WitWork – Dubai-based Startup taking you beyond Conventional Workspaces
Founded in March 2018 by Najee Syriani and Cynthia Helena Rif, WitWork is a coworking platform that enables its members to work ‘outside the box’ by unlocking dormant facilities across the towns and turning those into coworking and meeting spaces. Partner office spaces and auditoriums are available for meetings, community events and exclusive discounts and deals are also provided by WitWork.
Inception of WitWork
With the rise of digital nomads, work from home and office has become uninspiring and restrictive for people, especially for the new age freelancers and entrepreneurs. Moreover, the noisy cafes and expensive coworking spaces aren’t viable to satisfy the needs of an ever-changing workforce.
On the other side of the coin, most of the cafes and coffee houses are unable to utilise their spaces fully during regular office hours, and that’s where the founders of WitWork came to their core cognition of starting WitWork. The idea was to help these cafes idle spaces by partnering with them to ultimately create a sustainable alternative to building more real estate whilst supporting the F&B owners who are struggling to make ends meet.
Unique propositions
WitWork is an innovative and sustainable solution that addresses the need of professionals by partnering with struggling workspaces, cafes and venues. The biggest advantage of WitWork is its affordability and multiple options for customers and small businesses to choose from in accordance to their budget.
The startup kept the service free of cost initially as a testbed to assess user interest – eventually ascertained the user requirements and gigantic scope in the service. That’s where the WitWork decided to make the service paid.
Moreover, the availability across UAE and seamless user experience that lets one book a seat or venue with a few taps or clicks – makes WitWork an ideal solution.
Market Map
WitWork primarily targets 21 to 45 years of age-group that includes millennials, freelancers, startups and business travellers. The startup currently serves a user base of over 2,000 members across the UAE.
Growth Plans
WitWork aims to embrace the ever-changing present and the future of work and spearhead the transformation of life habits in the region, starting with the office first, then the larger equation of living, work and play. Which is why the startup has planned to launch a mobile application to make it even easier for professionals to utilise the synergy and to raise funds in order to boost expansion in the region.
Editor’s note
After coming across a number of people unable to bring their ideas to life due to the lack of budget for buying or renting out office space – it is not surprising to me that we have an unrecorded number of startups that find it difficult to scale due to the dearth collaborative work environment. A homely environment and working in pyjamas was a common desire among professionals and entrepreneurs a decade ago has actually lost its resonance today. A fast-paced and high-priced economy like UAE requires more of such affordable synergies like WitWork to ensure that small businesses and entrepreneurial passions won’t die in the time to come.
