The Need
In 2016 Outlandish was one of the founding members of CoTech, a mutual support network for digital worker co-ops. We discovered in setting this up that there weren’t many cooperatively-run places that catered to the tech sector.
Serendipitously the offices downstairs from Outlandish became suddenly vacant. We decided to take on the lease. Our aim was to:
- Build a welcoming space for co-ops to work affordably, meet and share skills
- Promote the co-op model to new and existing tech businesses
- Attract like-minded freelancers who might want to work with tech co-ops
- Meet potential clients through events and networking opportunities
- Invest our business surplus in a project that would give back to the co-op community, and our local neighbourhood
What We Did
We snapped up a rolling lease form the landlord, and hired Polly, a new team member to manage the space and build the community. She was tasked with finding people to fill desks and run some events. Fellow CoTech members Go Free Range, Animorph and Open Data Services were some of the first members of SPACE4. We launched with a big party that included local councillors, and movers and shakers in the progressive tech scene.
Within 6 months Founders and Coders joined. This was a pivotal movement, as they became a key anchor tenant providing core skills training. With this partnership, Islington became particularly interested in our work, as it fits well with local political aims as well as satisfying a need to improve training and employment opportunities in the borough.
In 2019 we were successful in bidding for a 10-year contract with Islington Council. In exchange for us generating ‘social value’, Islington would pay the rent on a bigger and smarter office up the road. This was massive for us, meaning that we could have security for years to come, and be supported via a great partnership with the local authority.
The Impact
SPACE4 has gone from strength to strength, making a huge impact on the people who’ve been a part of the community. We added Maddy to the team in 2019, and in 2022 we were awarded funding by Disrupt to hire Natasha, who is dedicated to building our events programme. We have broadened our reach, meaning we’re now home to lots of impactful freelancers and microbusinesses working in sectors including green energy, political and economic policy, and education.
Thanks to SPACE4, Outlandish has met a fair few clients and collaborators. One client who was introduced to us via someone involved in SPACE4 ended up spending £500k on a tech project. Another client has commissioned a team formed of Outlandish and two other CoTech co-ops to deliver a key strategy and digital project worth tens of thousands. And co-ops and other users of SPACE4 have introduced one another to clients, generating more than a million pounds of revenue for our members.
SPACE4 has incubated more than 10 tech co-ops, who benefit from free or low-cost office and space hire, meaning they can use their resources to build their business in other ways. They also benefit from being amongst other more established co-ops, who can give support and advice, and send work their way. One success story is Animorph, who now boast a full time team of 6, and are delivering contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to government departments and the NHS.
We’ve run more than a thousand events that improve skills, showcase innovative projects and ideas, platform inspiring speakers, and build networks amongst people working for social change within and beyond the tech sector.
In 2021 we ran Cooperate Islington, a programme of business support for local early stage co-ops. We worked directly with 28 co-ops, providing hundreds of hours of expert business advice and mentoring, and distributing micro-funding on behalf of the council. We’re also engaging with the council to shift its procurement more towards local, ethical suppliers.
Thanks to Islington, we now measure our Social Value Outputs, and so far we’ve generated £1.2m in social value for the local economy. The Social Value Framework largely measures interventions we’ve undertaken that support disadvantaged people into work, or improved work opportunities.
Where Next?
SPACE4 is developing in quite a few ways, and continues to build on its successes.
We’re more or less ready for SPACE4 to break off to be its own co-operative organisation, independent of Outlandish. This would mean that it can be more flexible, and more responsive to its community.
We’re developing more commercial services to run from SPACE4. We’ve already supported a few organisations, such as Camden Disability Action, to maximise the potential of their buildings – both in terms of income, and social value. We do this by providing support with marketing and audience development, financial planning, and partnerships. We’re planning to formalise this strand of work as a business offering.
We are building more ways to support co-ops and other impactful start-ups. In particular, we’re pursuing conversations with councils and other anchor organisations to find out more about their procurement needs, so that we can support co-ops to fulfil those. That means that when we deliver co-op development advice, we’re connecting co-ops with real opportunities.
Hopefully in the future we’ll expand our physical locations – perhaps as part of Islington’s incredible affordable workspace programme, or indeed in other boroughs. We dream of one day buying a property, perhaps as some kind of community share offer. With property prices so ridiculous in London though this still needs a little working out!
If you’ve got an idea for how SPACE4 could develop and ways that we should partner, please get in touch with polly@outlandish.com.
