Community of Cultivators: Edition 54

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 weeks interview is coming to you from Perth Australia. We had the opportunity to interview Ophelia Cutier from Space Cubed. She has been involved with Spacecubed since the beginning in 2012 and have played a major role in the development of both the thriving startup ecosystem and the business as a whole. She has a deep passion for innovation, startups and growing businesses, especially where companies are looking to create change, increase their social impact and help to shape tomorrow’s economy.

She spearheaded the growth of the Spacecubed community, which doubled in size in the last 24 months and managed to secure partnerships with major property groups and universities. She now leads the development of the Spacecubed software platform.

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

I’m very proud of Spacecubed and the work we’ve done in contributing to the local startup ecosystem. When we started in 2012, there were a few meetups running out of local cafes and that was pretty much it. We were the first coworking space in 2012, and had big plans to support entrepreneurs, innovators and changemakers.

Nine years later, our spaces have grown exponentially from 500 sqm to 5,000 sqm, we support more than a 1,000 active members and host 20+ meetups a month. We also run a number of programs such as Plus Eight, our own accelerator which has been investing in early stage startups in the past four years, and She Codes which teaches women and non-binary individuals to learn to code. More importantly, a lot of our members have grown with us. I don’t know if I would have believed you if you told me that one of our early members would become a startup unicorn and now, just nine years on is worth $3 billion.

Our journey has been a rollercoaster, especially with the challenges of 2020, but seeing what we have achieved in the last year is something I’m really proud of.

Where do you personally feel the most sense of community?

At our community events! It doesn’t matter if it is a breakfast, happy hour, or Christmas party, we always make a point of creating a welcoming environment for members to network and meet with other members. Keeping that sense of community has been a challenge as we were growing but it is our differentiating factor.

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

Listen to your community, they are your users and they will provide the most valuable feedback.

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

Give it a crack, find your community and support network and don’t be afraid to make mistakes.