Coworking Bansko v2.0 — A look at the bright future, even without transitioning into a COOP

by Matthias Zeitler

Mid-2018 Uwe and I wanted to involve the community more into the space operations and give them ownership via a coop structure to grow Bansko to the next level together. All details here and here.

Basic idea: Instead of just two people running the space and making decisions, we would have 35 coop shareholders owning the space together, therefore multiplying our ability to grow.

Unfortunately, at this point, we have to admit failure. Even though 24 people committed to the idea of volunteering their time and paid a joining fee for this new coop structure, it will not be possible to operate the space in this way.

From my point of view, the main reason why we failed, despite everyone being highly motivated, is that the coop members were not able to take consistent ownership of critical business tasks. Most are already too busy with their own business and couldn’t carve enough time out for the coop.

Or maybe everyone expected way less hands-on involvement when they signed up for the coop idea.

Or maybe the whole situation is different from when Uwe and I started the space. Initially, there were was nothing in Bansko and we wanted to have interesting people around us when we decided to set up our base here. To build this community we happily put in the required hours to make it happen — no matter what.

Now that the community exists and grows, it might be less urgent for the coopers to take action to ensure the long-term viability. Without the personal time commitment from all the owners, the community would stagnate or even decline instead of growing.

The first signs of trouble were becoming visible after the first few months of the transitioning phase when a lot of the tasks didn’t get done, despite the fact that some coopers started some activities like documenting processes and everyone was highly engaged in discussions.

Even simple business activities like a 5-day marketing push, where every cooper would spend less than 30 minutes total on super easy marketing tasks to help to fill the space in April produced disappointing engagement with only a few coopers doing the pushing.

Maybe the lack of leadership and activities came from the fact that everyone would only own a very small part of the coop if we split ownership among 35 people.

It doesn’t make sense to transition the ownership if Uwe and I would have to commit the same amount of time in the future to run the space but with a much lower ownership stake and more overhead to coordinate. Basically the opposite of what the coop structure was intended to accomplish.

However, the coop experiment has also surfaced what tasks our community is happy to take on and what we can do in the future to give more governance impact to the community without changing the ownership structure of the space.

1) The Business of Coworking Bansko

For the moment there will be no change in ownership but we are open to change shareholders in the future. But instead of a social impact coop structure, it seems that a for-profit corporation would be a better choice: maybe one of us buys out the other, maybe we add a small number of additional shareholders or maybe a larger coworking brand will acquire the space.
Most important consideration for us: How to maintain the current culture while growing to the next level.

2) Growing the Ecosystem and Joint Projects

Some members have expressed ideas that would leverage the growing nomad community in Bansko to build something that benefits them but also the whole ecosystem in Bansko. Examples are a coliving house, a car-sharing program, a nomad incubator, a nomad academy, running nomad retreats, an umbrella agency, a business park, a maker space, a coworking consultancy, a virtual marketing agency, etc.

These projects are independent of the coworking space and members can decide freely about who else should be part of them. If help is desired from the coworking space then there can be a formal or informal partnership agreement.

We can help with matchmaking for these type of opportunities and then also promote through our channels.

3) Our Coworking Community

Our coworking members are contributing to the community in a variety of ways if they see a direct benefit or social reward.
Examples are skill sharing presentations, social happenings, offering rideshares, keeping the space tidy, acting as ambassadors and welcoming new members.

In addition, there are some members that have special interests where they are willing to invest more time or money to make them happen. These special interests also benefit the community as a whole. Past examples of this are: Buying a slackline for the space, helping with organizing a weekend event, shoveling snow, donating a sound system for movie nights, gifting board games, organizing weekend trips, blogging about Bansko, etc.

After we told our coopers about stopping the coop transformation, a lot of them have decided to donate their €150 coop joining fee to the garden project budget instead of getting reimbursed. And then to work together in the garden itself removing trash and planting it. I am not sure how many other spaces have this type of hands-on support from their members, but I love that energy!

This community engagement and the abundance mindset that generates this generosity is a major aspect of our space and we envision no changes, even though it will be harder to create the same depth of relationships when the community size increases. But we have this concept of multiple smaller locations that are all part of the big Bansko family experience to maximize our Dunbar number.

3) New Idea: Elders of Coworking Bansko

Long-term members that made Bansko their base should have a bigger impact on the governance of the space.

I see three activities where the Elders could add value:

1) As an advisory board that has an online group as well as an annual meeting to impact some decision making.

2) As an arbitration panel that would handle member disputes and code of conduct issues. Doesn’t happen often, but better if Uwe and I are not the judge, jury and executioner all-in-one.

3) As a group of the stewards of our community culture and ambassadors for the space on top of what “normal” members do.

Elders would receive some status and tangible benefits along the line of the discussed cooper benefits (e.g. free add-ons) based on their tenure.

Unlike the coop structure the elder will not make an equity investment to align their interests with the business, but being a member for at least 6 months during the last 12 months shows a commitment to the space and ensures a sufficiently long-term view.

4) New Idea: Partners and Commissions

In the past, we didn’t capture most of the value that our destination marketing brings to Bansko and we made free referrals to local businesses. In the future, we will have preferred partners for some services that our members frequently require as part of their time in Bansko. These partners will get preferential marketing access to our community (posts in the public Facebook group, mentions in guides/online, on-boarding, etc) in exchange for a fair referral commission or advertising fee.
This concerns partners like rental accommodation, real estate brokers, legal, accounting and transfers.

6) New Idea: “Friends of Coworking Bansko” Investors

Future investments, especially to acquire real estate, could be financed through the community instead of/in addition to shareholder contributions or bank loans.

At the moment we do not see the right opportunity to acquire an object that would be a good choice compared to our current leased properties, but this could change in the future.

As servicing the loan would be done through saved rental costs there is a limited risk to these friendly investors.
But taking on loans also only makes sense when there is a clear financial benefit to the coworking space. For nice to have projects like e.g. a mountain cabin, this is less clear and would only increase costs.

Overall

I am happy that we started the coop and a little bit of failure is a good sign that our dreams are big enough. So let’s keep dreaming and set ambitous goals for Bansko together with our members.