Humble Beginnings: 6 Global Brands That Started In Coworking Spaces

The companies in this list started small but dreamed big. They didn’t begin in corporate skyscrapers, but rather in coworking spaces! 

Keep reading to find out which globally recognised brands are the product of coworking spaces, you may be surprised to find some of the names in this list 👇🏽 

Uber 

Picture this: It’s March 2009. 

Michael Jackson just announced his comeback tour. 

The 5th Harry Potter film has just been released. 

Barack Obama is president. 

Tucked away in a Brooklyn coworking space called The Yard, two friends were plotting a revolution - Uber. 

You may have heard of it, it’s a smartphone app that allows users to easily find available transport. 

Years later, they moved to San Francisco-based coworking provider Rocket Space, which, fun fact, is where Spotify also began! 

The idea behind Uber came to Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2008 in Paris. They were freezing and couldn’t find a taxi! So, they thought of a modern solution for an age-old problem: What if it was possible to find rides using your smartphone? 

Fast forward to 2023, Uber is now a globally recognised brand. They have expanded far beyond rides, introducing Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and in London, even Uber Boat! 

Pablo Cordero via pexels

Hootsuite 

Back in 2008, Ryan Holmes of Vancouver, Canada was juggling multiple social media accounts for his ad agency, and it was driving him bonkers. Enter his eureka moment! His own social media management platform, BrightKit - which later changed to Hootsuite 🦉 

The company thrived while using a San Francisco coworking space, the one and only RocketSpace. 

Now Hootsuite is used in over 200 countries around the world, by more than 200,000 users. 

The London HQ is still based in a coworking space, as Hootsuite know that the secret sauce for growth, is staying flexible. 

Instagram 

Instagram began its journey at Dogpatch Labs - a coworking space in San Francisco. Apparently, San Fran is where you start a company if you want it to be successful! 

The social media powerhouse was initially a check-in app called Burbn, by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in October 2010. After realising the service was too similar to Foursquare, they pivoted to pictures and improved their photo filter features 📸 

The app was renamed Instagram, and the rest is history! 

After acquiring millions of users in its first year, Instagram quickly became *the* social networking service of choice for food and travel enthusiasts. In 2012, the app had become so prominent that Facebook purchased the company for a cool US$1 billion in cash and shares. 

Cottonbro Studios via pexels

Spotify 

Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon took on the music industry's piracy problem head-on. They cooked up Spotify in RocketSpace, the notorious tech-powered coworking campus. 

Apparently, the two created Spotify as a response to the widespread piracy that was prevalent at the time. Remember LimeWire and Napster? Spotify aimed to fix the mess those sites created. 

Today Spotify has revolutionised the way people listen to music 🎶 They have over 180 million premium subscribers and 406 million monthly active users worldwide. Not bad for a company that was started by just two chaps in a coworking space! 

Cottonbro Studios via pexels

Indiegogo 

You’ll never guess where the founders of Indiegogo started their journey… a coworking space in San Francisco. 

So, it’s no wonder that the founder of Indiegogo states that had it not been for the support and freedom of coworking spaces, they would not have made it up until now! 

Indiegogo is now the largest crowdfunding website available online, helping thousands of ideas achieve funding every day. In a very short period, the company raised more than 80 million dollars and is active in over 200 countries. 

ZipRecruiter 

In 2010, Ian Siefel and Chris Hyams kickstarted ZipRecruiter in a Coloft in Santa Monica, California. Their vision? Make hiring efficient, fast, and effective. 

Over the years, the company has evolved from helping small businesses connect with top talent to serving Fortune 1000 companies. Today, ZipRecruiter is one of the USA’s most popular job-search platforms, with over 25 million registered users. 

Coworking curating success 

It's undeniable that coworking spaces have played a significant role in the success of these companies. Coworking and flexible working spaces notoriously help start-ups reduce costs until they bring in financiers or considerable profits appear. 

Nexudus empowers coworking spaces by providing them with the tools and technology they need to run effectively and efficiently. If you’ve recently opened a space and are looking for coworking software to run your space, why not find out if we could be the perfect fit?