Imagine your usual work desk being re-located to another part of the world for a freely chosen period of time; meeting new amazing people, learning about the local market and exchanging ideas.
For a number of Berlin and Nairobi based startups and freelancers it will soon become a reality.
Startup knowledge transfer between continents
To help create and boost cooperation links between European and African startups, collaborative working space in Nairobi and 2 open coworking spaces in Berlin have agreed on a partnership. This includes a chance for startups and freelancers to go and work for short periods of time in partnering coworking spaces abroad.
Taking part of this initiative from Berlin are 2 of the biggest coworking spaces – Betahaus in Kreuzberg, with space for about 200 people on 2000 sqm, and mobilesuite Coworking in Prenzlauer Berg with 100 desks. Startups in Berlin can go to capital city of Kenya and use a desk in Startup Garage, the largest coworking space in East Africa with around 100 workstations.
These 3 spaces are offering a flex desk exchange to all of their subscribers. Everybody with a subscription to a (flex) desk can use a work station in the partner hub without any extra contracts. In addition, working from either Nairobi or from Berlin will be quite convenient and jetlag-free because of the similar timezones the two cities are in.
Kresten Buch, Berlin based serial entrepreneur and CEO of HumanIPO, encourages startups from both cities to take part:
“I hope the that this opportunity will lead people to go and look at the amazing opportunity that the African tech scene has to offer, and we are looking forward to sending some Kenyan startups to Berlin, to give them access to the mentors and investor network we have up here”.
Use this opportunity to experience a completely different work environment, a new city and country. You’ll be able to grow your network by meeting local coworkers and taking part of the locally organized events. And who knows, maybe even to start a completely new business?
How to take part of this?
Before going, please drop your own coworking space an e-mail. Desk swap starts from February 15, 2012.
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya, with approx. 4 million inhabitants (2011). Situated in East Africa, Kenya is know for its booming ICT scene, especially for its mobile payments and large pool of mobile users (ca 22 million).
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany, with 3.45 million people. The city is considered as an emerging European tech hub (next to London), with a strong focus on creative industries. Berlin is also a center for coworking with its more than 40 collaborative workspaces.
