I came back to Cape Town after more than a decade abroad and looked for somewhere to work. Not a café. Not a spare bedroom. A proper desk, fast internet, and people around me doing real work.
There was nowhere. So I found a space on Roeland Street, scraped some money together, and opened Cape Town Office. The first coworking space in the city open to anyone, regardless of sector.
That was in 2011. I still work from CTO every day. The space has grown, the community has grown, but the reason it exists hasn't changed.