“Yes, we travelled backward and forwards
and thankfully we had Skype to help us
keep in touch. We graduated at the same
time in 2013, got corporate jobs and
finally moved in together in London. We
were quite happy with our jobs initially,
they were exciting and it was like a new
stage of life. But we realised that we didn’t
want to be stuck in the corporate lifestyle.
I think because we studied entrepreneurial
subjects, we both had a deep drive in us
to do something different, we were just
waiting for the idea,” Joe adds.
Coralie says they knew they wanted to
travel, do something international. “My
family was in Mauritius and I found it
silly that I had to plan my holiday: ask my
manager, make sure that my team was OK
with the date. When I only had my laptop, that’s the only thing I needed, so, in
theory, I could work just anyway I wanted.
There’s a disconnection between the tools
we have and the lifestyle we have to follow.
BANZA
I didn’t have enough holiday time to stay
in Mauritius, so I asked my boss to let
me work from Mauritius because it was a
small, flexible company. But then I moved
I moved to a bigger company where it
didn’t work like that.”
Joe thinks his interest in coworking
stemmed from university when he was
working on his dissertation. “I used to
work in the library with my friends and it
was a productive environment; working
with many people, but not doing the same
work and you can chat about many things.
I would later work for a tech company,
which was open and forward thinking, but
it didn’t have the same feeling, it was not
diverse and there were all sorts of office
politics. We used to travel out to unwind
from the hustle and bustle of London and
during one camping weekend we came up
with the idea of DodoWorkPlay.”