Notes on building a community with Thom Wernke from StartDock

Learn from the co-founder and CEO of StartDock coworking and startup community.

Hey. 👋 Alexis here from Hustle Global. I share inspiring stories about entrepreneurs, DIY marketing tips, notes on my personal experience as a solopreneur, and more. If you’re new here, join the list to hear from me 1x per week (no more, no spam).

Building a strong community is more important than ever, especially if you're building a business. That’s why I interviewed Thom Wernke, co-founder and CEO of StartDock, the coworking and startup community that believes, “You need a community to grow a company.”

Whether you're trying to create a community or make yours stronger, Thom’s tips and stories will help you see how valuable a great community can be for your success.

Let’s dive in. ⤵️

Hustle Global (HG): How has the sense of community within StartDock contributed to the success and growth of the businesses that operate there?

Thom Wernke (TW): This really varies, but we’ve had plenty of success stories. I know of founders who found investors via our network, companies that started working together, companies that found new colleagues via our network, and companies that found new customers via StartDock’s network. What also excites me is people who find friends, or even people who meet their partners in love via StartDock. In the end, we can’t really measure the impact we make, but we often receive compliments and ‘thanks’ from the -more than 1400- people in our communities.

HG: What are your top 3 tips for aspiring community builders?

TW:
1. Be radically honest in selecting who fits in your community and excluding those who don’t fit.

2. Always communicate transparently, open and honest.

3. Actively embrace feedback that core community members provide.

HG: Can you share a story where collaboration within StartDock’s coworking community directly led to innovation or solved a critical challenge for a member?

TW: COVID. This was a challenge for every entrepreneur and therefore a handful of members decided to set up a taskforce when COVID hit The Netherlands. We joined this taskforce and together built up a platform where members could offer their services, to stimulate Dutch people to buy local (at one of StartDock’s members).

HG: What role has community feedback played in the development or refinement of your services?

TW: It’s the most important input in the development of StartDock and the refinement of our services. Every half year we send out our Happiness Surveys, which have led to various changes like extra phonebooths, more plants, different office chairs, and stopping with a service like luggage storage (that distracted from having a good time on location).

HG: How do you measure the impact of community on the professional and personal growth of your members?

TW: This is the million-dollar question since the exact impact is crazy hard to measure. The closest indicator to measure this is the Net Promotor Score (NPS), which measures the likelihood of our customers recommending our products and services to others.

📚 Further reading: Community building tips: 12 strategies to cultivate a thriving business network

HG: What strategies have you implemented to cultivate a sense of ownership and pride within your community?

TW: Members are always welcome to invite friends to drinks and lunches and celebrate their birthday on location, and they have an access key that provides them with 24/7 access to the location. We make their “work” feel like their second home, where they can -almost- do whatever they want.

HG: In your opinion, what are the key benefits of building a community for businesses? 

TW: It creates long-term relationships with your customers that make both you, your colleagues, and your customers happy in the long run. It’s the primary advice I would give a founder to focus on, both with his/her team of colleagues and with customers.

HG: Looking ahead, how do you see the role of community evolving in coworking spaces and its impact on emerging businesses?

TW: I hope this will remain the most important topic for coworking companies to keep developing in, but I fear that spreadsheets, revenues, results, and hunger for growth will get prioritized above the focus on community. I even carry this fear within our own company, which constantly keeps leading me to make decisions in favor of our communities.

HG: Before we go, what does the word “hustle” mean to you as an entrepreneur? 

TW: Building your vision, no matter the cost in hours, energy, money, or other resources.

About StartDock

At StartDock, we build a unique mix of like-minded entrepreneurs who reinforce each other during the challenging entrepreneurial journey. We do this in our coworking spaces, where we offer more than 1400 entrepreneurial pioneers the space (desk or office) to take the next step. We build, foster, and grow communities, which we facilitate to become the new generation of successful companies.

ℹ️ Learn more about StartDock via its website, LinkedIn, and Instagram.