DeskHoppa was born out of a problem. During the heatwave in June 2018, Software Developer, Jason Bell. had a simple need:
“All I wanted was a desk for an hour. In the middle of meetings in Belfast I needed to a video call with the team.”
As you would predict the first thought of many people would be to go to a cafe, buy a cup of tea and do the call there. Jason, however, disagrees:
“I can’t work out of a cafe, they’re too noisy, if you’re required to have a conversation with people over Skype or Google Hangouts for example, it’s very difficult. There’s nothing like the clashing of cups in the background to throw your concentration off. It’s also amazing how much business information you can learn in a cafe.”
The previous day, Jason had been asking about finding a desk for an hour on Twitter, and while there was a number of replies, there was a theme emerging – a monthly subscription. The irony was that he was standing in a street with four large office spaces all set up for coworking.
“When you hear, ‘I needed this yesterday’, from your peers then that’s a good pointer to plan out how thing would like in terms of a startup.”
The DeskHoppa platform enables hosts with spare desks to rent them out to guests who need somewhere to work. The host sets the per hour price and can add a number of other pieces of information.
“The host has full control, from the price per hour they would like to charge, to desk availability and who exactly is allowed to visit. If the host wishes to sell passes for longer periods then the DeskPass can be purchased for a day, a week or a month. The platform gives guests somewhere to work within an established office. For the guest it’s like booking an airline ticket. Where do you want to work? How long? And what time are you arriving? Pay for the desk, then arrive.”
DeskHoppa gives a startup or business the ability to become a coworking space.
“Businesses are often looking for talent to hire. Opening up their workspace means that prospective hires can be found quicker and working relationships made faster.”
Existing coworking providers are invited to list too, making DeskHoppa the one-stop location for finding somewhere to work. For the freelancer, content creator or visiting worker, DeskHoppa opens any city up as a coworking hub.
“Imagine arriving in a new location and not knowing where to work from., We usually end up in a cafe because we can’t find anything else suitable for our needs. DeskHoppa becomes the where-to-work directory for the city.”
She is also a Partner at Sensei.ie, the parent business of the WabiSabi project, and Managing Editor at Aletheia.Travel.