 Thank you. It's very exciting to be here. This is my second year in slash as usual fold of energy a lot of startups and I'm very excited and honored to be here I know you guys all most of you guys I want to learn something about being a startups a quick introduction myself. I Was before I started the V plus. I was at a private equity business I work for a US fund for quality capital. I was there for 12 years so before We plus all I do is investing private equity I Want to talk about a little bit about the evolution of the office space working environment? I think what prompts the change in our working environments is technology right technology is growing exponentially in the last 10 20 years and If you look at the world today is changing so quickly If you look at the history of Mankind we take about three four thousand years from architecture society Industry revolution takes 200 years Then we come into the information technology since the PC started, which is about 30 40 years ago We have mobile will have internet with mobile internet and today we live in the world of digital We encoded a digital society The key in this digital society as we see it is changing fast We talked about a lot of positive words today big data blockchains artificial intelligence What's the implications? What's the implication from our perspective is the future business world is the adventure Unknown a lot of things we see it as as a a daily life has completely changed if you look at Our mobile internet, I will say that's initiated by the introduction of iPhone, right? Which is only about 10 years ago. It completely changed the way we live the way we work the way we shop right and Most importantly if you look at Facebook Twitter, those are necessity of our life today 13 years ago. There's no Facebook 11 years ago. There's no Twitter so What what the future will bring to us? We don't know Because all we see is constantly the change How to survive in that world's real-time data, you know, we always talk about big data One of the key thing is flexibility if you are start-up What you need to think about is your business model Today versus your business model six months from now one years from now What will likely to happen to that business model? Are you? Are you flexible enough for change? It's your team flexible enough, right? Resilient agility, we don't need to talk about too much about it We all know learning capability learning from the industry learning from others. Those are the key things for you to survive Another big background, which is I'm not showing here is the coming age of sharing economies Kevin Kelly's One of this founder of wire magazine is said Today we increase value by sharing we share experience We share technology. We share our network. We share spaces again sharing economy is a new Phenomenal if you look at share we talk about share. I Would say eight years ago. You talk about share sharing is the only use when you go to a Chinese restaurant, right? Because we share this is But today everywhere you go we talk about sharing you talk about uber We're gonna talk about Airbnb the gentleman just left Technology has created disruption to our business. So as a start-up when you think about it What's your consideration when you select a working environment for your team when you have idea? We have one or two guys sitting together in Starbucks and whatever you put a type Your idea together you get some fun funding you get your angel fund now you want to start Where should you start? How do you consider finding your office space? What is a productive and working environment? I think some of the key considerations We have to look at Cost is important. How much you're willing to pay for your space? Second, I think it's most important thing flexibility again in a fast-change world flexibility is Very valuable Since I started we plus two and a half years ago now we have 55 space we currently have about 1500 Small to medium company from anywhere from three to 50 people Working in our platform In the last two and a half years. I see company go ups and down a lot of start-up came in Five people six people in three months time. They have increased the team to 20 30 six months later They have 60 people So that's something you need to think about and also I see some of the teams that came in with 50 people Three months later. They're down to 20 Because the environment change your idea change your business model change So flexibility is something you keep in mind when you are a start-up Do I want to invest a hundred thousand dollars hundred thousand euros to remodel my office? Which feed 10 20 people and knowingly if the business go well In six months time when you're getting that a round funding or your B round funding You will probably expand to 50 or 60 and Then you need to think about finding a new offices, right and The 100,000 euro that you invest in renovate up the space is sunk. It's a sunk cost and more important in giving the sharing economy Phenomenon networking Co-operations with other is very important So and then for consideration is whether you have access to other resource such as funds Fundings private equity funds VC funds Co-working is not new The first co-working that as I know it started in 1995, which is a hacker space a group of hacker get together In Berlin as they call them sea base. So a group of Very talented hackers in the new beginning the dawn of internet age. They get together They set up this space cause sea base, right? That's the first Co-working space there as we know In two over in Vienna That's the first regional Co-working space chain. They have more than 10 in that area. That's the first one We know that is working as a chain now individually Then in 2005 we have London the hub, which is the first international Co-working space space then of course in 2012 we have rework from the United States now. They are 220. They're $22 billion company So what is a co-working space? What did it give to you? If you look at that? receptions, events, coffee shops, kitchen, meeting rooms, office space You sometimes some of them have genes patios working genes Social area so a new working environment, I think I got the idea from Eric Smith, which is the founder for Google's a Productive working environment for innovative Society is an environment that encourage communications Encourage people get together from all thought of life Have some sort of bright idea let them have time left let them discuss Right, so encourage communication force a sense of community and cooperation is the key to productivity so when we set up our v-plus Stylish energetics fun sharing social so again in today's world working Social commercial space the line is getting blurry This is some of the picture that is our in our space. Everyone. We now have 55 Everyone is very different different different characters and most important in a co-working environment for start-up why it's important. It's not just styles Fun social more important is the communities You are working with a lot of people that's just like you struggle just like you have a dream just like you have Idea just like you so connecting with other people sharing your ideas Cooperating I think those are the things that you're looking for