Sponsored

Interview Edition: Isabelle Richard

Published on:

In today's interview we want you to meet Isabelle Richard - the founder of Talent Flow Coworking. Learn about her biggest challenges, visions and future plans!

When I first met her at, perhaps, one of the coolest co-working spaces in Vienna, I was very inspired by the story of this business woman. After a couple of meetings StartUs and Talent Flow Coworking became partners and we are happy to publish our interview now. Meet Isabelle Richard, the Founder of Talent Flow!

Isabelle, tell us a little bit about yourself.

I studied at a business school in France and an additional year at HEC, a specialized business school, in a special program for startups in 1997. I set up my first company when I was 28 (1996), it was an industrial design and graphic consultancy firm acting in Hong Kong and China providing services to consumer goods manufacturers. With no bank support, I developed the company so that at some point it employed 20 people.

In 2006 I moved to Austria for personal reasons, learned German, and 18 months later I set up a real estate agency. Very soon, I had specialized in Luxury Real Estate. However, I found that running the business was difficult in terms of creativity, networking and self-development. So I wasn’t feeling very happy about it.

And why did you decide to create a co-working space?

Because in the end, what makes me happy is to be with entrepreneurs. I am passionate about entrepreneurship and I want to be a part of this movement and support it. I am conscious that our world is changing and the spread of co-working spaces are a part of this change.

People have to keep updated about new technologies, social media, online marketing tools etc. Single people businesses and startups have to be in a community to get all this information. Staying at home or working in a closed office cannot ensure that you are up-to-date and sustainable anymore. I also understand how it is to start a company for foreigners from my own experience and I believe co-working spaces should make it easier.

In what ways is your space different from other co-working spaces?

Talent Flow is almost situated in the very center of Vienna and is empowering synergies between people from different cultures and backgrounds, sparking new ideas, synergies and businesses. In a worldwide market, it is extremely important to experience and understand the business ethics of different cultures, to create synergies in order to succeed globally. We are promoting this diversity and for this reason we are approaching incubators and mentors, both locally and overseas. I am also planning to approach large companies which could benefit from those exchanges in terms of creativity, transfer of knowledge and technology. Furthermore, we are working on new workshop concepts which would be aimed at giving young people a whole bunch of tools and necessary knowledge to start their own business.

What do you think makes your space special?

I wanted to mix cultures here, because I believe that diversity is a great value. People are actually spending 10 to 12 hours a day in the space, so I wanted to create an amazing atmosphere having taken care about every single piece of its design. I have created various environments in order that everyone whatever he is coming from can feel like home. High quality furniture, a great environment consisting of a mix of work zones, zones for relaxing and playing, plus a lounge that ensures a constant flow of ideas – this is also where the name, Talent Flow, comes from.

What is your biggest challenge?

I’ve sold my house to start this project and invested my own money. I have already worked 1 year full-time to prepare the launch of this project and I am not planning to reverse me a salary until 2017. I also did not want to get investors until the first space was ready and the full concept including the Corporate Incubator program was finalized. We will search for investors in a second step to empower the concept and duplicate it.

Sounds very ambitious. So, where do you see your space in 5 – 10 years?

I want to open more spaces in Austria with my future partners and my landlord (the Austrian Post) and in other foreign markets. I am actually also working on a new concept of an incubator for corporate startups to empower and accelerate innovation of large firms with their internal resources, but I will let you know about this program in the next weeks when it is ready.

I also see my mission in simplifying the long lasting process of how unemployed people become entrepreneurs which is actually the case. The creative workforce is changing rapidly toward micro-businesses and independent workers. My vision for my places is to provide some of the infrastructure supporting a well-organized cluster of extremely agile people and companies that’ll be able to find a solution to pretty much any need out there. I think being able to do that is the DNA and, hence, the real value of the co-working and entrepreneurship movement.

Well, that’s a great vision. We wish you the best of luck for your projects and again, thank you for the interview!

________________

Sharing is caring so please share this post. Thank you!