“HUBBA,” a one of a kind co-working space in Thailand
In Thailand, startup scene has grown up rapidly in recent years especially in Bangkok, and new co-working spaces are opening more and more. Among them, “HUBBA Thailand” gives off a sense of overwhelming presence. Since it’s opened in 2012, not only local startups but also nomad workers from overseas enjoy working at HUBBA.
I interviewed Poy Jaroenlerdjanya, who is a community curator of HUBBA.
Poy Jaroenlerdjanya, Community curator of HUBBA Thailand.
【Profile】
Poy Jaroenlerdjanya :
She studied education for five years at Chulalongkom University which is the oldest university in Thailand. She started working at HUBBA in September 2012. She is in charge of co-working management and community building.
First of all, please tell me about HUBBA.
HUBBA is a co-working space that forms a small start-up ecosystem in Bangkok and is also an integrated area of the city’s startup. We are not just a co-working space that only provides a workplace. Recently HUBBA co-hosted the event with local media and companies, for example we organized many workshops and conferences in the past 3 years (we do our own event and also collaborate with other organizations). Our goal is building a vibrant or Thailand’s tech startup ecosystem.
We formed two co-working facilities. The first one is a space for a small number of teams and freelancers. The other one equipped with a 3D printer and is for a large team and startup. Sometimes it’s used for a business workshop and event.
The workbench of Maker Zoo’s at HUBBA. Maker Zoo is a Thai IoT-based start-up.
Who is a founder of HUBBA?
It’s founded by Charoenphan brothers, Charle and Amarit. They founded it for startups and freelancers to be able to focus on their project. In order to open HUBBA, Charle referred to the startup ecosystem and co-working culture in Silicon Valley. At the time, most people in Thailand didn’t know what co-working space is and most startups and freelancers worked at their home or cafes as an office instead.
The bulletin board at the entrance of HUBBA. New member’s profile, office equipment rental and upcoming workshop information are posted here.
Please tell me what is the concept of HUBBA.
We operate HUBBA based in concept of “Power of The Sharing”. Our operation staff is called “ HUBBA crew”, and our main roles are to provide the comfortable workplace and to create a community, that is the most important thing for us.
Basically we operate the study groups for developers and designers, and workshops about business and language topics. Through these opportunities, our users make a communication each other and many collaborated projects were created here. I’m so glad to hear this movement.
The networking only for business is reasonable way of course, but we really hope that the great idea could be created more through meeting people naturally.
For example, people sometimes ask us how they can find the right business partner. We don’t do matching people directly because we believe that the truly trust won’t come from immediately. You get to know each other step by step . We, HUBBA want to help you to build a great relationship with your future business partner.
At the workshop “Coworking Blueprint”, Charle and Poy shared their know- how for the attendees who are trying to start a co-working space business.
Who are the majority of people using HUBBA?
60% are foreign users and 40% are Thai startups and freelancers. The foreign users from USA, Europe, Asia and Africa and they have knows us from the reviewed by the other users, or from our events and website.
What do you think about what people like the most about HUBBA?
HUBBA is totally different from any other co-working space in Thailand. In order to ties strong our community, we have the events regularly, like having a study session at least three times a week. The purpose of having these event is for sharing of our knowledge and skills each other. Of course we welcome anyone from anywhere even if you are not our members.
Our environment and atmosphere are popular also. The building is a townhouse style with two – story. Some people say they can relax here like at home. Also around the building there are a lot of green. You can work here at the outdoor terrace to refresh yourself!
Communal area at HUBBA. Every Wednesday, the “Power Lunch” event has been carried out at this terrace.
What’s definition of “collaboration” for you?
Recently, we held a workshop about how to manage the co-working space and how to make the community. Some attendee asked me “ why do you give a tip and share your knowledge with your competitors? ”. My answer to this are “sharing my knowledge has led to ultimately brush up my idea”, “It would be able to improve my idea that never ever hit in my mind”.
Of course, my ideas might be copied but if someone copy my idea and someone create better one more than I do, that means my effort was just not enough, I guess. In order to grow yourself, you should more open mind. And sharing your thoughts and knowledge with someone and listen to their opinion would be the best way to grow yourself and improve your idea, I think.
Poy is discussing about upcoming workshop with HUBBA crew.
What is the goal for HUBBA crew?
We, all HUBBA crew really appreciate our users to work at HUBBA and we want to be a “second home ” for them. We would be more than happy to help if they need. We always welcome the new people because they would inspire us teaching new things.
We would like to keep working hard and giving our energy to the users. If they think “ I wanna work at HUBBA tomorrow too!”, that’s the happiest thing for us.
HUBBA crew from their 3rd Anniversary event.