in a today's environment And we now have three countries 18 cities 48. That's just advertising so we don't have to worry about it so in conclusions I Leave you with this cold Don't be in such a rush to figure out everything out as a start-up you have a lot of uncertainty Don't worry about it embrace the unknown and let your life surprise you come to a Co-working environment something with the character someone working with someone just like you have idea Just like you and perhaps you found something for your life that completely changed. Thank you Thank you so much for this great talk. You can stay on stage because now we're gonna follow up with the questions. Yes, I Example of how your own company benefit from working in a co-working space Well, I'm the operator on a co-working space. So our business model is very simple We get them together. I think there's three dimension to the business one is space how to build a stylish a And and and characters and also a environment that encouraged people to get together Someone that can fall enough in the first sight. So style is one thing So space is first dimension service that we provided for start-up. What can we provide? We can get you legal advice tax advice funding right events Social those are value-added services that we provide and 30. I think most important for us is incubations and investment We set up a fund alongside of with our platform which we invest on some of the company that in this this this What we call it We want to call it a creative platform because most the company that come in to a working space are some sort they are working in creative business whether that's Computer gaming OTOs design culture Entertainment so on so forth. So we select the investment some of those we provide resource For them to grow. That's how we benefit so the co-working space provide additional service such as training programs and external monitoring Mentoring yes selectively we do that But we don't do the training ourselves we find you a third party so For we plus we invest two incubators one is in gaming which is one of the biggest incubators in China we also invest in a Training service which provide training for management Not in technology, but more in business model social aspect of the product Custom experience So we're invested to Incubator or training programs which provide to some of our Tenants do you have experience working in the nature does it accelerate creativity? working in The nature outside of office. You mean I don't quite understand the question nature No, I have no experience working in the nature How does co-working space tackle the problem night lead for sign in why working good questions? What we find out is Open desk doesn't always work open desk works For individual so if you enter your free lancer You're only by yourself then you're fine in a open desk environment But any company any startups that have more than three people it's better you have a confined offices Okay, so in our space. I say 85% are small offices devoted to small teams anywhere from five To 20 people right so you have small medium-sized large offices, right? You have common area meeting facilities coffee shops team, which we all share But when you work you go back to your little office So can help you concentrate so open desk is only for Mobile workers. So let's say that you have a sinky now in Shanghai you're traveling, you know eight 10,000 miles away and you're by yourself Then as a member of V plus you can go to any office In China or in San Francisco or soon will be in Australia. You can come to the V plus you can have open desk You can book your meeting rooms. You don't have to meet your client in Starbucks All right, so open desk only work for mobile workers or Individuals so when you're first started you only by yourself you have idea But you don't have a team yet. You need a space. You want to talk to people that works But when you have a team of more than three people go into office Airbnb and Uber doesn't not own the house and cars but the co-working space does rent space So you can grow as fast as them. No, I don't think so. We are not going to be Uber We are not going to be Airbnb because you look at Airbnb and Uber the model is more of a to see to consumer model I'm a big fan of Airbnb. I think that's a great example of Disruption that technology can provide. I mean Airbnb is I always use that example Because I used to be in a private equity business when we invest in hotels We are the biggest shareholder I use, you know, our fund use that I used to work for is the biggest shareholder for a core hotel Myself was involved in a lot of acquisition hotel chains When you claim an international hotel chains, you need to have 400,000 rooms, right 400,000 room is A tipping point when you have 400,000 room in your hotel chains is now I'm an international Well, no hotel chains. It takes Hilton, Marriott, Accord anywhere from 45 year to about 70 years to Accumulate 400,000 rooms. It takes Airbnb Six years, right? That's the that's the disruption but for co-working space. We may need to Business so more of a to be type the business model So we're not going to go as fast because we can't we need to manage our growth speed We're 55 space We probably have about 100 in the next two years and that's about it We probably could go to 200 but there's a limit to where you can go and depends on how the office space change How the work environment change we will change ourselves Like I said in the beginning We have to be flexible business model has reflect flexible Co-working as we see it today will not be the same three years from now So we need to be prepared for that. I think I have quite time for one more question What is your expansion plan? Do you have any location Europe? Yes, we have in our first location open Helsinki January of this year. So now we've been here for almost 10 months My first time to Finland was October last year and then I came second time a slash last year in January we opened our first location, which is in cable factory Kaplan We're expanding that space. We are putting a game theories Working space in cable factory. We're expanding it and the new space will be For game developers. So all the people that come in all the start-up that came into that space are Focus in gaming. So that's another directions Co-working space will go is vertical vertical space and there's no Better vertical in Finland than gaming. So that's our first gaming Verticals space will be open next month. Welcome to you to come to our office if you'd enjoy One more question. Do you work with corporate? Do you do you work with corporate and if so how yes, we do we're working with a lot of Large companies for some Volkswagen in China We help them design their new innovation center. We provide a lot of training for their company to help use innovation is a very positive word a lot of Old traditional company is moving to it. We are helping them with our resource with our start-up in our platform Not only we plus, but we bring new team from our platform to work with them That's how we work with large company. I think my time is up. Thank you very much Thank you so much and I'll give it up ladies and gentlemen. Thank you Alan. That was great. Thank you