Switzerland’s biggest coworking space got off to a good start

Gotham has welcomed its first coworkers in August, after five months of hard work renovating, equipping and decorating the space. It offers closed office spaces, meeting rooms or just an access to the open space facilities. The space is equipped with state of the art Vitra furniture and Logitech technology and includes a conference area, a white room, ping-pong tables, and a bar called the "Alfred's". Beyond the quality of the work environment and the flexibility it offers, Gotham aims at creating a community of like-minded coworkers passionate about their projects and happy to network to make big leaps forward. 

Gotham was initiated by the Batmaid founders Andreas Schollin-Borg and Eric Laudet, and two real estate veterans Ferdinand Locher and Patrick Polli. At the beginning of the project, the startup Batmaid was looking for an office space to fuel its growth, thus the idea of Gotham came naturally.

“Demand for this kind of space is booming. The lack of proper meeting rooms or flexible workspace is huge. Young firms do not want to be isolated. They want to live and work at the center of the action where things vibrate”, explains Eric Laudet.

The start of the new coworking space was a success. “We got a natural traction initially by pure word of mouth and gained 60% of occupancy rate without marketing. And we see several startups doing businesses together, just a few days after the first meeting”, says Laudet. Gotham has already hosted numerous events from conferences given by top-notch Swiss CEOs, to hackathons, business speed dating and "fucked up" pitches. Corporates are also present at the space. “Multinationals also love sending their employees in a creative environment where they can brainstorm, do some team building or consider things from another point of view”, explains Laudet. In addition the team is working together with digitalswitzerland.

Encouraged by the success the founders are already thinking about opening a second space in Lausanne. And an expansion to other cities is also possible. Other prime location coworking spaces are planned in Zürich, Bern and Geneva.