marta_groundinn
Same. Well, it's been a real pleasure and have a lovely day.
00:56:18
Igor Dzhebyan
Thank you.
00:56:19
marta_groundinn
Thank you.