Investing in Cebu’s growing coworking space market

Techpreneur Michael Cubos (above) and his partner foodpreneur Kate Dychangco-Anzani provides clients with a coworking space and a restaurant in their District 53 Co-Working Space at Filinvest Cyberzone at Cebu IT Park.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Techpreneur-foodpreneur tie-up leads to first resto-based co-working space venture

Seeing great prospects in the growing coworking space trend in Cebu today, a techpreneur and a foodpreneur have become partners to set up the first restaurant-based coworking space here.

Michael Cubos, who owns Performance 360 Global Services based in Cordova, Cebu, said his business partnership with Kate Dychangco-Anzani of the Anzani Group — a group operating several restaurants in Cebu — led to this new restaurant called District 53 Co-Working Space at the Filinvest Cyberzone in Cebu IT Park.

He said that their business venture started when he met Kate during a gathering of members of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Their restaurant soft-opened last May 11.

Cubos said that coworking space is not new in Cebu, but unlike the other existing coworking spaces, the District 53 Co-Working Space provides more convenience with food discounts across all restaurants under the Anzani Group.

“I have been toying on the idea of a coworking, and it was good that Kate is also exposed to the concept during her travels,” he said.

According to Cubos, what makes the concept good is that it enables restaurants to tap into the idle periods which is from morning until late afternoon.

“The bulk of the operations in a restaurant starts late afternoon. That makes up 80 percent of their earnings. With the coworking space, they can earn even during the idle periods,” said Cubos.

Cubos said that they are giving the business three months before they decide on expanding to other shops including coffee shops.

The 40-square-meter coworking space located at the second floor of the restaurant provides for a seat with high-speed internet access and a television set.

“For walk-in clients, they can use the facility from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. for only P500. Others can also pay from P8,000 to P9,000 a month.”

Cubos said the coworking space would work well with start-up businesses, especially those which employ only five persons, because they would not have to rent an office and thus save on costs.

“The coworking concept works well with small sizes start-ups. It also provides a place that’s conducive for more networking with people who may be potential partners. That happens a lot in other countries, techpreneurs meeting other techpreneurs whose business concepts complement each other,” he said.

Cubos said they are eyeing to open more coworking spaces in Cebu in restaurants owned by the Anzani Group.

“Soon we’re also developing an app that will allow users to check out which coworking spaces have available seats for them at that given time,” said Cubos.

With Cebu’s growing number of people starting their own tech businesses, Cubos said they are seeing demand for such working spaces to rise in the next few years.