CO3, Probably South East Asia’s Coolest Office Launched in Malaysia

Malaysia based co-working space startup CO3 Social Office officially launched their first office location in Puchong, Malaysia today. The opening of the Puchong office marks the completion of the first out of five offices the company had planned.

Early this year, the startup revealed their ideology in Connexion at Nexus, Bangsar South. During the 1,500 people event, the team from CO3 presented their plan to deliver the “coolest office in Malaysia” by June 2017. In the same event, they had also announced the plan to open 5 offices in 12 months.

“We have said it, now we have done it”, said Yong Chen Hui, Founder & CEO of CO3 Social Office. “The journey wasn’t easy but our aspiration took us here.”

"We have said it, now we have done it". said Yong, CEO of CO3
“We have said it, now we have done it”, said Yong, CEO of CO3

In celebration of the first workspace opening, the team organised a weeklong celebration including two housewarmings, a grand opening ceremony, and an exclusive social gathering with Bruneian artist Goh Kiat Chun or better known as Wu Chun. Now a full-time entrepreneur, the ex-singer Wu Chun is the non-executive director of the newly launched co-working space. As part of the weeklong celebration, the 44-year-old entrepreneur shared his rich experiences in entrepreneurship with a group of young influencers.

Wu Zun, one of CO3 co-founders having a sharing session with Malaysia's top social media influencers

When asked about the differentiating factors that set CO3 apart from the existing co-working offices in the region, Yong brought up an interesting point. The “heartware” he said. He explained that besides the hardware (the facilities) and the software (the mentor supports and business networks) which almost every co-working office provides, CO3 social office is promoting an intangible spirit called the “heartware”.

It’s made up of 3 key elements namely freedom, dignity, and trust. “We allow ideas to travel freely within this space, we promote the concept of same rank where everyone has their own space, and we want to build trust within the members,” he added.

The spirit of CO3 is to allow free travel of ideas between the members

Further embodying the spirit of “heartware”, this co-working space allows flexible leasing for as short as a month and an adopted honor system for the food and beverages in the workspace. Additionally, all the net proceeds from the honor system will be donated to charitable causes.

Built upon CO3 honor system, members pay for their food and beverages without any supervision.
Built upon CO3’s honor system, members pay for their food and beverages without any supervision.

With millennials slowly taking over the workforce, talent attraction and retention is more challenging than ever. Hence the company is confident that augmenting the importance of human-centric “heartware” will be an alternative solution to talent retention.

Yong, CEO of CO3 giving a speech on the importance of "Heartware"
Yong giving a speech on the importance of "Heartware".

CO3 Social Office also positioned itself as a unique concept that can be implemented in existing corporate environments and real-estate locations, improving their appeal to the new generation of white collar professionals, on top of optimising the utilisation of their existing assets.

Jeff Ong, Executive Director of CO3 explained that many offices have unutilised real estates like meeting rooms or under-utilised real estates like manager rooms. Co-working space helps companies to turn these real estate cost into revenue.

CO3 maximizes the value of real estates by having shared meeting rooms, brainstorm area, and other facilities among the members.

On the day of the launch, Yong also revealed that the 22,000 sq feet working space has achieved more than 80% occupancy, with 200 members from various professions including the legal, corporate secretary, production house, event, media, and tech startup industries. CO3 Social Office is not just the coolest office in Malaysia, but it’s also the largest of its kind in the region. Believing in the concept of constant growth, the team had planned to outdo their current accomplishment. Yong stated that this first office is built to prove the concept of co-working area in Malaysia. Ready to achieve their next goal, they are eyeing their second location which will take up 80,000 sq feet in a 5 storey building. The location is 4 times larger than its predecessor and is said to be along Jalan Semangat. When asked about the remaining 3 locations, Yong explained that scouting process is ongoing. Though the exact locations are not finalised, the team is looking to complete these locations by Q2 2018.

More shots of CO3 Social Office:

A bright red plane in the middle of the office to usher the members TO FLY.