My Placa: A homely touch of comfort and familiarity

Upon stepping into My Placa, one gets a sense of being in the comforts of a cozy home, complete with a compact pantry and even a mini-gym of sorts in the corner.

Such is the aim of the founders of My Placa: giving people a place where they can get some work done while also allowing for those who need some ‘me time’ to chill and relax.

“We don’t actually classify ourselves as a ‘co-working space’. We call it a co-working space only because there is no other way of defining it,” co-founder Diana Bong, who mostly manages the space, explained to BizHive Weekly.

“We envision My Placa to be like a second place to home where you can work comfortably without distractions like in cafes, which primarily a co- working space does.

“But, we didn’t want to make this a place that is only for work. When we first founded My Placa, we held the mission of’meeting new friends and exploring opportunities.”

The name My Placa came about from a typo in a Whatsapp group chat between co-founders Bong, Elsa Tan, Kenny Ang and Ho Yun Tzan.

On how My Placa attracts customers to its space, Tan shared that, while they have yet to figure out the best way to promote it,

cmyk they are currently relying on social media and word-of-mouth.

“If you realise, we actually have a sub-title ‘The Experiment’, My Placa – The Experiment. The four of us ( co- founders), we got no experience in doing business, so we call this an experiment because we don’t know what exactly is the best way to promote.

“The usual (methods) will be by social media and word-of-mouth. We take this as a platform and opportunity to try out different strategies and types of promotions during different periods,” Tan said.

Key attractive features

With a growing number of freelancers and part- timers in Kuching, Bong believes that, there is definitely a market here for unique spaces such as My Placa.

My Placa is also open to students who want to study for exam preparations or complete assignments. In fact, in the first few months of its opening, which coincidentally was also the exam period, My Placa saw a rise in singups from students.

“We were not expecting high school students to patronise our space. Also, medical professionals who have exams will come to My Placa to study. Only in the last two months id we start to see freelancers and digital nomads coming in.”

Additionally, part-timers such as direct salespeople tend to frequent My Placa, as they find it a convenient space to do product presentations, instead of conducting these at their own homes.

One of the main highlights of My Placa, aside from its location of being nearer to residential areas and less rigid working-studying environment, is attributed to its coffee machine, an investment which is paying off for the cofounders.

“We have this coffee machine which seems to be one of the attractions. This is because it is an espresso-based coffee machine, and they get to be hands-on, making the coffee themselves,” Bong enthused.

“That has become a popular feature, to the extent that when it is a customer’s first time coming in here, the first thing they will ask is ‘where’s the coffee machine?’.

“We don’t actually classify ourselves as a ‘co-working space’. We call it a co-working space only because there is no other way of defining it.” Diana Bong, MyPlaca co-founder