The Cobot Manifesto

This week we attended the Coworking Europe conference in Milan. We thought it would be the perfect opportunity to dedicate a blog post to our Cobot Manifesto.

In 2009, Cobot’s founders, Thilo and Alex, opened co.up Coworking Space in Berlin. In 2010, they started to build Cobot in order to help manage that space. Because the space came first, Cobot’s purpose was always directly tied to the coworking movement as described in the Coworking Manifesto. From the start, the Cobot software was intended to be a tool to support the growth of spaces and to leave more time for the space managers to spend with their coworkers. This is why the software is reasonably priced and why we continue to develop it specifically for the needs of coworking.

These roots help to keep us grounded here at Cobot. We’re a small and agile team, dedicated to the global coworking community and to creating personal connections. The Cobot Manifesto was developed by our team to guide our development and business decisions. It reflects our dedication and participation in the coworking community, the heart of our business. Most importantly, it represents why we choose to be part of this movement.

The Cobot Manifesto

Community over Business

People and their connections are the foundation of our industry.

Engagement over Management

We prefer letting coworkers organize themselves over micro-managing every aspect of a space.

Excellence over Versatility

We prefer doing a few things very well over doing everything in a mediocre way.

Dialog over Reach

A conversation between real people mostly does more than reaching a thousand followers.

Trust over Control

Trust people, and they will do the right thing.

These principles are most likely similar to the values you also have in your own space, the concepts that drive your daily work. And it is important that we are on this road together. As we lay out our 2016 development plan, we would welcome your feedback about how we can better reflect these values and help you to realize these values in your use of Cobot (email to support@cobot.me).

Here at the coworking conference, we meet people from around the world, growing their spaces and communities. We are once again reminded how privileged we are to support you in making this global shift of how we work happening. You are the heart of the movement.

Happy Coworking!

The Cobot Team