How to start a startup without money: personal experience on the example of coworking in Thailand

This is not an ordinary success story about how I did a mega-successful project and cut money. Perhaps this article will change the life of some habrovchanin, give the magic Pendel the necessary impulse, or at least dispel the myth that for any project you first need a lot of money. Although a nuclear reactor is still without a lot of money, perhaps, not to build.

In the article I will share the experience of opening a rather unusual institution of a coworking hostel-anti-cafe in Phuket in Thailand in the format of a short story, and in the comments I am ready to answer any questions on the topic, Thailand and Phuket in particular.

Just a little background

In 2012, I was in the position of lead developer of a typical startup for laundering an investor bubble that successfully implemented an idea that, unfortunately, did not take root even now gone into non-existence. I lived within the third transport, went to work on foot, walked with the girls in the center of Moscow and could safely get home without a car or taxi after that.
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Once, in the icy winter season, shortly before my 27th birthday, I went home after a workout and noticed that there were no cars around for a long time, but the air was just as disgusting as it was during the day. I felt dust particles through my nose, throat, and even light ones. During the day it could be attributed to cars, but at night they are not around.

A couple of years before that, I had already noticed that in Moscow I could not find a single place in the open air where it would be really quiet, like in a normal forest. Even in the very center of Losiny Island (bunkers not to offer).

Oh nafig, not for that I live to die in 50-60 years from cancer or stroke. In general, in a couple of minutes I decided that I would soon leave the Motherland, since I had to receive a passport shortly after my birthday.

But why so radical?

At that time, the level of dissatisfaction with the government in the country was quite high and I was firmly convinced that the standard of living and happiness in Russia was relatively low. As it turned out later, the first one somehow pulls at C grade, but with the second in this country, it is slightly worse than absolutely bad.

Working remotely you can live in significantly better conditions, even earning 2 times less than in Russia, and much in our country is not at all (for example, cheap and high-quality housing, warm sea all year round, tasty watermelons, mango and papaya at reasonable prices and much more).

Then I thought "in the worst case, I can always return to Russia . " Now I think "But why?"

How did I choose a country for expatriation?

I read a bit of the forums and then a colleague who traveled quite a lot gave me some advice.

I chose between Bali, Thailand, Bulgaria, and the countries of the Caribbean; now the Philippines, Vietnam, Chile, China, South Korea, and Brazil would add to consideration. Then I almost did not bother and thought that I could easily change the place in the future. In fact, in my case, this is not quite the case. In general, this is done easily. But Phuket’s choice was definitely a good one , even though it was somewhat random.

Well, well, and coworking something to do with it?

Thank you for your patience, dear lovers, from here it will be closer to the point.

Arriving in Phuket, I had to learn a scooter (which took 2 minutes already), and later I lived in an apartment with this view.


Beauty! But the thrill of impressions is to share them, and there was no one to share.

At that time, the anti-cafe boom was starting in Russia, and we often walked with them with the girls; there I met a lot of great people. In general, something like that was obviously not enough for me. Well, and the more so about any professional communication could not think. A month later, I decided that I would open my coworking anti-cafe with poker and courtesans .

What prevented?

My two problems were that I had neither business experience nor money.



At that time, I worked remotely in two projects and naively thought that I would save money from them. I will not load, why it did not work, in general, the idea did not roll. In general, the idea of ​​“accumulating and creating a dream project” is utopian. We can talk about this topic in the comments, if you want.

In the summer of the 13th, my close friend asked him to help out with money and at the same time the bank sent a text message (like most of you), which is ready to kindly give me a loan. Having estimated that there are no other options to quickly get money for renting a room, and unlike money , the resource is not recoverable , I took out a loan for 200 thousand rubles, of which about 150 remained after a loan to a friend. The problem is money for the next couple of months, thus, more or less it was resolved.

The captain evidently suggested that business experience as well as the experience of patching kde under fribsd can only be obtained in practice.

Start

We rented a modest house for 50+ thousand baht per month <sarcasm> and started our powerful promotional campaign </ sarcasm>.



In fact, almost any structure can be adapted for coworking - in Asia, I have seen many coworkings in residential buildings and even from bamboo! At the same time, oddly enough, often commercial real estate (at least in Tae) is poorly suited for co-working.

Depending on the scale, you can not even organize a reception, but what is really needed is a team of people who have the same institution's vision as you. For starters, you can find at least one employee, and in the future bring this number to the required level.

It quickly became clear that the anti-cafe in Phuket was practically not needed by anyone; everyone here has their own space for parties — their own house or apartment. Tourists were not considered, - in the mass, they are interested in where to drink, it is cheaper to rent prostitutes / transsexuals, see the sights and ride on the islands. In addition, they live in dumb tourist areas such as the Patong hole, which are far from normal places. There were a few tourist guys, who even worked in coworking, but this is more of an exception and he will find someone from the category who needs it.

Rake

My laziness and belief in the responsibility of people led to the fact that the space quickly became dirty and uncomfortable. At times, with varying degrees of success, it was possible to fight this, but on the whole, success was so-so until they hired a good cleaner.

We also had a bit worse officiality than nothing, so people who were not familiar with the anti-cafe format (and this was almost a little less than everyone) did not understand why and even to whom they had to pay for “coming to hang out with friends ".

After some time, I was suggested the idea of ​​settling people in our space. The idea turned out to be in demand. But an epic file was made - the price for housing was too low (because there was no money to make comfortable conditions, and it was a shame to take more for a mattress on the floor); -second, we attracted a bunch of people who belonged to space, to put it mildly, disgusting and not as intended.

