For much of the past decade, the flexible workspace industry told itself a story about speed. Secure the buildings, sign the long leases, and fill the desks later. Venture capital paid for the land grab, and headlines celebrated square metres added rather than profits earned. We all know how that chapter ended for the sector’s most famous name. WeWork’s 2023 bankruptcy filing became shorthand for what happens when expansion outruns economics.
Now a very different story is circulating. In a recent Coworking Europe podcast, Adam Zvada, founder and CEO of Czech operator Scott.Weber Workspace, described a business that has grown for well over a decade without taking on debt. He says it has kept EBITDA margins at around 20% for most of that time. It isn’t the flashiest growth story in the market. That may be exactly why investors are starting to pay attention.
The numbers behind the “boring” model
Scott.Weber was founded in Prague in 2009. Today it operates 17 locations covering roughly 75,000 sqm. More than 10,000 people from around 1,200 companies work there, and the company reports a share of about 40% of the Czech flexible workspace market. If four more centres are secured, the portfolio will grow to 21 sites and nearly 80,000 sqm.
What stands out is how it got there. Zvada didn’t borrow. He reinvested the cash generated by existing centres into new ones. Growth was slower in the early years, but every new location was effectively paid for by the ones before it. Once cash flow was strong enough, the company could afford acquisitions, and that is how a local brand became the market leader in a consolidating market.
This matters in an industry whose core risk is the gap between long-term lease obligations and short-term customer contracts. Debt widens that gap, and a cash-funded model narrows it. When demand dips, an operator without loan covenants has more room to wait, renegotiate or simply ride out the storm.
Selling hospitality, not square metres
The second part of the playbook is positioning. Zvada increasingly describes Scott.Weber as a hospitality company rather than a real estate company. Its offer rests on three pillars: customer care, hospitality and lifestyle. Members get food, wellness, fitness and events on top of the desks and meeting rooms. The flagship is a renovated 1905 heritage building on Náměstí Republiky in central Prague, which recently won a Czech Office of the Year award in the hub and coworking category.
There is sound financial logic here. A desk is a commodity, and a consistently excellent experience isn’t. Zvada compares it to premium hotels, where guests happily pay more because they know what they’ll get. The company employs around 150 people, many of them at headquarters working on product development, customer experience and operational processes. In other words, Scott.Weber invests in its operating platform, not only in its buildings.
The model has a weak spot, though. Premium service costs money in staff and fit-out. Zvada himself admits that customers comparing price per desk don’t always see the added value at first, and often only discover it after they’ve moved in. For operators thinking of copying the approach, that is a sales challenge worth taking seriously.
Why investors are listening now
The timing of this conversation isn’t accidental. Flex has matured. Large corporates now treat flexible offices as a normal part of their real estate strategy, and investors understand the model and its risks far better than they did five years ago.
Different investors are looking for different things. Private equity wants recurring revenue and predictable cash flow. Strategic operators want to consolidate fragmented markets. Hospitality groups see flexible workspace as a natural extension of what they already do. A long record of profitability gives an operator like Scott.Weber a strong position in all three conversations. The company has also signed its first management agreement with a landlord for a premium Prague location, which gives it a way to grow without adding new lease liabilities.
One caveat is worth stating. Zvada’s argument is about established, profitable operators, not the sector as a whole. A 20% margin in Prague doesn’t prove that every coworking space is investable. It does, however, show what an investable flex business looks like.
Lessons for operators everywhere
You don’t need to be in Prague, or run 17 centres, to learn from this approach.
- Let your centres prove themselves. Before opening location number two, ask whether location number one could pay for it. If it can’t, find out why before you scale the problem.
- Know your unit economics per site. Portfolio averages hide underperformers. Margin, occupancy and revenue per square metre should be visible centre by centre.
- Compete on service, and measure it. If you want premium prices, you need premium consistency. Member feedback and service KPIs belong in the same report as your financials.
- Keep investor-ready books, even if you never plan to sell. Clean, transparent figures strengthen your hand with landlords, banks and potential partners alike.
The investable version of flex
The flex industry doesn’t need fewer ambitious operators. It needs more operators who can show their numbers. As consolidation picks up across Europe, those with clean balance sheets and steady margins will be the ones choosing their partners rather than being chosen.
