Coworking Space Kolektif House Aims To “Build The Future Through A Community”

How would you describe Kolektif House in 50 or fewer words?

Kolektif House is a coworking space that provides a more creative, efficient and social work environment to freelancers, entrepreneurs, and companies all under one roof. We believe that everything is better together and have a passion to collaborate and create added value projects with some of the biggest companies in Turkey.

You describe Kolektif House as a space for passionate and collaborative people. Who are the people joining you?

We have a balanced mixture of startups, freelancers, boutique companies and more corporates like Isbank, Turktelekom and Accenture are joining and supporting our community.

We are making an effort to build the future through a community, a deeper approach to community building if you will. We believe that the most important parameters of a strong and flourishing community are interaction and positive synergies. With a high interaction rate, like ours, information in flowing organically amongst the members of a community both business-wise and socially.

Tell us a bit about the opportunities at Kolektif House – what can individuals and teams expect?

Kolektif has become the heart of the ecosystem in the past year by continuously creating new collaborations – every day. İş Bank, one of the biggest banks in Turkey, for example, invested in us three years ago to start the startup program “Workup”. Workup is designed to support innovative (tech) startups by ensuring they have everything they need to expand their business according to the needs of the phase they’re in. In return, İş Bank and other banks, that are a member of our community, learn about the startup ecosystem and lifestyle to bring a breath of fresh air to their companies; we call this Corporate Entrepreneurship.

Apart from the infrastructure needed to focus on their work, you also provide your members with a meditation room, yoga classes, and office massages. Why this extensive focus on wellbeing?

One of the biggest investments we can make is the investment in our members’ wellbeing hence we believe in a state of happiness. The more we spend on keeping the souls of our members in a positive state, the more peace we gain as a community. Moreover, breathing workshops, meditation sessions, and sound therapies contribute to a more relaxed work environment while also bringing the community together.

Currently, we are the home to 76 startups in two locations. We are thinking about opening another location sometime in the future and will be happy to accept new members then.

Which startups and entrepreneurs did Kolektif House house already?

All in all, our community consists of 435 companies with around 1300 members such as startups, creative agencies, freelancers, corporates, VCs, and angel investors. We’re proud of the different backgrounds our members have as it fosters synergies and makes us discover promising opportunities every day.

Among others, we’re very happy we shared our space with startups such as iyzico or mutlubiev and entrepreneurs like Ömer Erkmen and Can Ekinci.

As a Turkish startup organization, in what ways has the entrepreneurial landscape changed over the past year and what do you wish for in improving it?

Two of the most significant changes we noticed last year, was the improvement of grant mechanisms and the increased attention startups received in terms of investment. Although the volume of total investment growth is expected to be less than 10% by the end of 2017, the overall amount of transactions has improved. Bigger Turkish players also make an effort to raise funds and discover talents, which contributes to the number of Turkish startups expanding into other markets.

Our startup ecosystem is still growing, it will take some time to reach the likes of London or Berlin. Yet, we at Kolektif House believe that with a more global approach Turkey will convince more foreign investors as well as startups.

In what ways will you work on improving your space? What’s your vision?

We have the ambitious goal to become a green office space, reducing our footprints as a community. At Kolektiv House, we create and produce together but only consume what’s necessary. Soon, we hope to see other spaces following our example: creating shared areas that promotes innovation through communication to produce the best outcomes for everyone involved.

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