Zsofi Toth is the “Navigator” at Puzl Coworking, a Bulgarian based coworking operator with a community of more than 600 members. She is also the co-founder of the Budapest office. Puzl Coworking is working in opening new locations in Hungary and Romania with a model based on the reconversion of C Class Buildings and old factories into cool coworking spaces and communities with a focus on digital industries. Find out more in this interview with Zsofi.

Main takeaways

The highlights from our conversation with Zsofi Toth are summarised below:

• The company initially was offering IT services. As it struggled to find a proper location, Puzl decided to create its own environment, seizing the opportunity of an old industrial compound inherited from communist times in Sofia.
• This C Class old concrete building, home of a sewing factory decades back, was chosen to put in place a new coworking concept.
• Five years later, the Puzl Coworking community hosts more than 600 members spread between two refurbished and renovated buildings.
• Puzl Coworking chose to position itself as the digital ecosystem in Bulgaria. Most of the individuals, companies and startups working form there are from the IT sector and digital space.
• Through that experience, Puzl managed to build an expertise in revitalising and repurposing of old-fashioned or old industrial C Class buildings.
• Puzl now has its own architectural studio in house. They design the interior, the kitchen, lounge area or even the furniture, explains Zsofi Toth, who also supervises the Puzl Coworking expansion in Hungary.
• “Puzl is now looking to grow in Hungary and in Romania too”. Zsofi can’t tell yet when new locations will open, although finding appropriate C Class Building remains Puzl’s touch and approach.
• The company is now also addressing bigger team needs and scale-ups. They recently signed a contract to host a 150+ big company: “For the last 2 years, corporates have been showing a more open mind towards joining and coming into coworking spaces with strong communities such as Puzl. The trend is there. A growing number is not in need of a premium office suite in an A class facility to accommodate their needs and some will be happy to engage with other styles and players. They also look more and more for flexibility. This is clear”, affirms Zsofi Toth.
• “Coworking has been hit very quick and hard by the Covid-19 crisis. There has been a need for us to innovate and diversify rapidly. We have been accelerating the development of open offices for bigger teams”.

Watch the full video conversation with Zsofi Toth below.