Our 'We Don't Do Lonely Day' October in partnership with AndCo

The To Do List
Written By Guest User

We all know that one of the hardest things about freelancing and being self-employed is the loneliness of working solo or from home. The flexibility to shape our own days, wear what we like and choose what we work on is brilliant. But sometimes, just sometimes, we crave that chat around the kettle, that impromptu brainstorm over lunch and a chat with someone other than our cat.

At The Doers we want to do our bit to quash those feelings of loneliness with our series of ‘We Don’t Do Lonely’ days - a chance for freelancers, small business owners and self-employed folk to all get together. It’s a great opportunity to simply work with other people or to bounce ideas around if you’re feeling a bit stuck.

AndCo is a super flexible hot-desking company that allows you to work from the best hotels, bars and restaurants in 90+ venues across London. For just £20 a month, or a super reasonable £99 a year, an AndCo membership allows you to book desks for unlimited hours where and when you need it. They also host weekly meet-ups, free workshops and have meeting rooms available throughout London.

We really like the sound of their recently launched AndCo Plus venues which offer free tea and coffee for their members on arrival, an AndCo Host to help you out with any questions and the wonderful AndCo community to hot-desk with. If this all sounds too good to be true, they have even offered our Doers community a special offer with two free months of membership when you use the code DOERS2FREE.

We wanted to find out more about AndCo and get their top tips for hot desking across London so let’s delve into a quick Q&A.

“AndCo only launched with five venues on the platform but we spoke to every member that was signing up. You learn the most when your idea is out in the market.”
— AndCo

AndCo was founded by Sanj Mahal in 2018. What sparked the idea?

We spent a while looking in to the growing demographic of remote workers and freelancers and found that workplace options for this type of workforce were pretty limited. The more people we spoke to, the more complaints we heard about the lack of convenient places to work in between meetings and on-the-go. WiFi and cafe culture was booming but there was no open source solution for co-working. Co-working spaces were popping up everywhere so we visited a few and found they looked identical to hotel lobbies, bars and restaurants. Why were people paying inflated prices for co-working or flexi spaces? This type of space already existed everywhere, and the majority were empty throughout the day, so we launched AndCo. 

How did you go about putting his idea into action?

A lot of research, user testing and building a confident team to execute a new way of thinking. We raised some money and got started, simple as that really. AndCo only launched with five venues on the platform but we spoke to every member that was signing up. You learn the most when your idea is out in the market.

What research did you carry out before launching?

The way we work was changing, and is changing as we speak. We conducted a deep dive in to behavioural changes within the workforce and the positive impact remote working was having on individuals and companies around the world. That coupled with around 18 months of research into the hospitality industry (downtime, space optimisation, revenue patterns), and identifying audience clusters, put us in good stead to launch. Everything in hospitality is converging.

AndCo works with a desktop and app which matches freelancers to empty spaces in London and Bristol. What technology is used to do this and did Sanj have experience of developing an app previously?

Previously coming from a finance background, Sanj caught the tech bug in 2016 when he raised a significant amount of funding for another start-up in the social media space. Bringing on an experienced CTO was important for AndCo to have the foresight to do things properly from day one we use ReactJS. Sanj loves the fact that innovation normally comes from outside of an industry so having a pair of fresh eyes and to not be limited by “the norm” pays dividends.

You install your own WiFi networks into the venues you work with. Why was this so important to the brand? 

A few reasons really…

  • It ensures a consistent login experience across all of our venues. The same login and password in all Andco venues

  • The AndCo network is secure, meaning no snooping and corporates with VPN settings can still access it

  • It’s also how our venues can control their bookings

What does AndCo’s current marketing set-up look like? 

AndCo has a small inhouse team that is bolstered by several freelancers on the social media strategy and a small East London digital marketing agency.

How have you engaged with the freelance community? Which marketing channels have worked best for you?

AndCo engages with the freelance community every single day through social media and various slack channels it is a part of. AndCo also runs weekly meetups and events in its venues. These are generally run by the community that want exposure on their individual brand or service they provide. Social media has consistently been a strong marketing channel for us and we do a lot of value exchange partnerships with communities or brands.

You launched in London and have a few venues in Bristol - why these two cities first and where are you planning to roll out to next?

London is a big arena for us, if we can crack London then the other cities around the UK will follow and we can tap in to Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh very quickly with our venue partners. Bristol was a small test for us and their growing tech community in “Silicon Gorge” is interesting. We have also identified several target cities across Europe. The model is easily applicable globally so scale is very easy.

“London is a big arena for us, if we can crack London then the other cities around the UK will follow and we can tap in to Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh very quickly with our venue partners.”

If you were going to hot desk from one of your London locations and you were in the following moods, which location would you go to:

What top tips do you have for anyone to make the most of hotdesking from an AndCo venue?

Once you’ve made a booking you can check out who else will be working from the same venue allowing you to connect with them while you are there. Keep your profile on AndCo updated by listing all of the things you can offer to the community…you never know where your next client or collaboration comes from. 

How AndCo works:

01: Find a space

Search their 90+ co-working spaces to find one that suits you

02: Book Your Desk

Avoid crushed coffee shops and guarantee your desk

03: Do Work Your Way

Log in to AndCo’s secure, high speed wifi and work away

Visit andco.life to find out more and sign-up with our special Doers code which will give you two free months of membership using code DOERS2FREE.

Guest User
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