Secure internet access attracts KFC, Uber to co-working space

An Australian co-working space is attracting big names to its Melbourne offices by providing secure internet access.

Tobi Skovron has a secret recipe that’s drawn the likes of KFC, Uber and PwC to his growing co-working space brand.

He’s also drawn investment from Atlassian futurist Dom Price, Flight Centre founder Geoff Harris, PwC partner Lawrence Goldstone and catch.com.au chairman Gary Levin.

Part of that recipe is a $5m investment in IT infrastructure that sees two on-site engineers roam his five Melbourne venues to provide support against malware, cyber-attacks, tech outages and surges.

Mr Skovron said secure internet access is becoming increasingly important for global companies who are doing away with larger commercial offices and are looking to host staff in smaller spaces.

“The security of these organisations in order to load into a co-working space include some pretty stringent like requirements, and I wasn’t going to miss out on a deal because of our internet,” he said.

“The IT infrastructure for us feels like a basic necessity. Internet connectivity is really important, but the way in which the internet is connected, is probably more important.”

Mr Skovron said having a secure facility had become so important he’d even received a visit from the technology chiefs from KFC and PwC before striking a deal with both corporations to rent space in his venues.

Part of the package at CreativeCubes includes each company having its own VLAN (virtual local area network), advanced firewall systems and access to the roaming engineers.

The business has seen the most growth on the back of Covid, Mr Skovron said.

“What companies have come to realise is staff want to work in a space that’s comfortable and organisations such as ours need to be able to support that in order to grow our membership base,” he said.

The company’s latest property is a three-floor space in Collingwood spanning 3500 sqm. Other locations include Hawthorn, South Melbourne, Richmond and Carlton.

Mr Skovron said up to four venues would be opened over the next year in Melbourne and the brand would also expand into Sydney, which he would like to be his biggest market.

For now there are between 4000 and 5000 members who rent space on a per-seat or per-desk basis.

Mr Skovron said he’d long been on a mission to establish a US-like co-working space culture in Australia.

Prior to setting up the business, he’d spent several years bumping elbows with the likes of Snap Inc and Uber employees when he worked out of former Google Headquarters turned now closed co-working space Real Office Centres in Santa Monica.

“I’d go for lunch with these guys every day, hanging out with a front end or back end developer for any one of these platforms,” he said. “I’ve tried to emulate that environment in CreativeCubes in a very different way, in a very Australian way.

“Just a few weeks ago, Shaquille O’Neal came through and spent an hour and a half hanging out at cubes and talking to members.”