Community of Cultivators: Edition 37

Here at GCUC we are immensely fortunate to cross paths and work with so many amazing people. Through our work, we’ve cultivated a global community of people we think you should know about.

Community of Cultivators is a blog series we created to introduce you to coworking game changers and connectors. Each month, we’ll release new interviews that we hope inform and inspire you.

This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Brain Chen, CEO of ROOM. You may have heard of them as they are taking the phone booth industry by storm. Give Brians answers a read.

What in your life are you most proud of cultivating or creating? Why?

ROOM. We started off with a humble soundproof phone booth, but we are building towards a vision of adaptive architecture. I truly believe we are building the future and that our products have the potential to change the way we think about offices and the way commercial real estate is transacted. In addition to being excited about what we are building, I could not be more proud of the team that we have assembled to achieve our ambitions.

Where do you personally feel the most sense of community?

Among other founders. Building a company is a unique journey with lots of ups and downs, and there is so much to learn from others who have been on the journey before. When I meet a fellow founder, there is an instant sense of camaraderie.

What podcast would you recommend to others and why?

“The Workspace of Tomorrow” from ROOM. Best podcast out there talking about the future of work across all dimensions.

What is one piece of advice you give everyone that works with and/or for you?

Be relentless and disciplined about your learning. In particular, think deeply about your information sources, and whether you are in the right environment to consume the information you need to learn what you want. Could be people, email newsletters, major newspapers, Twitter — whatever your source, take a step to periodically evaluate whether you are happy with your information diet.

If you had $500 to spend- what would you buy?

I’d buy my wife a gift!

What advice would you give to someone thinking of becoming an entrepreneur?

You will never feel totally ready, so just get going! Or, at the very least, make sure you surround yourself with other entrepreneurs as much as possible, because the mindset is infectious.