Back when it was cool to be a digital nomad, Jeff Laflamme, like the rest of us, sure had been intrigued by the lifestyle that it offers. Ditching his 9 to 5 job, he landed in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, when he bumped into a friend who told him about Siem Reap, south of Cambodia.

This friend introduced him to the idea of co-working space, which at that time was one of the firsts in Vietnam, and Laflamme stumbled upon an AHA moment that later became the preconception of AngkorHub, the first tech hub in the heart of the touristy city of Cambodia, Siem Reap.

Selling romanticised lifestyle

“It was really like the classic story of a digital nomad. I just got tired of the 9-to-5 routine,” said Laflamme.

Even so, Laflamme admitted that he realised how romanticised the nomadic lifestyle was. “It sells the idea of working on your laptop with the beach view, remotely on an island with espresso on your table, but it was really interesting, and people bought into the idea,” said Laflamme.

He added that the reality was really trying to find a stable internet connection to work for only a few hours at once. However, this seemed ideal.

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So Laflamme thought to himself, why not set up one? “At that time, I was in Sihanoukville when I got inspired by the co-working space industry and during a business trip to Siem Reap, I just fell in love with the location,” he explained.

He quickly got to work. “I started comparing the situation, numbers, and average wages in Cambodia, especially in the IT sector, to other countries,” said Laflamme.

Challenging feat

He decided that the co-working space he would build should be approached with a social enterprise concept. “I told myself that we could reuse the same space for training to access remote jobs that come to the place. So immediately, I worked on a business plan and joined forces with someone,” Laflamme added.

Laflamme met with a local who showed him buildings, which he recalled was like a countryside project.

“There was no stable internet connection at that time, so that was my first challenge in setting up a tech hub, aside from how limited the buildings that are decent enough and being leased to be a place for a co-working space,” said Laflamme.

In addition, Laflamme remembered that it was exactly August 2013, and Siem Reap was still the second poorest province in Cambodia at that time. “That’s why I chose Siem Reap over Sihanoukville; the need was bigger, and I also fell in love with this city,” he added.

He mentioned other challenges like sourcing materials like furniture to create a comfortable and inviting co-working space. “You can’t find anything that fits. Sourcing it from Thailand was the closest you could get to a nice interior then,” he added.

“I remembered visiting the capital just recently, and I was shocked seeing all the infrastructure and materials like furniture to fill up co-working space that doesn’t look like it is in Cambodia,” he recalled.

Next comes the administration.

“Registering business, going to Ministry of Commerce, only to find that they didn’t speak English and don’t have forms. The guy there brought me to another city just to do the paperwork. It was all complicated and there was zero information online,” Laflamme told e27.

After what seemed like endless hurdles, Laflamme settled on one floor of a bank.

The socialisation part

Laflamme might have finished all the administration and location necessary to build the co-working space in Siem Reap, but he wasn’t prepared for what came next.

“It will be obvious that it’s a co-working place with all the tables and facilities like a power generator. I just assumed people would jump over the idea. I was wrong,” said Laflamme.

AngkorHub was set in a tourist city, with the place’s main attraction being the leisure experience it offers. So it made sense when the first of their customers, the people needing the place to work, were expats, more so than the locals.

“The small network that we did have and would-be customers wouldn’t be our customers within a few months because they came during their vacation,” said Laflamme.

People around Laflamme told him that he needed to build a community before starting the coworking space. “I get that, but that couldn’t be the case for every coworking space, especially not in a touristy area,” he said.

Laflamme added that AngkorHub is still struggling to date to make people understand the concept, even people who are well-traveled and professionals.

Pioneering the tech industry

“We used to be the only one, and in our first months, we tried to connect with similar initiatives. It took me several months to get people’s awareness, and soon enough, like two months after opening, some expats were starting another co-working space,” he recalled.

“Now there are around six co-working spaces, and this year local group will open one that’s going to be a big one,” he added.

Laflamme mentioned that when AngkorHub was first launched, the idea was to be a social innovation center and an incubation hub for young talents. This was in 2013 to 2014.

“The challenge with making it an incubation centre was that people barely understood co-working. It was simply not ready for it. We could only plant seeds and shift focus until it’s ready. That’s what we worked on,” said Laflamme.

There are a limited number of startups and investors in Siem Reap for AngkorHub to become an incubation center. “To do that, we’d need the guidance. I myself have been playing an advisor role for some time, providing consultation for people about their startup business,” said Laflamme.

However, Laflamme prided that AngkorHub is well-positioned in Google search and reviews. “But even that’s still not enough for people to come. Startups are limited here,” said Laflamme.

As the longest-running co-working hub in the city, startup events that looked for spaces in the area would reach out to them. “Mostly are event organizers from outside of the country. The local ecosystem itself didn’t connect and reach out to organize events with us,” said Laflamme.

Co-living in Siem Reap

Now that it’s been operating for almost five years, the hub has been operating from its second building, abandoning the bank’s building. It also provides a co-living option now.

“Our business model is working based on the co-living space. It’s creating community through renting the room, aiming at digital nomads who work online and need a good connection,” explained Laflamme.

Right now, the place is divided into two big areas: one is the common area downstairs, and the other is the upstairs for co-living space.

“Now we have 20 spots, all in open space with no private offices. But we’re working on it because there are demands for it,” said Laflamme.

Right now, the hub provides one meeting room, a small one, where people conduct their calls.

The hub offers monthly membership and options of Day pass and Weekly pass for the co-working space.

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“The occupancy rate is about 20 per cent expat for coworking, while co-living is 100 per cent travelling professionals. We have more co-living members than the co-working members, actually,” said Laflamme.

“The plan for 2019 is to work on private offices and a more blended concept with our social mission, and we will change the existing concept now, although I can’t get into details with the public yet,” said Laflamme.

What’s next

AngkorHub, which Laflamme said has received an investment from an Angel VC based in Singapore, is still struggling to keep the business afloat.

However, with the undisclosed number of investments they have received, the hub has begun its search for a new location.

“This person helped us by investing in the project, enabling us to look for other locations with adjustment in concept,” said Laflamme.

For this year, AngkorHub is working on a big project in 2019 that seeks to revolutionise the coworking and co-living industry with other changemakers, showing how working and living could be a force for social change.

“After all, the hub itself exists also to support the locals. The goal is to make people see Siem Reap and Cambodia past the temples because it’s about the people,” said Laflamme.

Towards the end of the conversation, Laflamme shared his opinion on how the government has overlooked Siem Reap, especially in the tech sector.

“I would say Siem Reap is nowhere near ready to be the country’s tech hub. The government pays more attention to the capital, and the only time they were involved was a few years back, doing a business incubation 101 here. The government doesn’t connect with the existing players in Phnom Penh and other provinces; instead, they went out of their way and created other programs and chose the same winners repeatedly,” said Laflamme.

Laflamme believed that the only way Cambodia, and eventually Siem Reap, would be at par with other countries in terms of tech innovation and the facility is for tech event organisers to work their way from the grassroots and collaborate with local universities. I believe doing it this way would create a more lasting impact,

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Image Credit: AngkorHub

This article was first published on February 6, 2019

The post What is it like setting up co-working hub in touristy city of Siem Reap: AngkorHub story appeared first on e27.

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