251. Carl Sullivan, a Coworking OG on Sticking to your Knitting
Carl Sullivan’s coworking brand, Your Desk, is about to turn 11 years old (at the time of this recording). Carl was 24 when he started Your Desk. He was a builder and a house flipper who picked up on an office sharing trend that he saw happening at creative agencies and architecture firms. WeWork had just started its first location in Brooklyn when Carl opened Your Desk outside of Sydney, Australia.
Carl’s first location was 26 flex desks….today his model is 70% private space, 30% common space and he’s about to convert some team suites to one person offices.
After surviving COVID in an urban CBD, Carl and his team (which happens to consist of his talented interior designer mom and former house flipper dad), are ready to take more space in their building, continue to tweak their model, and work on optimizing their sales funnel.
IN THIS EPISODE, CARL AND I TALK ABOUT:
Carl’s coworking story - how he got into it.
Who do you serve and how has that evolved over time, esp. Post-COVID? (i.e., freelancers, small businesses, corporate employees)
Tell us your COVID story - it looks like you're down to one location - is that COVID-driven?
How many square feet/meters is your location?
What does your product mix look like (offices/meeting rooms/hot desks etc)
You work with your brother - how do you make working with family work?
What did your team look like at 3 locations?
Can you talk a little about scaling to 3 locations and how you funded expansion? I think the evolution from 1-3 is the hardest to fund and figure out how to scale since you start to need more centralized services like marketing and finance.
What are some creative ways that you attract and retain clients? I think I remember this right - you do custom design on offices to help with retention? I'd love to hear more about that.
What space management platform do you use?
What's the biggest driver of leads into the top of your sales funnel?
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective
Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:
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