Thank you to Roland Schaller from Atelier9 Coworking and Rui Narciso from Ex-Machina Café for a great chat and insights into how you both built up your businesses here in Nyon.
Ex-Machina and Atelier9 stand side by side for a reason – together they shifted Nyon dynamics! There are many similarities and interesting synergies between their two origin stories.
Ex-Machina opened its doors in March 2017 but before we dive into how it developed, it’s interesting to hear how the location was found in the competitive Nyon real estate markets.
RUI: “After months of looking for locations and not finding the right one due to the high rental costs, availability, etc. I woke up one morning with the urge to go for a walk around Nyon. As I walked around the town I saw a car parked in front of this building and the door was slightly ajar. I had a look inside and saw a lady in her textile shop….”
Needless to say, the place required a lot of imagination and work to get it together. But just like that, through an unexpected opportunity, he found what we now know today as the location of Café Ex-Machina.
Atelier9’s story was similar. It opened its doors in September 2018.
Roland Schaller had been on the lookout for a space that would allow him to develop a coworking concept. He had seen it offered in other places and wanted to bring something similar to Nyon.
ROLAND: “I was in contact with the owner and discovered the atelier was not renewing its lease, but there was a lot of competition for the location. One of the other people interested in renting it was Rui! We were lucky enough to get the space but like Rui we had a lot of renovation work cut out for us.”
Funnily enough, the reason Rui wanted to rent what’s now the A9 space was for exactly the same reason. He had realised how many people were coming to the café simply to work and identified a need for a coworking space in town. Somewhere that was informal and relaxed, where people felt good to come and work away from home.
RUI: “When I was told that unfortunately I couldn’t have the space I was in fact delighted to hear who was getting it instead and what their plans were for it. It was the best of both worlds for me as it was clearly needed but I didn’t have to take on the project myself.”
ROLAND: “And the fact that Ex-Machina was already here encouraged us, as we saw how this previously isolated area of Nyon was slowly starting to get more traffic. Had it not been there we might not have selected this location.”
RUI: “Finding a name was difficult. I wanted to respect the area and how it used to be where the Roman Forum was. But I also wanted a modern element to it. Ex-Machina was the perfect name because translated from Latin it means “coming out of the machine”. It’s from a Greek tragedy where they say Deus ex-machina – God steps out of a lift (a machine) and what it means is “opportunities are where you least expect them”. I had so many moments where I felt guided on my journey of opening up the café, to me, what it really represented was to stay open minded and trust.”
ROLAND: “I didn’t know that. – Atelier 9 was a simpler process! It was an Atelier located at number 9 :-)”
RUI: “The international community were the first to adopt our concepts. They were more willing to try out the new concepts of the café as much as the coworking. For that we are very grateful. They brought a lot of vibrancy to this area in our early days.”
ROLAND: “It was the same for us. Previously our clientele hiring the desks in the co-working spaces were made up of almost exclusively the international community. Then bit by bit we started to get more Swiss people too. Today we have about 50% of each, which is a great mix.
Before settling on their projects however, both Roland and Rui went through a career “re-thinking” phase. What did they step away from and how did they manage it? Stay tuned for our upcoming article on the topic.