Wework’s Stafford Masie champions coworking spaces

General Manager for Wework SA Stafford Masie boasts an impressive résumé, having established Google in SA and orchestrated its broader Africa strategy in his former role as CEO of Google SA. Here, he shares his approach to growing a brand and connecting Africa with the world through innovation

in most peoples’ Eyes, stafford masie

is the yardstick for success, though he believes his journey is a work in progress. He admits he’s been lucky. ‘From a technology perspective, somehow I’ve always been at the right place at the right time, and been prepared for the opportunity,’ he says. When he launched his career in the technology space, at Telkom in the early ’90s, the internet didn’t have a graphical user interface yet, and there was no browser. ‘I was fortunate because at the time Telkom was the largest network in South Africa. I was part of its team of network analysts.’ As one of the first people to experience the internet in its original form, he says he knew, even back then, that it’d be big, and he recalls playing with the first browser. ‘We were fortunate to be the first to get it and use it, and the network was big enough for us to do it.’ His career highlights include working for Novell South Africa, where he first met businessman and software engineer Eric Schmidt. The then CEO of Novell was visiting to engage with Masie’s customers. Masie moved to the US to work for Schmidt, who went on to become the CEO of Google. Masie’s luck continued. Seven years later, Stafford returned to South Africa and launched Google’s first sub-saharan presence.

‘It was an interesting time. I launched mainstream services such as Youtube and maps. co.za. We localised a lot, and I was involved in exciting projects such as Google Street View.’ He was instrumental in the success of Google as a brand in South Africa and has since invested in and co-founded several technology startups. One of these, he says, was the product of a tragic situation. ‘Someone lost a baby because they couldn’t make a payment and having experienced that trauma, I turned my attention to financial services.’ It was his conviction that led him to create Thumbzup in the early days of financial technology. He began by building a small device that plugs into your cellphone and enables it to act as a mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) payment solution that securely processes credit- and debit-card transactions. ‘Absa launched it under the name Payment Pebble. We later made the device available globally, launching it in Australia,’ he adds. Fast forward to 2020, and Masie’s the General Manager of Wework SA, and when we catch up with him, its Cape Town branch has just been launched. Located on Strand Street, it’s the third in SA – the first two are in SA’S prime economic hubs in Joburg, The Link in Rosebank and 155 West Street in Sandton.

GQ: What was it about Wework that captured your attention? Stafford Masie:

The concept is fascinating. When I looked at it, I thought,

“wow!” Personifying this value proposition within the context of Africa would be interesting.

When I understood Wework more in terms of what it offers, I realised, as an entrepreneur who’s started multiple businesses, that if

I had a Wework as an African start-up, I could take my business global quicker, scale more rapidly and hire highly skilled people from around the world. The idea was to launch the first of its kind on the African continent, and to build an African strategy within that. I needed to make sure that when Wework thinks about Africa, it’s not in an American or European sense, but rather in alignment with Africa’s goals and aspirations.

GQ: What’s your approach to growing the Wework brand in SA?

SM: We aren’t simply providing aesthetically pleasing office space but, most importantly, we’re accelerating African innovation, for Africa, which exposes our greatest talents and ideas to the rest of the world. The second phase involves introducing the strategy in a tangible way. People are doing it. Entrepreneurs are boarding planes carrying Wework cards they bought in Joburg, and are tapping into a Wework office in London after they’ve landed. They just walk in and connect. We make the world a village.

GQ: In your opinion, what makes your business model successful?

SM: What Wework’s former CEO Adam Neumann did with Wework spoke to me. I wanted to be part of that story. There’s no business in the world like it; it’s an anomaly, a brand-new category of industry he calls “the world’s largest physical social network”. To create something like this requires mavericks. With Wework, you can source skills globally. If you’re an African startup operating out of a garage and you’re trying to source a Java engineer in Sydney, a UX designer in Hong Kong and an app developer in London, it’s extremely difficult because, first of all, where are they going to work from? How will they connect? These complexities and costs are prohibitive, but Wework makes it simpler and and more possible.

GQ: Walking into Wework is like looking into the future. What does a typical day look like?

SM: Wework has over

662 000 members in its spaces, in 140 cities around the world, so operating this business across the Wework eco-system is a huge opportunity, from a business perspective. Over

70% of its members conduct business with other members, so it’s not just a beautiful space to occupy. People come here to live, work and play. At the core of it, everything that happens at Wework is about impact. For example, Wepride is a service we offer the LGBTQ community, complete with Wepride events.

The free coffee we offer our members isn’t just free coffee; the barista who serves it is a deaf, black woman, so it’s coffee with impact. Millennials care more about the meaning associated with their cup of coffee than whether it’s free. Where people from this generation live, work and play is a pivotal question to startups, from the smallest to the biggest enterprises.

GQ: Tell us about your wellness room.

SM: We host mental-health events in our spaces, and physical wellness is also a big thing. As Wework’s General Manager, I’m focussing on doing more work in that space. My wife, Lisa, is a nutrition and wellness coach, so we’d like to use this space to create awareness. We’re also one of the largest meat-free companies in the world.

GQ: How is technology disrupting the way traditional offices work?

SM: Two things occurred in 2007: the iphone was introduced, and millennials became 50% of the world’s working class. But in 2030, that number is expected to rise to over 70%, which means the technologically enabled’s outlook will be different compared to that of the generations before them. For them, impact and purpose are more important than working in an office from nine to five, so I think the challenge for enterprises is in finding, hiring and retaining this generation. The future of work and recruiting for, and accommodating, innovation are challenges for emerging buisinesses and large enterprises alike. Impact and purpose must be pivotal to our visions and strategies. Wework offers these folks a place to create, work, live and play.

GQ: Tell us about your passion for making a difference in Africa.

SM: I’ve always been passionate about African innovation because social impact is important here. The next Twitter, Facebook or Google won’t come from here, but the next Facebook of Water Purification or Google of Healthcare will. Innovation in Africa isn’t the fun stuff; it’s human-impact innovation that means the most. People are doing this on the African continent because here’s where it’s needed most. I believe innovation will happen in

Africa during this decade. Wework couldn’t have launched here at a better time.

GQ: What’s your advice for would-be entrepreneurs?

SM: If you’re led by a conviction as opposed to market opportunity, somehow the dots connect, and they never do so in a forwards direction. As Steve Jobs once said, ‘stay hungry, stay foolish’. I love what he says about the dots connecting backwards, but the only way you can make them do that is if you love what you’re doing. Love can be driven by a conviction many times, from a professional perspective. All the things I worked on didn’t always make sense at the time, monetarily, but I had a conviction that led me to the right places. Now, when I look back over my shoulder, I see that the dots connect, but it wasn’t something

I planned.