#394 Peter Demidov, General Manager Germany @ Mindspace: Wie Communities den Workspace der Zukunft prägen

·55 min·4 clips

Peter rented a Soviet-era cellar apartment next to a Baku motorway as Rocket Internet's first Azerbaijan office, then had to host World Bank investors there in suits while sitting on 50-year-old sofas.

1. New Work Chat host Gabriel interviews Peter Demidov, General Manager Germany at Mindspace, a co-working and flex-office company with 45 locations in 7 countries. 2. Peter, originally from Russia, grew up in Hamburg from age 3 and has lived in Berlin for six years; his career arc runs from Rocket Internet's Azerbaijan operations through fintech, foodtech, and delivery logistics before landing at Mindspace. 3. The episode's core argument is that uncertainty about the future of office work is not a problem but an opportunity, and that the design, community, and local identity principles Mindspace applies are what separates productive flex space from mere desk rental. 4. Peter's first job at Rocket Internet sent him to Baku, Azerbaijan to build an eBay copycat — he was selected because he was willing to go somewhere unusual and could speak Russian, arrived without contacts or a plan, and had to build an office, hire a team, and create an e-commerce business from scratch over two and a half years. 5. His first office was a 900-euro-per-month Soviet-era apartment in the basement of an old-town building, accessible through a corridor where older women sold produce; World Bank investors from Washington flew in wearing suits and had to sit with him on 50-year-old sofas, but eventually invested because the frugality signaled cost discipline. 6. Peter describes the Rocket Internet management culture as one of 'basic tension from morning to evening': monthly calls with Oliver Samwer where managers were addressed by country rather than name and had to walk through massive KPI spreadsheets under pressure. 7. He argues Rocket Internet was 'an incredibly good school' because there is no university equivalent to being thrown into a new market with aggressive goals and no handbook, and that it launched many significant careers. 8. After Rocket, Peter worked at a fintech remittance startup in England, then joined Ritual (a food-pickup startup) to open the Dutch market, giving him his first sustained contact with co-working spaces through WeWork offices in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. 9. The COVID pandemic ended Ritual's business model overnight; Peter moved to Delivery Hero, where he spent four years building a B2B product connecting restaurants with suppliers, scaling to eight markets in six months — which he describes as 'a bit too fast in retrospect.' 10. After leaving Delivery Hero, Peter met Mindspace co-founders Dan and Jota, who described the company's vision for Germany and the uncertain future of flex space — an uncertainty Peter found immediately familiar and appealing. 11. Mindspace was founded in Tel Aviv in 2014, opened its second location at Berlin's Friedrichstraße almost immediately, and now operates in New York, London, Israel, Germany, Romania, Poland, and the Netherlands. 12. The company's founding philosophy, as described by Peter, was to take existing co-working infrastructure and add soul: a distinct vibe created through design details, people, music, smells, and community that makes each location recognizable as Mindspace regardless of city. 13. Designer Nama sources each location's character elements by hand at Berlin's underground flea market networks — described as the largest in Germany — filling two suitcases per trip with found objects rather than pre-ordering standardized decor. 14. Three client segments use Mindspace: startups and scale-ups (the historical core), large enterprises and corporates (a growing segment as companies seek flexible real estate to hedge uncertainty), and individual freelancers booking single desks or rooms. 15. Peter notes that companies like Anthropic use real estate portfolio firms that require a percentage of office space to be flexible, which is driving enterprise uptake of Mindspace locations. 16. Mindspace differentiates its 'community' pillar from parties and beer events: it means structured connection between members, community managers, events, panels, and sports activities designed to create an experience rather than just shared space. 17. Each location takes on its own local identity based on the members inside it and the neighborhood surrounding it — the Skalitzerstraße location in Kreuzberg reflects Kreuzberg, the Zimmerstraße location reflects Berlin Mitte. 18. The episode is conversational and anecdote-driven, with Gabriel asking about Peter's career history and present-day Mindspace operations; the tone is warm and practical. 19. Founders, remote workers evaluating office options, and corporate real estate professionals thinking about flex strategies would find the most direct relevance in this episode. 20. Listeners interested in co-working design theory or tech startup culture outside the German context would find this episode more personal narrative than structural analysis.

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