Jamie Hodari, CEO of coworking operator Industrious, has used his experience as an entrepreneur and journalist for the Times of India to master his storytelling and listening traits.
When he was around 23 years old, Hodari said he started a list of business ideas that he would update through the years, marking out ideas when someone else started them. Eventually, he started Kepler, a large private college scholarship program for orphans of the Rwandan genocide in Rwanda.
After spending time working out of less-than-ideal shared workspaces, he and cofounder Justin Stewart started brainstorming to create their own coworking company.
“I think we probably built an executive team with a deep strategic background, with a bit more experience than would be normal for a company of that size,” said Hodari.
Although Hodari avoided competitors in his early list-making days, he has come to value competition as it makes it easier on the industry as a whole. Through major marketing campaigns and public gatherings from other operators, people are able to discover the general idea of coworking spaces in a market, which in turn saves money and time that can be used towards making the best space possible.
