Ignacio and Miguel are a long-time micropreneurs and digital nomads, working and traveling around the world. For the last few weeks they have been working from RiHub coworking space.
They will be speakers on Freelancers Meetup about How to open and run a e-Company, on Friday 22ndNovember, 17:30 at RiHub. Looking forward to the Meetup they have shared some ideas, thoughts and experiences on e-companies and coworking.
What would you say that are the benefits of working as digital nomads?
IGNACIO: Well, it is an overall thing, you can find and meet new people that share some common interest, you have an opportunity to explore new ideas with different perspectives and you get to know what others are doing, what are the other perspectives of being an entrepreneur.
MIGUEL: It’s providing us with an opportunity to constantly find new places where we can concentrate and focus. One of the main factor is good coworking places.
What is your experience so far with coworking spaces? What are the best coworking spaces you have found?
MIGUEL: We have been in a lot of different coworking places. I value the environment, the silence and the quality of the place. One of my favorites is one in the Kuching, Borneo. It is called iCube Innovation. It was very modern, many people were working there so you could talk with a lot of people; have a variety of networking encounters. We were so welcomed there. The owner invited us to drink a beer and to eat. He was very generous and friendly. We were feeling like at home. The other one was in Bali, in a Hustler villa. It was a super tiny coworking space with a swimming pool, you can imagine that it was an amazing experience and not something you can find in a coworking space. They also had a cat there which you can pet while working. This two were my favorite.
IGNACIO: Definitely Rihub is in my top 3 list, the place is amazing. We’ve been in all kind of coworking spaces, some of them overhyped like Hubud in Balli, a space where monkeys can come and steal your laptop, and you pay 300 euros a month for that. The main elements of coworking space are silence, the space, good coffee and good networking. Well, anda a good WiFI also.
Are there different essentials, different coworkers from other professions, who have different necessities from the space?
IGNACIO: Depending on the area where are you developing your idea, there are people for whom the connections are more important than the working part or the conditions. For example, startups might need a kitchen and a meeting room where they can talk, brainstorm and exchange ideas among them and with other coworkers. Actually, the importance is the mixture of everything…
MIGUEL: …for example in Bali the networking part is the most important for the people who go there, they want to get to know people and network, and also co-live together. Some of the places there provide coworkers with the whole experience – a coworking and a co-living space. You have rooms there, communal areas and a coworking space, so everything is covered. I haven’t been or seen a coworking and a co-living space in Europe. It might be that we in Europe value the working part, the professional part a bit more important than the meeting people part.
What will you present to coworkers and citizens of Rijeka this Friday? What knowledge would you like to transmit?
IGNACIO: One of our major point is going to be about having an e-Company and about something that changes your life as entrepreneurs, which is the e-Residency programme of Estonia. The programme allows you to open a company in a country we never visited before and it gave us wings to run our lives remotely, like digital nomads, it was such a game changer for us and we decided to help other entrepreneurs and promote this amazing program.
MIGUEL: We will like to encourage the people to travel, it is a great way of finding new ideas, of starting a new business. Different startup are trying new things, for example in the Baltics many startups are doing cryptocurrencies, this is a huge thing right know… You talk with the people there and then you get many ideas, innovative ideas on that topic, but it is so specific. You need to visit other places to get these ideas and get exposed to new communities.
How was your experience in RiHub so far?
IGNACIO: I came to Rijeka few weeks ago and I found this amazing place RiHub and I will encourage everyone to come here and visit this place. It is amazing and it will allow you to know the local startup environment and the community of Rijeka and get exposed to new ideas and new ways of looking at things. I definitely recommend you this place, it’s big, coworking space is silent and there is plenty of space to work. Also, there is a huge thing I was amazed about – RiHub coworking is free. I’ve never seen a coworking space like this one – the coffee is very good and cheap, there is a strong WiFi connection and you can always meet someone and roam around the space to find the best position for whatever you are doing.
