The Space That Started It All

In 2011, Phnom Penh barely had a startup scene. There were talented people, but they worked from home or from cafés, and some didn't work at all. There was nowhere to meet other founders and no events to bring people together.

So we opened smallworld as a co-working space, with desks, chairs and decent internet. We never set out to build a technology company. We wanted a place where people could do good work.

For years we tried to connect founders with investors, and most of those investments failed. The companies that worked had founders who spent months in the space first, building relationships and testing ideas before anyone wrote a cheque. The space did more for them than any money we could have raised.

We couldn't force a community into being, so we set up the space, ran events and made introductions, then let it grow. Our best events were the simplest ones, like weekly lunches, peer sessions and Friday drinks. What mattered was that people kept showing up.

In Cambodia, a lot depends on who you know. The space led to hundreds of introductions between engineers, designers and founders, and many of them turned into partnerships, co-founders and investments.

The space ran for five years. In 2016 we reorganized to build companies directly. KOOMPI, Selendra, VitaminAir, StadiumX and Riverbase each make a place, physical or digital, where people can do good work.

The original space is gone, but the community it started is still going and the companies founded there are still running. Some of the best-known Cambodian startups of the last decade trace back to a connection made in that little room.

Today KOOMPI builds learning spaces in schools. Selendra builds digital infrastructure for businesses, and StadiumX builds gathering places for sports fans.