Vish Gain talks to Huckletree’s Gabriela Hersham and Web3 expert Pete Townsend about the co-working provider’s latest hub in the heart of London.

Situated where Twitter once had its European headquarters, Hucketree D2 has inhabited the iconic Dublin Academy building since it opened in Ireland just over five years ago.

Since then, it has provided office and co-working spaces to over 200 start-ups and businesses, including big names on its current roster of members such as fintech challenger Starling Bank, Irish cybersecurity startup Tines and startup Kinzen news curation. , which was recently acquired by Spotify.

Now, with 2023 right around the corner, UK-based Huckletree is gearing up for its latest location on London’s iconic Oxford Street. In addition, Huckletree’s seventh location on the two islands will focus on the emerging area of ​​Web3 and other related technologies.

“As a company, we’re very supportive of the broader innovation community, so we’ve always looked at the bigger macro picture and kept an eye on the biggest trends,” said Gabriela Hersham, Huckletree Co-Founder and CEO. SiliconRepublic.com in a recent interview.

“There are a lot of feelings about Web3, positive and negative, but you can’t ignore the fact that it is quite explosive and that, in some shape or form, it will most likely impact our lives on an ongoing basis. So we definitely wanted to get involved and build a space to support that.”

‘Real appetite for meeting in physical places’

In early 2023, Huckletree’s two-story, 22,000-square-foot central London hub will open its doors to entrepreneurs, engineers and investors looking to build the future of the web.

And while Web3 as a technology area has been around for a while, the fact that it seems to have taken off in recent years is one reason Hersham believes the Oxford Street hub comes at an opportune time for the nascent industry. around that.

“I think during these critical early moments is a very good time to build ecosystems and communities that really support those kinds of ideas and help build structures and networks that help support that innovative thinking.

“We’re also seeing within the Web3 space in general, that there’s a real appetite for meeting in physical locations,” he added.

Huckletree’s Oxford Street Web3 Centre. Image: Huckletree

To spearhead Huckletree’s push for Web3 technologies through the latest Oxford Street hub, the company has enlisted a leading expert in the space as an ambassador: Techstars CEO Pete Townsend.

Having led the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator in Dublin earlier this summer, Townsend is no stranger to Huckletree and is optimistic about the future of Web3 technologies.

“We hosted the first TechStars Web3 accelerator at Huckletree in Dublin in 2022, and it was a fantastic experience. There is so much energy, buzz and vibrancy in the place. And it was the perfect home for us,” he recently told SiliconRepublic.com.

“Running a hybrid program, which meant bringing people in for two weeks at the beginning of the program, then going remote for nine weeks, and then bringing people back for two weeks, the biggest thing is creating that magic. Moments between the different teams”.

A space for experts and novices alike

Townsend, who moderated a Web3 panel discussion at SilionRepublic.com’s Future Human event earlier this year, also believes that while Huckletree has been a big help to its Web3 accelerator, the company’s latest hub hasn’t. it will be populated only with Web3 experts.

“The plan is to be able to harness all the energy and momentum that Huckletree has built up in the startup space, particularly around Web2, and bring people into the Web3 space,” he said.

“At the same time, I don’t think [the Oxford Street hub] will be populated with ‘Web3 heads’. I think it’s going to be populated by a lot of people who are also curious about Web3 and how they can leverage some of those technologies for the benefit of their customers.”

But with disappointing value performance of most cryptocurrencies and no signs of the metaverse on the horizon anytime soon, is this a good time to invest in the Web3 space? Hersham shares some of Townsend’s optimism in this regard, arguing that the industry deserves attention.

“How I would rationalize that is that every industry has its ups and downs. Like if you look at the traditional stock market, it goes up, it goes down on a weekly basis, that’s right. So I would compare that to crypto in that way,” he said.

“I also think that because it’s so nascent, there are a lot of great ideas, and some will stick and some won’t. But my gut feeling really tells me that it’s here to stay, and that in some way, shape, or form over the next five years or a decade, Web3 is going to play a very significant role in our daily lives.”

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