GCUC Blog

Edition #9: Laurent Dhollande

By Liz Elam On September 18, 2019 In Community Cultivators Blog Series

Community of Cultivators

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

This go around we interviewed Laurent Dhollande of CloudVO and Pacific Workplaces. We are happy to say that Laurent and his amazing team have been partners of ours for years. Check out what he had to say.

Name: Laurent Dhollande
Company and title: CEO of CloudVO and Pacific Workplaces

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

Building something that will survive us and thrive. That is true for my family and true for the companies we are building with our Pac-mates: CloudVO and Pacific Workplaces. We are part of a movement, broader than just the coworking movement, that is changing the way people work, towards more freedom, more empowerment, more community. Let me correct what I just said: we, and others in the industry, have already changed the way people integrate life and work and we are continuing to build on that paradigm. For us, it started in 2003 when we started Pacific Workplaces and coined the term ‘Workspace-as-a-Service’ in a blog and incorporated that key phrase in our vision of the workplace, which has not changed that much in 15 years.

Where do you personally feel the most sense of community?

Truly at work. With my Pac-mates (Pacific Workplaces and CloudVO employees) but also with the Pac communities I tend to visit the most.

What podcast would you recommend to others and why?

Jamie Russo (Everything Coworking) and Cat Johnson (Coworking out Loud) publish the most useful podcasts to me, bar none. Jamie is a master interviewer and is able to assemble people with very different perspectives and points of view. There is no one better than Cat to bring the spotlight on community curation with many helpful tips, and also to bring subject experts to share useful content for operators.

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

Always be learning. Feel empower. Enjoy what you do.

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

A contribution to Andrew Yang political campaign. Andrew is talking about a complete societal change that makes so much sense… without throwing free markets down the trash.

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

Learn from others, especially learn from their mistakes.

What is the best habit you ever started? What habit do you want to start but haven’t yet?

To say to people I work with and I interact with frequently: “I love you”, because the vast majority of them deserve it.

If you had to put a quote on your gravestone what would it be?

He loved humankind and in turn was loved by many.


That wraps up this edition community of cultivators. Come back next week for more!