French startup combines coworking and working from home
by Alix le Gal
Founded by Laura Choisy and Madhu Desbois, Cohome is a coworking platform for individuals to share their personal space. While many coworking platforms exist, what sets Cohome apart is its focus on coworking from private homes. Users to propose a desk to share every day; the startup now includes more than 4,500 members.
Cohome launched in October 2016 in several French cities. Laura Choisy came up with the idea when she started out as a freelancer a few years ago. She found herself alone after having shared an open space with her communication agency colleagues for a long time. The days had become long and heavy, while social interactions such as lunches or meetings – essential to working life – had become virtually non-existent. Laura then asked herself a simple question, “How can I keep the comfort of home while taking care of business?”
Laura Choisy and Madhu Desbois
The idea of Cohome is to present a viable alternative to classic coworking. Each person working at home can offer students, freelancers, job seekers, a framework of work at home, enough to encourage discovery, mutualization and openness. The “cohomers” thus meet different talents and personalities, which, according to Cohome, helps increase creativity. Cohoming competes with more traditional coworking options from a financial point of view since it costs only between 1 and 10 euros per day. Simply register on the platform and choose his city to receive cohoming proposals. Each city exceeding 100 registered users becomes visible on the site.
The two founders aim to reach 60,000 professionals across urban and rural France by the end of 2018. To fulfill these objectives, the company is recruiting developers and communication experts. Today, Cohome is available in 14 cities including Paris, Nantes, Lyon and Strasbourg.
This article is adapted from a Maddyness article originally in French.
