A Pan-African Perspective on Co-Working

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The Garages evolved out of a combination of Kresten Buch’s need for office space which could cater to the needs of tech startups and the observed lack of such spaces in the cities where 88MPH ran their programmes. The number of spaces in the group has grown over the years, and each space has developed its own partnerships and niches, based on the unique characteristics of each market. The first space was in Cape Town, followed by Nairobi, with the latest addition being Lagos in 2014.

Founded in partnership with Google for Entrepreneurs, the Cape Town Garage was the first tech hub and co-working space in the group. Kresten later took over sole ownership, and used it as a base for 88MPH’s accelerator programmes here in Cape Town in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The Cape Town Garage is based in one of Cape Town’s funkier and more creative areas, Woodstock, as well as in a building whose tenants are largely entrepreneurs, startups or co-working spaces.

With roughly 510 sq meters, two small “pods” (meeting rooms), a boardroom, two private offices, and spectacular views over Cape Town, the Cape Town Garage is in a strong position within the co-working community of Cape Town.

Ideally targeting tech, mobile and web based startups and entrepreneurs, we have a distinct responsibility to cater for the needs of these businesses which informs most of our actions in and around the space.

Although we do not necessarily turn away startups or freelancers outside of the tech, mobile and web based industries, it is natural that through word of mouth and marketing, that these are the typical tenants we attract and we feel it is quite beneficial to our business to be known for catering to a specific type of tenant and business.

The Nairobi Garage was opened in 2012 when 88Mph ran programmes in Nairobi in 2012 and 2013.

It currently has 150 desks in 800 sq meters of space, with two twelve seater meeting rooms, 24 hr access, an events space and a “hangout” space . The Nairobi Garage has really cornered its market to such an extent that they are moving to a larger space before the end of the year in order to accommodate for the growth of the business. Their 25Mbps dedicated internet is sponsored by SEACOM which is a great help for the Garage.

Their average price per desk is similar to the remaining Garages in the group, at $170 per desk.

The Nairobi Garage, like both Cape Town and Lagos, also caters largely for freelancers and startups in the tech, mobile and web industries with an added few SME’s due to the capacity of the Nairobi Garage being larger and therefore enabling them to take in larger teams than the other spaces at this point.

The Lagos Garage is co-owned by Kresten with his partners in Lagos, L5Lab. It is based in Ikoyi and also targets technologically-orientated startups.

It was initially opened for use in September 2014 and hosted the 440NG Accelerator Program for three months (in partnership with 88MPH).

Post programme, the Lagos Garage began operating full-time as a coworking space. With three private offices in addition to the open plan space, there are currently over 40 people working out of the space from five different companies/ teams.

The open work space is transformed into an event hall on some occasions and has hosted Investor Days, International non-profit meetings, interviews, training and cocktail events.

With our 250 square meter office being in the penthouse of an Accor hotel in a serene suburban area, there’s an awesome view and a strategic location for business.

Commonalities, Difficulties and Differences

Across all the Garages, similar reasons for success and similar challenges were experienced. In terms of reasons for success, many startups and entrepreneurs across Africa face common challenges despite being based in different countries, and in terms of those facing the spaces themselves, we tend to face and tackle similar challenges as well.

Hannah Clifford, who runs the Nairobi Garage, was recently quoted in an article published in the Economist on how Co-Working spaces have fast become the most viable homes for tech businesses across Africa due to being uniquely positioned to tend to these issues in such a way that co-working remains cost effective to their tenants.

Among the major discussion points was the fact that most SME’s face similar struggles across Africa, these namely being internet woes and power cuts.

Our Lagos head mentioned similar challenges, as well as that co-working as a phenomena is still relatively unheard of in Nigeria so they have additional struggles in trying to promote their space. The Lagos Garage also lists currency fluctuations among their list of influences when it comes to tenant decisions.

In Cape Town, the number one question we are asked is regarding the quality and reliability of our internet. Luckily, we have a partnership with WorkOnline who has gone out of their way to stabilise our internet at a high bandwidth and for a relatively low cost in comparison with other providers. In this way I think the CTG has managed to take care of one of the main reasons that startups and entrepreneurs look to coworking spaces for desk space as well as controlling one of the most volatile and potential harmful factors for a coworking space as a business- unreliable internet.

Power cuts are an issue across all three spaces, and each has addressed these in their own manners, as we needed to find ways to minimize the effects of the power cuts both for ourselves and our tenants. In Nairobi, they have installed a generator as power cuts were more common than here in Cape Town, where a UPS was sufficient in order to keep our internet up and running. Additionally, our tenants are notified as long in advance as possible about scheduled loadshedding in order for them to make sure all their necessaries are charged and so forth, minimising the need for standard power supplies.

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