Episode 16 On Coffeeshops and Co-working Space

Beginner's mind

We were out for two weeks, mainly because of technical issue. Last week, it took us half an hour to start the conversation. By the time we started to talk, we both felt exhausted because of the on-and-off calls. It was frustrating and discouraging. So we continue the conversation about coffee shop this week.

01:00 How do you like coffee shops? They are part of our lives, and we are curious about coffee shops as a product. Why has it been so popular internationally, and how is it going to evolve into the future? We discuss the topic from the location, the interaction in the coffee shop, etc.

17:00 “The future of coffee shops might still be coffee shops. The new future space is actually co-working space”, according to Joy. Coworking space is mainly about the network and supporting infrastructure. And there’s more connection between coffee shop and co-working space –– Starbucks has great potential in becoming the giant network of coworking space.

36:00 If Starbucks expand their business into coworking space, how does it work? How do they make money? Bo said, by renting out lockers instead of charging customers by the space they are taking. The reason that Bo thinks Starbucks can be coworking space is that they offer good experience for customers, which is essential for coworking space. Then we got into this really interesting question as to the globalization of coffee shop –– why it became global trend that people start hanging out in coffee shops nowadays?

49:00 So would the next trend of globalization is the co-working space?