In a city like Oslo, which is officially the most expensive in the world, it can be difficult to strike out as an entrepreneur. Independent start-up founders, like artists, tend to thrive in less expensive cities, where the consequences of failure are fewer and costs of setup are less. But tucked away in the downtown area is a new coworking space, MESH Norway, where you'll find freelancers and entrepreneurs working together on technology and design problems. Five stories high, with around 75 companies, MESH is Oslo's first coworking space, and it's grown quickly since it first started in February 2012.
"Our main focus is on early stage startups," noted co-founder Kriszti Toth, who started the space with Anders Mjaset and Audun Ueland, "but we try to keep a balance around 70% on startups and 30% creative individuals like filmmakers, animation makers, graphic designers, etc." This keeps the people and services diverse and the activities busy, with companies like Holder de ord (Norwegian for "keeping their word"), which tracks politicians' promises; Justcoin, a currency exchange for Bitcoin; and the social entrepreneurial group World Wide Narrative. When I visited to give a talk for Creative Mornings Oslo, I caught a brainstorming session afterward for Memorylanes, an award-winning storytelling app for communities.
Designed by the founders, the space contains a mixture of smaller spaces, from a hip night club to individual offices and more collaborative spaces to a busy ground-floor coffee shop for the general public. "The office space had these brick walls when we got here," she explained, "and all the interior was me and Anders and people who shaped it just by being here and using it. The tables are from IKEA, we painted all of them ourselves. Old couches are second hand catches."
Recently, Toth and technologist Adam Scheuring have kicked off a makerspace inside the building. Thanks to high demand, MESH is now entirely self-funded and it's become the main hub for tech-oriented activities. Centrally located, it's ideal for meetings and events. "When we opened last year there was a lot of buzz around the concept and the idea of collaborative workspaces," Toth said. "Our initiative validated the demand for it and encouraged the opening of other spaces. We hosted basically all the creative and entrepreneurial events at MESH like the Global Service Jams or Startup Weekends." And by the looks of it, some pretty cool parties, too.
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