A Good Day for Goodideas

Tainan may be scorchingly hot in the summer, but the city is also home to a cool, comfortable workspace that charges only NT$1,500 per month for 24-hour access.

The 165-square-meter studio contains three large wooden tables and 12 ergonomic chairs, as well as a meeting area, and a break area with some sofas. It also has a wall-length blackboard, a projection screen, a low mobile cabinet that doubles as a lectern, a conference room, a kitchen, and a shower.

The design and atmosphere are very different from what you’d find in a typical office, creating a vibe that is both comfortable and conducive to work. 

A place I want to work

“I was very determined that my life would follow an entrepreneurial path.” After completing his studies in the US, the 30-year-old Wu spent three years working first as an instructor at National ­Cheng Kung University and then as an engineer with TMI, a business incubator, before deciding last July to return to Tai­nan and start his own company.

Recognizing that he needed a workspace from which to start his business, Wu visited three or four in quick succession. Dissatisfied with what he found, he resolved to open and operate his own.

“This is the kind of environment I want to work in,” says Wu, clearly very satisfied with Good­ideas’ clean design.

“Every space needs to have its own orientation,” he adds. An IT engineer by trade, his workspace is set up to be especially welcoming to IT workers and designers.

Many people assume that IT workers can work anywhere, and wonder why they would rent a space rather than work from home.

Wu explains that homes offer too many distractions. “It’s good to have your workplace a little distance from your home. Even a few minutes of travel time can help you get into the right frame of mind. It helps you shift from a ‘home’ mindset to a ‘work’ mindset.”

Wu notes that his “tenants” are all locals who live in the neighborhood. “If you live more than a half-hour drive away, you’re going to be reluctant to come in.”

Ding Jiaqi, who became Goodideas’ first customer back at the start of the year, puts it very succinctly: “If I stay at home, I goof off. Coming to Goodideas is the only way I can focus on work.”

The 26-year-old Ding is a recent university graduate who currently splits his time between tutoring students and teaching himself programming.

“I don’t have a background in programming, and learning it on my own is lonely. I find it helpful to be where I can interact with people.” He explains that you reach a point in your studies at which you need to talk things over with people to maintain your motivation. He makes the 20-minute motorcycle ride to Goodideas every day because it gets him out of the house, where he would be all alone, staring at a monitor and not getting any feedback on anything.

Separating work from home

Some of the people at Goodideas are already running their own successful businesses. They come here every day to gain a little separation and clear their heads. 

Brian Yeh is the 28-year-old founder of Noya, a company that designs websites and catalogs. Though his company employs ten people, Yeh chooses to make the daily commute to Goodideas to work.

He says that his company operates out of the lower floor of his home, and he got fed up with working and living in the same space. “Having no separation between home and office is a pain. My mother would realize she needed soy sauce in the middle of cooking a meal, and send me out to fetch it. She’d cut up some fruit for me at three o’clock every afternoon. It interfered with my work.”

Nowadays, he drops by Goodideas after making his morning rounds of his customers, coming here to take care of other business without being interrupted by family members or employees.

“I’m a designer. Working in different environments helps spark inspiration and different ideas.” Yeh says that he tried working in coffee shops, but found the comings and goings and conversations of other customers distracting. Plus, going to the bathroom meant either leaving his computer and bag unattended, or taking them with him and potentially losing his seat.

Coworking spaces provide controlled access. He says the security and comfort help put your mind at ease and let you gather your thoughts. Plus, they provide opportunities to meet people. “I’m planning on letting a couple of my employees work here, too.”

A telecommuting perch

James Tsai is the telecommuting CTO of UHOO, a Hong Kong company that produces sensors for the home that measure temperature and gas levels and can transmit warnings via the Internet, so that users can be alerted to a fire via an app even when they are away from home.

Tsai used to work at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, but left in March 2015 to work for himself. With projects pouring in, he founded Ya­Jan Technology and began looking for people to help bear some of the load.

A busy man, Tsai also has two other ventures in the works. The first is a platform for electronically transmitting custom-made postcards to destinations in the US, Japan, Taiwan, and mainland China. By enabling the postcards to be printed and delivered locally, the platform will eliminate the risks and cost of international transit. It will also provide photographers with a means to sell their photographs. Tsai expects to launch it at the end of June.

His other venture is a sales platform for agricultural products. Developed in cooperation with a professor from Chiayi’s Nan­hua University, the platform will allow small farmers to sell and deliver their produce directly to consumers, and consumers to be confident in the safety of their food.

Tsai, an early Goodideas tenant, is as regular as a civil servant: he clocks in at eight every morning and out at six every evening. He uses the space in part as a refuge from his young children. “In principle, IT workers like us can work almost anywhere. But when I’m at home my two-and-a-half-year-old son is always bugging me to play with him. We just had a second child as well, so it’s impossible for me to work at home.”

Building a network

The 30-something ­Huang Wan-jen, Goodideas’ only female tenant, works in advertising sales for a Google agent.

She also runs “BJ4,” a Tai­nan club built around exploring business models and encouraging IT workers to found their own companies. The group gathers at Good­ideas every Thursday night.

Huang says that the rapid pace of technological progress makes it necessary for IT workers to talk to their peers. The club provides a means for them to do that. 

An engineer himself, Howard Wu is both the owner of Goodideas and an IT worker. The fact that he currently earns his living on a project-by-project basis makes him seem more like a tenant of the studio than its owner. “What differentiates me from the other tenants is that I also have to clean the toilet, water the plants, feed the fish, and generally keep things neat and clean.”

If he doesn’t operate the space to make money, why does he do it? “I’m earning added value from the venture, so the fees only need to cover the utilities and miscellaneous expenses.” Adding, “Talented people are assets for the future,” Wu explains that there aren’t that many talented people to poach in southern Taiwan. If you want to acquire skilled professionals, you have to train and cultivate them yourself. He therefore works with nearby ­Chang Jung Christian University, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and National ­Cheng Kung University, teaching their students free of charge. “You can’t do anything alone. If you want to accomplish something big, you need to build a team.”

A talent “accelerator”

Wu therefore argues that the most important function of a coworking space is fostering interactions. That means the people you attract are absolutely crucial. Talented people bring value. Without them, you’ve got nothing but empty space. 

Wu spent more than ten years away from Tainan, and says his old friends all left the city long ago. Fortunately, he’s made many new friends in the neighborhood and at Good­ideas since last July, and accumulated a big stack of business cards in the process.

Entrepreneurs who aren’t tenants often drop into Good­ideas, and Wu welcomes tenants to bring their friends in to say hello and trade information. “Everybody comes by after work. The studio has an almost gravitational pull.”

Wu says that coworking spaces function as “accelerators.” He explains that where incubators turn teams of students into real entrepreneurs, “accelerators” use their resources to help these new entrepreneurs quickly find their feet.

“Coworking spaces are interesting for the sparks they generate, for the uncertainty and malleability.” Wu says that the space creates the possibility for both him and his tenants to meet the right people with whom to build a new operation. 

“I’m just trying to manage the environment so that people can interact and good things can happen.”

James Tsai, the telecommuting CTO of Hong-Kongbased UHOO and the founder of his own company, works in Goodideas’ cozy coworking space from eight in the morning to six in the evening every day.

Huang Wan-jen, founder of the BJ4 club, usually turns up in the afternoon.

Howard Wu (right), Goodideas’ owner, doesn’t run his studio to generate a profit, but to extend his professional network.

A heartwarming memento left by a foreign tenant.

Mobile IT professionals can work almost anywhere there’s a computer. What they really need is a space in which to chat, share information, and mix with other people.