People ask how smallworld started. We never set out to build a technology company. We wanted a place where people could do good work.
How it started
In 2011, Phnom Penh barely had a startup scene. There were talented people, but they were scattered, working from home or from cafés or not at all. Nowhere to meet other founders, no events to bring people together.
So we opened smallworld as a co-working space. Desks, chairs, decent internet. It turned into more than that.
What it taught us
For years we tried to connect founders with investors, and most of those investments failed. The companies that worked were led by founders who had spent months in the space first, building relationships and testing ideas before anyone wrote a cheque. The space created more value than any money we could have raised. Infrastructure came before investment, though it took us a while to see it in those terms.
We also learned we couldn't force a community into being. We could set up the conditions, a space and events and introductions, then let it grow. Our best events were the simplest: weekly lunches, peer sessions, Friday drinks. Showing up regularly mattered more than the format did.
And in Cambodia, who you know often counts for more than what you know. The space led to hundreds of introductions between engineers, designers and founders. Many turned into partnerships, co-founders and investments.
What changed
The space ran for five years. In 2016 we reorganized to build companies directly.
We kept what made it work. KOOMPI, Selendra, VitaminAir, StadiumX and Riverbase each do the same thing in their own way: make a place, physical or digital, where people can do good work.
What's left of it
The original space is gone. The community it helped start is still going, the companies founded there are still running, and the relationships it created still matter. Some of the best-known Cambodian startups of the last decade trace back to a connection made in that little co-working space.
When we build now, we are still thinking about space. KOOMPI builds learning spaces in schools. Selendra builds digital infrastructure for businesses. StadiumX builds gathering places for sports fans. Every one of them is a place where somebody else creates something, which is what smallworld has always been for.