Office Club

Office Club started as early as in 2011 but our roots even go a bit further back. Over the years and surrounded by an extremely dynamic environment in Berlin, our idea of a neat, innovative coworking space has become a broad platform for the modern way of working and networking. Is was not only our physical environment’s dynamic that has spurred the development but also our industry’s. Coworking has come a long way from being a good solution for a chosen few to the global phenomenon it is today. Office Club is part of this phenomenon. Our primary target for the future, however, will remain to be the reliable partner to our members and clients, to satisfy their individual business needs and thereby actively enhancing their personal success stories. Here is for some more about the Club’s background and our values.

Hello Simon, hello Philipp! The two of you have founded Office Club. How did you come up with the idea?
Simon: We actually used to - and still are - doing online marketing and had nothing to do with the subject of coworking or office services in general. The idea to start something in this area came during a business trip to the US. The concept was very appealing to us and so we basically started planning as soon as we had returned to Berlin. Our approach was pretty simple: We had something on our hands that was not only very interesting but it also had the potential to solve some issues we had to work with ourselves on a daily basis.

Where did you start?
Philipp: We used to work from home and then switched to a business centre here in Berlin for some time. We quickly realized: This cannot be the perfect environment - neither for our company nor for us personally.

What was it that you missed? 
Philipp: Working from home we were missing a certain structure in our daily life and also a somewhat clear separation between our job and our private lives. Being a founder, you are tensed up most of the time and try your best to solve everything as soon as possible. It can help you to close an „office door“ behind you that does not happen to be your living room door at the same time. That was something that the business centre could provide but we were put off by the sterile ambience there. Especially for founders it can be of great importance to communicate directly and to be lulled by what is around you once in a while - at least in our experience.

At lot has happened around the subject of coworking since you founded Office Club. How did you experience it yourself?
Simon: That is right. We have seen some - positively - drastic development since 2010, when we started to work on our concept and when coworking was still in its infancy in Europe. One thing that illustrates this development to me is that nowadays a lot of people know the term and what it means right away. Some of them have made their own experiences with coworking or they have at least heard of it from colleagues or in the media. Some years ago we often tried to explain coworking as „like a classic shared office, just bigger and better“ to get the idea across. Well, the lines are quite blurry to be honest. Today we have a very dynamic coworking market where basically everyone finds a fitting coworking space for his/her purposes - whether they want a high-end design space or a community of artists. That’s what’s great about it!

What do you reckon, what will the next couple of years bring?Philipp: As a Berlin based company we realized pretty soon what enormous potential the whole coworking thing had - simply because we felt the demand from the very start. We had people walking past the construction site leaving business cards to „secure their desk“ before we even opened. For a lot of people it is a great thing to be able to choose their working environment freely. Great prospects for those who work decentrally and wish to stay flexible at the same time. We basically see several developments that all go in the same direction: More flexibility in our working world. With Office Club, we address this trend and try to make sure that we provide our coworkers with the best solutions.

What advice would you as founders give aspiring entrepreneurs?
Simon: „Talk to the people“! The most inspiring impulses for us as entrepreneurs came from personal discussions, direct contact and constant communication with like-minded people.