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Lizelle van Rhyn, founder of Cape Town Office
Lizelle van Rhyn
Founder · Cape Town Office
About Cape Town Office

Built from scratch.
Still here. Still going.

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.

That was in 2011. I still work from here every day.

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The story

Why it exists and why it's still different

Cape Town Office wasn't born out of a business plan. It was born out of frustration. When I returned to Cape Town in 2011, the city I'd left had no coworking infrastructure -- nowhere for independent professionals, freelancers or remote workers to base themselves.

So I built one. The first in the city. Not the fanciest, not the biggest, but the one with the most genuine community. That's still true today.

Over fifteen years the space has grown -- from a small office on the 3rd floor of 62 Roeland Street to nearly 1,000 sqm across two floors -- but the reason it exists hasn't changed. A proper desk. Fast internet. Real people doing real work around you.

I also spent two years organising Fuckup Nights Cape Town -- a global event series where entrepreneurs share their most instructive failures publicly. We ran 24 chapters over two years, collaborating with CoCreate2Accelerate and the Dutch Consulate General. The last event sold out at 160 people in the room. Not a bad way to keep things honest.

2011
Founded -- Cape Town's first coworking space
15+
Years of community on Roeland Street
1,000
Square metres of workspace
140+
Five-star Google reviews
The timeline

From a small room to a proper space

2011
Cape Town Office opens
A small office on the 3rd floor of 62 Roeland Street. Scraped together on a shoestring and built on the belief that Cape Town needed somewhere for independent workers to actually work. The first coworking space in the city.
2015
The space grows
A 250 sqm space opened up on the 2nd floor of the building. With the help of talented designers, the first purpose-built version of CTO took shape -- proper desks, a real kitchen, meeting rooms that actually worked.
2016
Forbes -- Top 10 Coworking Spaces on Earth
Forbes named Cape Town Office one of the ten best coworking spaces in the world. The criteria wasn't about aesthetics or fit-out -- it was based on community engagement. Members responded to a survey. The space made the list because of the people in it.
2019
The rest of the 3rd floor
CTO expanded to take the full 3rd floor -- a much bigger kitchen and common room, showers for those who cycle in or surf before work, natural light throughout, and views of Table Mountain that never get old. By February 2020, the space had close to 130 members.
2020
Covid. Lockdown. Ten members left.
In March 2020, lockdown hit. Members with people-facing and events-based businesses shut down overnight. When CTO reopened in June 2020, there were ten members left. From 130 to 10. We could have closed. We didn't. We rebuilt.
2024
Cape Tourism -- Best Coworking Space
Cape Tourism recognised Cape Town Office as the best coworking space in Cape Town. Thirteen years in and still earning it.
Recognition

A few things we're proud of

We don't lead with awards. But when Forbes calls and Cape Tourism comes knocking, it's worth mentioning.

Forbes logo
Forbes · 2016
Top 10 Best Coworking Spaces on Earth
The Forbes ranking wasn't based on how nice the furniture is. It was based on community engagement -- members were surveyed directly. CTO made the global top ten because of the people who work here.
Read the Forbes article →
Cape Tourism Best Coworking Space 2024 badge
Cape Tourism · 2024
Best Coworking Space in Cape Town
Cape Tourism named CTO the best coworking space in Cape Town. After fifteen years, we'll take it.
Time Out Cape Town logo
Time Out Cape Town
11 Best Remote Working Spaces in Cape Town
Selected by local experts as one of the best remote working spaces in the city -- picked for community, location and the quality of the working environment.
Read the Time Out feature →
Coworker.com logo
Coworker.com
Consistently top-rated in Cape Town
On Coworker.com -- the world's largest coworking search platform -- CTO consistently receives top ratings from members and visitors, with Lizelle mentioned by name in the majority of reviews.

What members and visitors say on Google

Real reviews from real people who've worked here. No curation, no filtering.

★★★★★ 5.0
140+ Google reviews
The community

This is as much your office as it is mine

The awards are nice. The Google reviews are gratifying. But what I'm most proud of is something you can't screenshot -- the community that's built up here over fifteen years.

Members who've been here since 2012. People who met at CTO and went on to collaborate, partner, hire each other. Photographers, developers, coaches, production teams, legal professionals, AI researchers -- real people doing real work, side by side.

There's banana bread on Thursdays. There's an AI Show & Tell most months. There's Vinyl & Wine when the turntable comes out. There's a WhatsApp group that's mostly useful and occasionally very funny.

None of that is in the brochure. But it's the reason people stay.

Members at Cape Town Office community event

Come and see what we've built.

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