Distributed teams in coworking spaces: the perfect match?

Joao Simoes is the co-founder of IDEA Spaces, a Lisbon based coworking operator which started its activities in 2014 within a 400 sqm space. Six years later, IDEA Spaces is soon to open a third location, cumulating a total of 10.000 sqm surface under coworking management. Joao Simoes talks about how Lisbon changed in the recent past years and how international companies are looking more and more to have distributed teams in coworking spaces like IDEA Spaces making the most out of the flexible solutions they offer.

Main takeaways

The highlights from our conversation with Joao Simoes are summarised below:

• “We are a community, this is our philosophy since day 1“, affirms Joao.
• The strategy initiated in the early 2010’s to make Lisbon a magnet for tech and foreign talents clearly delivered: “Lisbon has changed a lot. The quality of life, the cost of living, the culture, the food, the climate… has transformed Portugal into a great place to gather teams for international scaling up tech companies looking for talents“
• It’s easier for a Finnish startup to open a brand in Portugal to lure qualified foreign developers or marketing experts than to make them move to Helsinki: “From that perspective, coworking spaces like ours are perfect as they bring the team directly into the local community and ecosystem while allowing them to scale up rapidly”; explains Joao Simoes.
• Work on the community and networking are critical for Joao Simoes and his IDEA Spaces.
• Despite the Covid-19 situation, Joao seems optimist: “We expect growth from September on after the summer break but we also think there will be a transition period until the end of they year”

Watch the full video conversation with Joao Simoes below.

Find more insightful interviews about the coworking and flexible workspace sector in the Magazine section.