Founder@ Interview
Interview with
Tori Donnelly
“You will never know enough. You will always be forced to make a decision without fully understanding what is coming. As a founder, that is just something you have to get comfortable with..” – Tori Donnelly
Today we feature Tori Donnelly, the founder at WorkClub. We hear their story in their own words, their successes, their challenges and their insights.
Let’s start by getting to know you. Can you please tell us a little bit about you and what you do?
I am a native Minnesotan with a passion for coffee, brunch, and running. I am a co-founder of WorkClub – a platform that connects the UK’s vibrant remote workforce with flexible workspaces and meeting rooms across the UK. I run all things social and brand for WorkClub. A creative at heart!
A great introduction and start to this interview. Can you please tell us, how did you start, from what age, and what made you decide to change direction and start?
WorkClub started back in 2017 when I was studying for my MBA at Richmond American University in London. When an over-crowded, dark and uninviting library was the only place to work, or for me at the time – study, I began to seek out alternative options.
Just across the road was a beautiful 5-star hotel with a fully equipped cafe and reliable wifi. I often found myself popping in and out to use the space. However, as the months passed, the lobby completely took over the library for me and I was happier than ever.
Great coffee, speedy-fast WiFi, comfortable chairs, and ample amounts of natural light. I was sorted! This is when it came to me – a ‘workspace’ is so much more than a dark, overcrowded room. A workspace is a place of creativity and comfort, wherever they may be.
Thank you for that insight. So can you tell us…What does your business do and where is your company based?
WorkClub provides access to 180+ workspaces and meeting rooms across London and the UK. We’re on a mission to transform under-utilised real estate into productive co-working spaces, and to provide flexible, affordable environments across London, that break the boundaries of the traditional office.
What’s the story behind your success? What led to your aha moment? how did you get to where you are now?
Simply having a good idea will not guarantee that you’ll soon be running a successful startup. You need support, funds, industry knowledge, and sometimes a bit of luck to make something a success.
When my husband and I started WorkClub, all we had was a brand name, a coffee shop owner willing to work with us, and social media. We equipped ourselves with all the free tools we could find to promote our new idea to the local community we were working within. At first, our messaging was wrong, but we realised our brand did a lot of the talking for us – work club – a club for people to work from. With a bit of trial and error, we found the right messaging to attract local people to work and meet from this coffee shop in Maple Plain, Minnesota, rather than going into the office or working from home.
This was our aha moment. We grew the business very originally for the first year or so, before raising our pre-seed round in Q4 of 2019. Then COVID hit and our good business idea turns into a wildly popular startup. We are still very early in our journey, however, the help from our co-founder, Upile Chasowa, the rest of our incredible team, and our 500+ investors have taken us from an idea into one of the leading remote working tools in the UK.
Thank you for sharing that. What’s been your life’s biggest lesson so far?
My biggest lesson so far has been learning to work with my husband. Running a business with your spouse has its ups and of course, there are the downs. I believe it’s about fully committing to our partnership, in and out of work, which so far, has lead to a happy life, which has evolved into us having our first child, in September 2019. To help improve our working and living situation (don’t forget during lockdown we literally lived and worked together 24/7), you must set boundaries, as well as have clearly defined roles so there is no overlap.
Although overlap does sometimes happen, we do our best to maintain clear boundaries. There is nothing I or Nick would do differently, life is a journey of learning and we are students of that.
A global pandemic was going to strike, therefore hire more remote-first employees than employees wishing to be in an office 5-days a week.
If you were to go back in time, what piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
I grew up in Maple Plaine, Minnesota. To me, this is home, to others, it’s a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Entrepreneurship was never mentioned during my school days, which now makes me question why. Exposure to the concept of entrepreneurship should be given from the early stages of education.
It will 100% help students evolve their ideas and creative thinking into meaningful projects and activities which could help kick-start their careers and maybe even change the world. If I was to give advice to my younger self it would be to spend more time with my Dad, working in his business and learning the trade. Since I was 6, my Dad has run his own real estate business. He really has been part of the inspiration for me taking on the role as co-found of WorkClub.
We’re nearly halfway through our interview so it’s a great time to ask how does your business run. What three tools make your business run better?
1. Slack: The best collaborative tool we have on the WorkClub team. This tool is a crucial element for the success and smooth operation of WorkClub. The platform encourages our employees to team up smartly and efficiently, allowing everyone to exchange ideas with each other in a fun and productive way.
2. XERO: If you can not keep track of your company expenses and income, everything will collapse and crumble. Hence, it’s always best for business to have accounting tools to avoid situations like this from happening. The reason we use XERO is because it tracks all our income and expenses, monitoring cash flow and processing all payrolls. Whatever your business’s cash flow situation is, accounting tools always have a way of helping you manage and organize the finances.
3. ClubHouse: This tool is a task management tool that overall helps increase the team’s productivity and improves our workflow, resource planning, and business intelligence. Clubhouse also lessens procrastination, which is key for Millennials and GenX employees.
What do you know now that you wished you had known before?
A global pandemic was going to strike, therefore hire more remote-first employees than employees wishing to be in an office 5-days a week.
What has been your greatest or proudest achievement or moment?
Closing our pre-seed was a great achievement for Upile, Nick, and I. We were only a small band of three and we managed to raise £352,000 to test our ideas and to build the best product for the market.
What future life goals do you want to achieve and why?
All I want from WorkClub is for it to have the biggest positive impact possible on people’s lives.
To finish our inspire questions…”We believe that sharing inspiring words can inspire others.” If there was one positive thing you would say to someone to inspire and empower them what would it be and why?
You will never know enough. You will always be forced to make a decision without fully understanding what is coming. As a founder, that is just something you have to get comfortable with.
“Thank you it has been great learning more about your founder story and WorkClub”
To learn more about WorkClub Visit www.workclubhq.com
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