Such is the psychology of people that the value of services and goods in the eyes of the majority is primarily determined not by objective evaluations, but by its value. Well, many in general in terms of the format were completely not our audience - they did not like to play games, the majority did not need co-working at all. It was necessary to immediately filter, but then every baht was counted and psychologically it was very difficult to do.

It so happened that our main audience was winterers from Russia, who are absolutely convinced that in the summer in Phuket "there is nothing to do and no season at all." The fact that the weather in summer is much nicer, fewer cars on the roads and even lower prices - many do not even believe it!

Subtotals

In terms of profit turned out complete garbage. The actual result is a zero balance, but with monthly payments on a loan of 9k rubles. Someone can now say, “well, and you are a fool - you just poured money into the pipe, you spent time, you are not fucked up with success, why write about it at all? Shame only .
He may be right. However, let’s go back a year ago and remember what I missed? Is it money? Not. Missing something interesting . Did I get it? Gosh, yes!

With all the unprofitability, I never had the thought that I did it for nothing - it was so cool.

In the month of May all the winterers flew away and we, emptying, curtailed our activities.

Phoenix Revival

Nevertheless, this was only the beginning, and not at all the end as one might think. When the bumps from the rake on his forehead were gone, then came the vision of what to do next.

Little reasoning

Any antikafe or coworking is held by regulars . It is they who create the feeling of life in this place, they are “theirs” here. In large cities, if we talk about anti-cafe, it is about 150-200 people who love the place (the real figure, insight from the director of anti-cafe RebelArtHouse in Moscow). Of course, each of them cannot walk every day, but a certain median of the frequency multiplied by this number gives the necessary result. Unfortunately, I don’t have an insight into an adult coworking with numbers, and in our example, even with one co-worker for 12 square meters of space, there is no longer a feeling of emptiness.

The problem is that Phuket has only about 12 thousand non-asocial expatriates who speak English or Russian of adequate age, and not all of them are freelancers. Most of them - rent, guides, winterers, young mothers; Of course, most of them are not interested in our format. In general, it is difficult to make a rave for a locale, it is like opening such a place in some Melenki.

The solution was to place in the same space those who like the idea, those who can communicate, be friends and work in such a place in a warm climate and by the sea. Thus, the required number of regulars can be reduced by an order of magnitude (12-15 people are already quite enough). Those. in essence, it is easy to attract such people who want to change their place of residence, but they are afraid that he will have no friends in another country and is generally scary .

Current state of affairs

Now we rented another space, smaller and already almost filled before the start of the season. I would say that there is not enough large space for events, as in the previous place, but otherwise everything is fine.

What did I get?

• The most important thing is the vision of what I want. If a year ago everything was foggy, now it is quite clear;
• Experience and knowledge;
• Many new interesting friends and acquaintances from around the world;
• They also have a lot of interesting things about other cities and countries;
• Fans of our institution, who add confidence that the idea is cool;
• Interesting pastime without leaving the "home";
• The opportunity at any time to roll on the sea;
• Warmly - mom no longer tells me "put on your hat!";
• True, now I always have to wear a helmet when riding a bike. Oh, this universal injustice;
• The cost of food / shelter / clothing decreased 3 times;
• I met my wife. Still, if I was not in Phuket, I would not meet her.

Of the minuses - the lack of money for any income immediately spent on improving the comfort of the institution. Although this is temporary and the boundaries are quite observable.

What are your plans?

Now one of the top priorities is to maximize comfort. We plan to purchase comfortable mattresses with beds, deliver air conditioners where there are none yet, and other trifles.

There is also an idea to provide those who are having difficulty with self-motivation, the “chief” service unique to coworking — the plan for the day / week is coordinated with the “chief” and he gives magic pendels. If there are those who consider this service potentially in demand - write in the comments, plz.

Some insights and generalizations

The cost items of such a place are reduced to rental housing (700-3000USD per month), the salary of cleaners (in any country, immediately look for a Filipina, about 300 USD per month), electricity costs (100-300 USD per month), Internet, and at the stage discoveries also on furniture (tables, chairs, beds, mattresses) (~ 300-500 USD for one potential customer one-time), household appliances (the most expensive are air conditioners) and if it is a complicated country also for registration (for example, in Thailand it’s about 4000 USD with all). If the country is not difficult, then you can register later. Property organization - Internet cafe and / or hostel.

There is no definite space requirement - this can be done in a house, in an office building, or at least put an awning. The main thing is to create an atmosphere. It all depends on sewed in your ass. Doing nothing - nothing happens, even in a posh place.

If suddenly someone wants to open a similar project, then the only thing that is really necessary is to want that very much. My desire to do this a year ago was very close to "I can not do it . " Declare the intention to your friends (give a social promise), feel free to ask questions and most importantly - act! I am pleased to help than I can in this case. Why? Because the idea is cool and IMHO to make such a format of institutions the norm all over the world is much more useful than being the only one that few people understand.

Such a place can be opened in Vietnam in Dalat, South Korea on Jeju, in the Philippines in Baguio or Panglao, in Penang in Malaysia. And it is only on the vskidku. A couple of months ago, I would add more Sevastopol, but because of what happens with the ruble, my hair stands on end, including on the head .

PS If someone is interested in learning how to run any project without money at all, I can write an article in the form of instructions. Web projects run so much easier.