What’s your take on creating this? You views are highly valued.
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Build it first. & Let’s see if they will come.
Thanks for your reply bro, but how do I do a kind of survey, to collect feedback and see if it actually fills a nee.
That Cchub and other hubs around Lagos are working should mean something. I think there will be demand. The supply side is what I don’t know of.
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Thanks bro, I really appreciate.
- It’s a good idea
- There is a market for this. I started off in a co-working space, worked out of the CcHub for one year. Rents terms in Nigeria (cost and duration) defy commonsense, and are out of the reach of most startups.
The real question is: are you the right person to solve this problem? This is not one of those things you can build a website and hope people sign up. Do you own property? Do you know people that own property? If you released the service tomorrow, how many properties will you be able to list? Or will you try and figure out the chicken and egg problem after launch?
I’ve seen a ton of Nigerian startup ideas die because they were too lazy to figure out content liquidity on both sides of the equation, the supply and demand side. In this case, people who have extra space in their offices they wouldn’t mind subletting, and people who are looking for space to rent short term (cheap need not be the value proposition here). If only they’d spent a couple more weeks just identifying and talking to these people, they’d have been golden. But we like gra gra.
I’m sure I’ve said this somewhere here before. Wait, I did! I called it Officebnb.
5 Likes
That’s a terrible reply.
Create it first and then hope customers would show up?
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Thanks for the reply bro, me I’m facing the-same office space issue, but the thing is that I’m not currently in Lagos but what approach do you think one should use in solving this problem?
Yes, I’ll be willing to share an office with a “stranger” - at least temporarily. That’s the whole point of co-working spaces 
However, as @lordbanks stated, this is one of those problems where just building a platform won’t suffice. To me, building the website/app is the easiest piece of the puzzle. Anyone can . So, before you attempt to build the full platform, get enough companies in the major cities (you can start with Lagos for obvious reasons) that are willing to rent out a desk or two. While at that, you may have a splash page where interested startup founders or professionals can indicate interest. This ensures you have already have a waiting list of people who are also willing to rent the desks.
Ask the property owners themselves, not what “we” think. So, to make things a bit easier, list 20 friends (as in people who can vouch for you) that work in a small business in Lagos. Ask them for intros to their CEO or at least HR. Then ask if they’ll be willing to rent out desks.
You may checkout the following platform solving the same problem and learn one or two things from their model.
http://www.regus.com.ng/
https://www.pivotdesk.com/
https://hubblehq.com/
https://www.sharedesk.net/
All the best
2 Likes
Thank you so much I really appreciate.
Definitely worth experimenting, but you’ve heard from some of the Greats in here…
You need a property or work with a property owner to make this happen. The whole idea of Startups going LEAN is down co-creation, co-working or co-habitation (call it what you want)
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There is a friend I know who is doing a lot of work in this respect too. He’s got great office spaces in Maryland and Lekki Peninsular area of Lagos. He is into Virtual Offices, Conventional office space, Co-working offices spaces, Work-stations and Boardroom/events platforms.
He is setting up two informative, rather e-commerce platforms to take the market out there since analytical data and statistical reviews gathered in the past 3 years of the business seems to be promising. I am of the opinion you can learn from him because he has been into it for over 3 years now. He is just trying to create a web presence testing and bootstrapping through WordPress CMS platforms.
Below are two of his efforts that are still in “Trial/testing mode”;
www.silverlinks.com.ng
www.workbay.com.ng
His contacts are also on the site if you need to arrange a meeting with him…
There is a friend I know who is doing a lot of work in this respect too. He’s got great office spaces in Maryland and Lekki Peninsular area of Lagos. He is into Virtual Offices, Conventional office space, Co-working offices spaces, Work-stations and Boardroom/events platforms.
He is setting up two informative, rather e-commerce platforms to take the market out there since analytical data and statistical reviews gathered in the past 3 years of the business seems to be promising. I am of the opinion you can learn from him because he has been into it for over 3 years now. He is just trying to create a web presence testing and bootstrapping through WordPress CMS platforms.
Below are two of his efforts that are still in “Trial/testing mode”;
www.silverlinks.com.ng
www.workbay.com.ng
His contacts are also on the site if you need to arrange a meeting with him…
There is a friend I know who is doing a lot of work in this respect too. He’s got great office spaces in Maryland and Lekki Peninsular area of Lagos. He is into Virtual Offices, Conventional office space, Co-working offices spaces, Work-stations and Boardroom/events platforms.
He is setting up two informative, rather e-commerce platforms to take the market out there since analytical data and statistical reviews gathered in the past 3 years of the business seems to be promising. He has been into it for over 3 years now. He is just trying to create a web presence testing and bootstrapping through WordPress CMS platforms.
Below are two of his efforts that are still in “Trial/testing mode”;
www.silverlinks.com.ng
www.workbay.com.ng
His contacts are also on the site if you need to arrange a meeting with him…
As mentioned by earleir, you have to get your logistics right, it goes beyond having an online presence, but instead get the market ready. let people be aware of it, see if it is what office owners are ready to do and get there T&Cs, this will really help you to know where to focus on more. no doubt there are lots of start-ups that are looking for office space but it will be better if you get to know the T&C of office owners. Brother, you are gradually becoming a care-taker and estate agent or better put office-agent 
By the way, if there is anyone interested in sharing office for a team of 5,
I am interested.
Thanks all very much, I appreciate.