“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
– Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
There’s a lot more to tell about Locus’s history. It’s expansion to a second space at Krakovská, then to a separate location at Slezká, near bankruptcy as a result of that second expansion originally not being successful, followed by the decision to close the original space because of both an unforeseen bad decision and an unforeseen bad landlady, and finally my decision to try to sell the coworking business at the peak of coworking hype when WeWork was valued at $70 Billion. I wasn’t selling to get rich: I just didn’t see a path to growth that wouldn’t keep me working as a full-time office and community manager without giving up on my ideal kind of coworking space.
It just happened to be an ideal time to exit the coworking industry. I believed exiting well required Locus to be able to run without me. I moved to Ireland for a year. It was the same year COVID hit. WeWork nearly went bankrupt. Excitement about the coworking industry died. I came back to Prague still determined to sell, but suddenly at the worst possible time. Going into details about these events would be far too much for a blog post about Locus’s origin and how it got to where it is today. Instead, I’ll focus on how Locus has changed since Mathias took over as the new owner, towards the end of 2020.
I was extremely lucky that Mathias ended up buying Locus. Another person had made an offer and I had accepted it. We spent about a half a year before she pulled out. I was both relieved (because it became increasingly clear she would not be the right person for the job) and heartbroken (because it seemed very likely Locus would simply close). Mathias had already been a long-time Locus member. He knew how the space worked, and he knew why he liked it and what he could change about it for the better. He has skills that I don’t have and good judgment and a disposition that I don’t have often enough. Locus is a far better coworking space than when I left it.
But it is far better in large part because it retained essentially all the good things it had before I left it, while improving everything that wasn’t good (or that could be better). In that sense, it fits that famous opening line from Anna Karenina above. It is a great deal like older versions of Locus, but only in the ways that made those older versions “a happy family.” I’m sure there are many things that can still be improved (I imagine every caring business owner is constantly aware of a never-ending list of things that could be improved). But as far as I can see, most of the changes have just been in directions that makes Locus a happier family, and that I imagine are common to similar, successful coworking spaces that seek a meaningful, strong sense of community and a great place for productive work.
So what has improved or changed, from my perspective, since Mathias took over?
- The basics: Mathias is a professional marketer. One of Locus’s biggest weaknesses was that I didn’t have the skill or internal motivation to market as well as Locus should have been marketed;
- Speaking of disposition: Mathias is quieter, more low key, less impulsive than I am, all of which makes for a more easy going and reliable place to work;
- An amazing community manager. Eva is Locus’s longest-running non-owner community manager (probably by a couple of years). She was working at Locus not long before Mathias bought the space, and she is still here. That stability has been key.
- A more explicit, intentional focus on expats and digital nomads. Whether by design or the same kind of convenience that led me to focus less on Czechs than I otherwise might have (as described above), Mathias has embraced the “English-language” expat focus. In my opinion, that has had a positive impact on the bottom-up strength of the community. There is still a large Czech membership base, but the two groups (Czech and non-Czech) are a more coherent group than they ever were when I ran Locus and tried to attract non-English speaking Czechs.
- Better facilitation of bottom-up community management. In part this change is due to the previous points just listed. Although I was always committed to creating a strong sense of community, and I think Locus pulled it off better than most coworking spaces, I was always aware of my partial failure. I wanted the community to grow from the bottom up (and I think most members wanted that, too), but I just couldn’t let go enough to really encourage community managers or other members to take the lead. Eva and Mathias have done things I could not figure out how to do. The group of current members are amazing in their contribution to Locus and to what makes it a special coworking space. That is a rare achievement that Locus (and Mathias and Eva and Locus’s members) should recognize and give themselves credit for. And it has made Locus a stand-out global coworking space.
I still work from Locus on a regular basis. I am full of thanks on its 15th anniversary to know that “my baby” is still here, and that it has grown into something better than when it left my hands.