Hi HN, we're Christian (ChrisMischler) and Raphael (raphco) of Deskimo (https://www.deskimo.com/). We provide on-demand access to professional workspaces, where users rent desks by the minute. We've started with Singapore and Hong Kong as our initial markets, with the intention to expand into other markets soon.
Raphael and I have been working remotely for most of the past 10 years. During the pandemic, all of our friends suddenly saw themselves thrown into a similar position and we've observed how they adapted. Many don't have a suitable home-office setup and while for most the pros of remote/hybrid work clearly outweigh the cons, having access to near-home desk space would solve the downsides of working from home for most.
We give users access to a wide range of professionally run workspaces in central business districts as well as in residential neighbourhoods. By giving users access to near-home workspaces, we give them an opportunity to work for a few hours and not waste precious time on commuting. We also have locations close to schools, shopping centers, and other places where our users need to go throughout the week.
There is no need for a membership, upfront payments, or long-term commitments. Access works similar to ride hailing: location-based and instant. A user scans the QR code of the app at the reception to start the session and scans the code again to check out. We charge at checkout for the duration of the work session; the maximum charge per day is capped at the rate of a day pass at the specific location. Our customers consist of companies who provide Deskimo accounts for employees, and individual users who prefer our flexibility over the cost and commitment of a coworking membership.
Many of your workspaces look like fairly standard hotel / restaurant lounges. This is in contrast to WeWork that builds more conventional office spaces.
Do you plan to build/rent more traditional/conventional offices?
I personally cannot imagine a room packed with professionals at different companies on lounge-chairs and sitting around tiny tables. However, I might not be have a good understanding of Singapore/HK culture.
We actually work only with professionally managed workspaces, meaning offices like WeWork (resp. their competitors). We have added 2-3 spaces which we call "alternative workspaces" that are close to residential areas to have a better coverage. There is for example the Furama Hotel in Singapore, which has converted a part of their event space into a co-working space. This space is open 24/7h (as it's a hotel), co-working spaces tend to close at 8 or 9pm and many of them are not accessible on Sundays, which is not ideal.
Do you feel this goes against the ideas of coworking spaces and building community where you work? Even local coffee shops can have communities, but this idea seems to want to get away from that.
We believe we actually enable the community aspect within each workspace but also within each company we work with.
We are an additional distribution channel for our space partners. For our business clients, we are a new way to enable their workforce to be more productive while saving overheads on their fixed leases.
How do you feel the minutely model enables community building versus longer term investment into being a part of a community? I get the transactional appeal, that's clear.
We actually bring a more diverse crowd of users to our partner spaces. So we increase their audience size.
Our users spend on average 3-4 hours at a space during their visit.
The linked Wikipedia article [1] states that there are three cultural groups and all of them have individuals who consider “Eskimo” somewhat to rather to very offensive.
As someone also living in Canada, we unfortunately have a vocal minority that wants to feign offence at anything it can find to criticize. Ignore them.
Thanks for raising this.
In our target markets (SG, HK, Asia) this has not been an issue as majority of people are not aware of this.
But we will take this into account as we expand down the road.
Raphael and I have been working remotely for most of the past 10 years. During the pandemic, all of our friends suddenly saw themselves thrown into a similar position and we've observed how they adapted. Many don't have a suitable home-office setup and while for most the pros of remote/hybrid work clearly outweigh the cons, having access to near-home desk space would solve the downsides of working from home for most.
We give users access to a wide range of professionally run workspaces in central business districts as well as in residential neighbourhoods. By giving users access to near-home workspaces, we give them an opportunity to work for a few hours and not waste precious time on commuting. We also have locations close to schools, shopping centers, and other places where our users need to go throughout the week.
There is no need for a membership, upfront payments, or long-term commitments. Access works similar to ride hailing: location-based and instant. A user scans the QR code of the app at the reception to start the session and scans the code again to check out. We charge at checkout for the duration of the work session; the maximum charge per day is capped at the rate of a day pass at the specific location. Our customers consist of companies who provide Deskimo accounts for employees, and individual users who prefer our flexibility over the cost and commitment of a coworking membership.