Interview With Julian Jost, Co-Founder at Spacebase

Julian’s hometown is Hachenburg, Germany, a little village in the countryside. It's beautiful there, but Berlin is his home now. In 2014 he founded Spacebase.

Spacebase is a worldwide online booking platform for unique meeting rooms and workshop spaces. They save their customers from boring, boxy and gray meeting rooms and they've established a diverse network of about 2,000 spaces across 12 countries, with something for every company. Spacebase makes finding and booking extraordinary meeting locations easy, quick and cheap. They're changing the way people meet.

Who are your ideal clients?

Our ideal clients are meeting and event planners as well as office managers or executive assistants who want an easier and faster way of finding the perfect meeting venue - and then booking and organizing all on the same website. In the past, meeting planners have had to call several meeting locations for price quotes and information about amenities, making a long, messy list of factors to compare when booking an offsite meeting or workshop space. Spacebase streamlines the process and gives our customers straightforward access to a direct online booking of venues, meeting supplies, and even lunch.

What is working best for your marketing right now?

We've been hosting events all over New York City, which have been as fun as they are effective for introducing people to Spacebase. We're organizing meeting industry networking events in an effort to build a community of creative meeting planners who are bored of the traditional and want to take meeting planning to a new, revolutionary level. We've been introducing Spacebase in many ways, hosting different events at some of our coolest additions to our New York City portfolio. For example, some networking events have a focus on green meetings and sustainability while others may be geared toward discovering the latest technology in the MICE industry. So far, we've gotten a great reception from these events and are happy to be a part of a creative meeting community.

What is your biggest differentiator?

Spacebase offers 24/7 support to our users, whether they need help finding a workshop space on a budget or organizing a catered lunch for 25 people. We like to maintain a close relationship with our customers and support them as much as possible. We also work closely with meeting venue owners and send our scouts to verify the suitability and safety of each location we add to Spacebase. Keeping close relationships with our users and space providers makes our process smooth and our business personal.

Favorite place to travel to?

Cape Town, South Africa. It feels exotic and comfortable at the same time. When I visit, I love taking in the beautiful nature, the nice people, and the great food.

See the top coworking space cape town

What is your favorite app or online tool?

IFTTT, Zapier, and Trello are three of my favorite online tools. I use them every day to keep my schedule and tasks organized and taken care of in one place. Streamlining services are definitely a huge part of the future of technology.

What is your favorite hobby?

My favorite hobby has to be kitesurfing. I don't get the chance to kitesurf as often as I'd like to, but once I'm out on the water, I feel a freedom and excitement that only exists when you're riding a wave!

What was the best event that you recently attended?

I recently attended the IMEX in Las Vegas and was completely blown away! It is the biggest industry event I've ever been to and getting the chance to meet and learn from hundreds of the meeting and event industry's major players was an awesome opportunity. I was amazed at the sheer size of the event; it was so much bigger than any meeting industry meet-up I've seen before.

What business would you love for someone else to start?

I would love to see more businesses being created in the sharing economy. Person to person companies are doing much more than just offering goods and services in a new way; sharing economy businesses are connecting people that would not have met otherwise.

What advice do you have for new founders?

If you have an idea, don't let it fall away without a fight. Sit down and start working on it and don't give up when problems arise, but work through them.

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