Building a roof without the walls for women entrepreneurs

DASHIEL LAWRENCE: When Covid lockdowns destroyed SHEREE RUBINSTEIN'S co-working spaces, she found a new way to support other businesswomen.

Few words have become more widely used in recent years – even overused – than "pivot". Cast your mind back to March 2020, when the world came to a grinding halt as government-mandated lockdowns sent us all inside and off the streets. Everyone from Jewish congregations to global brands like Airbnb had to dispense with their traditional model and accept new ways of doing business. Organisations and their leaders were either despairing or – pivoting. Usually, a combination of both.

Thirty-four-year-old entrepreneur Sheree Rubinstein was one such leader. Prior to the pandemic, the Mt Scopus alumna had been on a remarkable trajectory. One Roof, Australia’s first co-working space for women Rubinstein co-founded in Melbourne’s inner south, was proving hugely popular. It garnered hundreds of tenants renting desk space and assisted many more women to succeed in business.

At its peak the space saw well over 200,000 people in and out of its doors each year, providing events, professional development and more. The model was so successful there were plans to take One Roof global. By 2020, she had raised $1 million dollars from investors to take One Roof to the next, exciting stage.

Rubinstein’s One Roof was one among a wave of co-working spaces appearing across Australia.

“It was so exciting,” Rubenstein tells The Jewish Independent. “Co-working was this new thing – it was this the new way of business. We were building community and re-imagining the office space. It was fun, exciting, and it got so much PR.”

At the end of 2019, One Roof had outgrown its first office and was making a move to a new location that would feature a drop-in business lounge, event space, private office studios, hospitality offerings, childcare and nanny services.

The picture looked rosy. But in hindsight, Rubinstein admits, she also had doubts.