The practice helps the community grow in terms of startups and entrepreneurship and acts as a facilitator through this process.
This practice provides co-working facilities in open-office or medium size office layouts.
Startup events have been organized and run ever since 2014 with the sole purpose of growing and strengthening the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Timișoara by connecting the doers with the business people, helping community members grasp entrepreneurship by joining events like Startup Survivor, Startup Weekend or Startup Coffee.
The Cowork Timisoara concept started in February 2017 with a first location (Tineretului) for prospecting the market and find out if there was a need for commercial co-working spaces in Timisoara. By September 2018 there were over 100 events hosted, a couple of thousands of people visited the venue, and start-ups, freelancers, accountants, photographers, web developers and techies worked from the location.
The second location was opened in November 2018 - Cowork Timisoara The Garden - a 350 sqm meters house located just a few minutes walk from the City Center, offering the perfect balance between office and event space.
In 2020 Cowork Timisoara started a new initiative by offering a Digital Membership and thus expanding a regional, location-based community into a digital, location-independent one.
The practice meets the needs of its members by offering several types of services and tailored pricing: digital membership, desks/membership and private offices, event venue and services, administrative services, startup support, partnerships.
Resources needed
The initial budget was €10.000 which was invested in rent, renovation and setting up the first location. The profit was re-invested in improving the services offered and to extend the practice. Another €10.000 were added to brighten up the second location and add the needed furniture and equipment.
Evidence of success
After three years of Cowork Timisoara:
● Two co-working spaces: one of 170 sqm and another one of 350 sqm
● 250+ hosted and organized events raging from 8 people workshops to 100 attendees
● 4000+ people visiting the two co-working places
● 150+ residents from various backgrounds in the last three years worked from the two locations (startup teams, tech freelancers or tech employees, accountants or photographers, etc.)
Difficulties encountered
The main difficulty has been the lack of community education in what co-working is and what it has to offer. The main challenge was to convey to the community the facilities available within a co-working space and the advantages it brings in comparison with the existing alternatives.
Potential for learning or transfer
This co-working activity can be easily transferable or replicated in other interested towns, cities and regions focusing on their core business sectors and helping their entrepreneurship community grow and develop by offering start-ups and freelancers a friendly, cheaper and community building working environment for learning and developing as the only way to move forward, both as individuals and as businesses.
Running startup events within the framework of such concept has led to the strengthening of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Timișoara by connecting the doers with the business people in fields like education, technology, and entrepreneurship.
The principle of lean startup was used to develop the business, while validating the market need even before starting to offer co-working services by creating a landing page and understanding the need for such services within the local community.
